Table Part 2

After some time away due due to business, I'm back in the shop. We left off with the table top covered in red putty. After a bunch of sanding, you can barely see where the red is. 

Many more hours went into sanding the top, sides and putting and sanding the bottom. 

Finally, it was time for the color. I decided to try a Stain Gel with a "Georgian Cherry" color. They didn't a have an Oklahoma Crimson available.

You apply it heavily to the top. It looks like I poured paint on and let it stand for 15 minutes. After a lot of rags, staining my hands (use gloves!) and a 2nd coat the next day...

I think it looks great. It's now a deep crimson and a great backdrop for the glass etchings.

Legs

This table will be put in a game room that already has bowling alley wood as the floor (it totally looks sweet!) I wanted this piece to tie the maple floors to the OU theme so the legs will stay the natural color and will "disappear" with the floor making the table top "float."

Using the left overs from the top and a long section of alley I start chopping.

5 sections will make 2 legs. Some assembly required (as usual).

You might remember that I mentioned this wood is very dense and can be hard to work with, but it also has hundreds of 3" nails hiding throughout it. Typically I find them the hard way and yank them out. So the 2 legs above are being glued and then a lot of sanding begins on them. 

Next up is finishing the legs, mounting the legs to the top and the important glass feature. 

I see the end nearing and I hope to get this done pretty quickly. Thanks for coming by and more coming soon.

Sooner Table

New Project! I am working on a commission piece for someone without him knowing it. What?? I had a very nice local couple donate some wood to me for my art cause. As a surprise thank you, I am making a coffee table for the gentleman's game room. He is a huge OU fan and since I'm a fan/alumni/professor it was pretty easy to think of an idea for him. 

The plan: I was given some wood that was used in a local bowling alley. It is solid beautiful maple wood that is very sturdy and great for furniture. I plan on using some of the wood to create the top and legs. I will top it with blasted glass. 

 For those who don't know, I'm a huge sports logo geek. So I decided to take 5 of OU's history logos and I will blast them into the glass top. The 'crimson' will come from the wood table top being stained.

Bowling alley wood is way more dense then I would have imagined. This is the original 6 foot by 4 foot by 2.5 inches thick section and it took 2 guys to move it. It's a little rough, but its had 20 lb bowling balls thrown at it for decades. 

I have chopped it down to 4 feet and 16" wide. I pulled out the nails and used clean edges. I added strength with screws and glue between every row. After rough sanding (60 grit) down to the bare wood, it was very beautiful. 

What a bloody mess? After rough sanding, there were still cracks, spacing and pits that I wanted to have smooth. I used a mahogany filler because I am going to stain the top a deep cherry.  This looks worse that it really is. After I sand the extra off, it will be hard to notice.

Ok, I'm a couple OU games behind on this project, but I hope to have it done before Bedlam. More to come.

Boomer Sooner!!