Cast Iron + Wood Repurpsed 6

Project: 

Building a top from re-purposed wood for an ornate cast iron table base. 

This is the almost finished project.

Some projects take awhile - the drying time between the shellac and the varnish layers slowed the finished project to a very slow crawl.

The ornate very heavy cast iron garden table base was found at a church fund raising garage sale in July.


Making the top: planning and construction

After stubbing a toe on the base I knew the base needed a large enough top to protect tender feet from accidental knocks. Out it went to the front deck into a quiet corner along with the remains of the TV Trolley (which was part of this project) and a faux round white curb find (which was used to test for size).

This is where re-purposing comes into the story.

DH took the top surface of the 20 year + rolling trolley that supported our now old and humongous TV - here is the 'getting ready to leave the house' birthday cake photo that had the TV on the trolley in the background. We walked around it for weeks and weeks, piled things on top, treated it like it belonged just for awhile longer. It was such a relief to see it finally go.

(the rest of the story was having a friend with teen age boys come and haul that amazingly heavy TV to recycling for us this week - thank you Scott - you did a very good deed).


Some of this project was worked on when I wasn't looking (so no pictures) but here are the left over pieces after cutting the table shape happened.

DH glued and clamped the boards he pried off the top of the trolley to make a rectangular shape. Those boards had been nailed on with a great many 3 " nails to that frame - made for a very sturdy base and involved small pry bar, hammer, larger pry bar and a lot of muscle to remove. When DH built it all those many years ago he built it to last.

Used the round faux piece to the wood as the pattern (it was 1" too wide for the glued up wooden rectangle. Next up was using a string and a pin and a pencil to make a circle. Still not right.

The idea of a semi-oval took root. Curved on two sides and straight on the other two.

DH redrew the shape, cut it out with the jig saw and sanded everything into a pleasing clean oval-ish surface and edge.





 
Some discussion on finish, decided to go with natural finish. Started with shellac on both sides to seal and keep the wooden top from bowing (read pictures left to right, down and left).

Tip - used push pins on the underside so it could be flipped over for each layer of shellac and varnish (saved some drying time).

Next up was the first coat of Circa 1850 Stain N Varnish Gel, first to the bottom and then the top. 

 

This will be repeated 2 more times after each coat dries.

Getting closer to adding the top to the base (evening photo).

 

Top will be attached to the base from underneath with screws. A bit more work, more pictures to come, maybe in my next post.

Wild roses from way up country, such a sweet scent.

Thanks DH

PS - the wooden table top was built up underneath so the table base matched the screw holes on the cast iron base and then the built up area was screwed up into the top - so no screws showed on the top .

It was taken to my booth on October 9th (Thanksgiving Day in Canada)

Featured by:
Lisa of Condo Blues Aug 24/17 
Tarah Lynn of To Grandma's House We Go Aug 30/17 

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