Well, this is a little story of "I'm not paying £100's for that, how hard can it be?!"
We moved house, me, the girlfriend and the cats ... and the plants ... and books, and everything else and decided we needed a stylish and attractive coffee table. After looking on the net I had a good idea what I wanted, the girlfriend agreed that something natural, chunky and wooden was called for. Theres a mass of fake wood furniture around, and almost as much "hand made" oak etc at extortionate prices. How hard can it be I thought?
So I went about looking some more and thought a simple and attractive coffee table could be made using railway sleepers. More researching and as normal I was beginning to get a little carried away, not wanting Oak sleepers I wanted something more unique. I eventually located some new Mora (South American hardwood) sleepers and bought two. At approx 200lbs each it was a slow drive home!! Its a odd smelling wood when wet, as cross between smokey strong cheese and tobasco!!!
Initially I had planned to simple plane them down and then sand then smooth and bolt them together. (note previous comment about carried away) I then thought I could make them a little more interesting by recessing the feet into the top .... and then had to add dowels to help prevent swaying/rocking due to the weight. I then wasnt happy with the finish so planed the whole thing as square as I could, then belt sanded, then routered all the edges ..... then wanting an even finer finish so I could Danish Oil the timber to bring out the colours and grain I then bladed the whole lot down so it was silky smooth.
By accident (due to the weathered and dirty finish, and collecting them in the rain) I bought two very different sleepers, one was heart wood and the other partial sap wood, also I didnt see one had a vein of rot running its length. Lucky for me I used the heartwood sleeper for the top and the other for the feet... lucky also was how the the multiple colors of the feet with the rot cleaned out looked so good.
I was at about the point when I was kneeling on the rough concrete garage floor I decided I needed a decent workbench - but thats another project for another thread along one day with another project that is in the making, my speakers.
Some photos below:
We moved house, me, the girlfriend and the cats ... and the plants ... and books, and everything else and decided we needed a stylish and attractive coffee table. After looking on the net I had a good idea what I wanted, the girlfriend agreed that something natural, chunky and wooden was called for. Theres a mass of fake wood furniture around, and almost as much "hand made" oak etc at extortionate prices. How hard can it be I thought?
So I went about looking some more and thought a simple and attractive coffee table could be made using railway sleepers. More researching and as normal I was beginning to get a little carried away, not wanting Oak sleepers I wanted something more unique. I eventually located some new Mora (South American hardwood) sleepers and bought two. At approx 200lbs each it was a slow drive home!! Its a odd smelling wood when wet, as cross between smokey strong cheese and tobasco!!!
Initially I had planned to simple plane them down and then sand then smooth and bolt them together. (note previous comment about carried away) I then thought I could make them a little more interesting by recessing the feet into the top .... and then had to add dowels to help prevent swaying/rocking due to the weight. I then wasnt happy with the finish so planed the whole thing as square as I could, then belt sanded, then routered all the edges ..... then wanting an even finer finish so I could Danish Oil the timber to bring out the colours and grain I then bladed the whole lot down so it was silky smooth.
By accident (due to the weathered and dirty finish, and collecting them in the rain) I bought two very different sleepers, one was heart wood and the other partial sap wood, also I didnt see one had a vein of rot running its length. Lucky for me I used the heartwood sleeper for the top and the other for the feet... lucky also was how the the multiple colors of the feet with the rot cleaned out looked so good.
I was at about the point when I was kneeling on the rough concrete garage floor I decided I needed a decent workbench - but thats another project for another thread along one day with another project that is in the making, my speakers.
Some photos below:
