There is a table that has been in my wife's family for many years. It came from her father's side of the family and is somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 years old (at least, there is a date written on the bottom from the 40's) It was the kitchen table my wife sat at growing up and it has spent the last many years with K (D's sister) performing that same function for her child. Well, K decided she was getting a different table and was passing the table back to their mom. I stuck my nose in the middle of all of this and took the table, telling everyone I would do some work to it and then return it.
It had been through a lot over the years, and it showed.
The square base was cracked and stretching out. The edge of the table top was missing wood, the dovetail slides were cracked which made the table rock back and forth, the casters did not roll and fell out of the legs when the table was picked up. The finish was almost gone on part of the table. It had worked very hard over the years, and needed some time at the spa to get itself back together.
We started at the only place we could, the repair.
We took apart the dovetail slides and repaired the broken pieces
Then took the top's base plate and repaired a crack that ran the length of the piece
These 2 things made the top very strong and sturdy again.
Then went to work on the base. We used a syringe to squeeze glue into a lot of the cracks and then clamped up the base to force all the cracks back together and square the base up.
I dont have enough clamps, Just sayin
Then it came to repairing the damaged edges.
We started with a stock of antique wood leftover from another project.
The table itself is made from tongue and groove pieces. The edges are also made from small strips of tongue and groove. We wanted to reproduce this to make it hard to tell where the repair was, so we created tongue and groove on the antique pieces and started gluing them up.
We kept making glue ups until we created a piece wide enough to cover the gap needed. We then cut the piece to match the curve of the table while still keeping the tongue and groove facing the same way
Then nailed and glued into place (to match what was there already)
and then a lot of sanding to make the new wood match the shape of the old as best as I could.
There was other minor repair done around the table, re-gluing wood, replacing pegs in the table leaves, and general cleaning. Overall, all the repair work was done and the table was whole again.
Once all this repair was done, we were ready to deal with the finish. We started with the table top. We placed the leaves in the order that makes the grain match as best as we could, then sanded, then stripped, then cleaned, then sanded, and sanded, and sanded the top until the top was as smooth and clean as it could get.
There were many issues on the top, gouges, scratches, missing finish, and a burn. We were able to deal with everything but the burn. We were able to take most of the burn out, but in the end, the burn went too deep. This is one memory the table will have to hold onto when it leaves the spa.
Once the top was smooth and clean, we stained it the same Golden Oak it was before (although you can see from the bottom of the leaves that at one time the table was a dark walnut color)
After the stain was set and even and looked good we proceeded with the Double-D method of protecting that table top, we applied coats of wipe on poly over the course of a week until we could no longer count how many coats were there, and the steel wool wasnt really taking anything off in between coats.
Looks nice doesnt it. And the great thing about it, it should last many years with this protection on it.
Next was the base, I was worried about the base separating again. Because of the way the base is made, the weight of the table spreads the wood apart in the sides creating the cracks and such we had just repaired.
One day we came up with a plan for a repair.
I picked up the supplies and one Sunday morning headed out to the hanger for fabrication. (yep, fabrication, high tech stuff here!)
First came the easy part, couple pieces of steel, cut to length, with some holes drilled in them
Next, cut more steel, weld steel, drilled more holes, etc to create the bracket for the bottom. Then tie all the brackets together with all thread up the middle.
The lower bracket ties into the lower bolts that hold the legs to the base, then the all thread ties to the upper bracket, which rests on top of the bolts which hold the base to the table top. All in all, it will not let the base stretch from weight placed on the table.
and then we were off to deal with finish on the base.
First was sanding, sanding, and more sanding. When we were done with that, we sanded some more.
The base was smooth, the legs were smooth and all was looking good. After a good cleaning they got a coat of stain just like the top (again, only staining the top areas, under areas were not stripped, sanded, or re-stained) Then we followed the same method of poly. Keep putting on more coats until we cant count how many we have done. We paid close attention to the legs putting extra coats on them to help deal with feet, shoes, etc that will be rubbing on them.
The base received a new set of wooden casters, and the table was assembled together again.
Here it is, ready to be delivered back home
We received the table in the shop early January 2013. We delivered the table back hom in early June 2013. Yes, I know its a long time. But I think this table is worth the time and effort. Over the last 70 years, countless Family and Friends have sat down at this table, bowed their head for Grace, broken bread, shared laughter, anger, and heartache. I can only hope that the effort placed toward this table over these last months will help it last another another 70 years of supporting those Family and Friends through the good and the bad.
DD
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