Dual coffee table - steel and oak

[sgryd]

Thought I'd share a recent project of mine. Looking at my posts it seems like I'm only building ON my shop. But sometimes I build IN my shop

Here is the end result for those impatient. I'll post a bunch of photos from the build process below. I know I love to see the details of the process when I look at other posts, so I'll be detailed as well. Unfortunately I have no images of the welding. It tends to be a quite dirty job (welding and polishing). Not a healthy environment for a camera.
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I started out with a big piece of oak:
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The TS-55 didn't quite reach through the wood. I had to finish it off by hand.
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I aimed for two goals regarding the grain:
1. Book matching the pieces in pairs (Unfortunately, I didn't have enough wood for this. Hence one of the board pairs are not book matched)
2. The two tables should have continous grain lines
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Cut to pieces
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Resawn
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A slight resawing accident. This will go on the underside of the table. Close call..
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Resawed and planed
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Gluing
Titebond III was so fast (to me anyway) so I glued the pieces three at a time.
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Trying it out.
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//Michael

 

[Shakula]

Snyggt!

What did you use as finisher?

 

[sgryd]

Tack!
Finished with pigmented Osmo hard wax oil. I think the color is called "Antique gray" in Osmo terms

 

[jacko9]

Very nice and great organization of the grain to give a very clean look.

Jack

 

[Locky]

Awesome table,did u use stainless steel?

 

[sgryd]

No, I used ordinary warm rolled steel (or is it cold rolled, I always mix them up).  In Sweden we call id "bondstål", which means "farmers steel". I probably used as much time polishing as I did welding =)

I'm a newbie at welding. I haven't tried welding stainless yet, but my MIG should be capable of that. But stainless is a PITA to work with (for me) as it is so darn hard to cut and drill.

/Michael

 

[Bob Wolfe]

Michael... nice tables.

I would also like to see some pictures of your tool cradle idea and some more detail about it.  Thanks

 

[sgryd]

Tool cradle? Do you mean the one in my avatar? In that case it's documented here:
http://festoolownersgroup.com/workshops-and-mobile-vehicle-based-shops/small-workshop-solutions/