Ah yes; eBay...
Posted: 14 Jun 2020, 17:50
So when we first moved into the house from our little 2 bed semi our dining room table was totally swallowed up by the space and the previous owners table and chairs put ours to shame. Cue SWMBO scouring eBay for a “suitable” replacement. Shortly thereafter a reclaimed oak beam table custom made by indigo furniture arrived along with twelve (!) roll top leather chairs. To be fair considering what they charge for these things new it was a good deal. Slight issue in that it was a bit too wide for the space the dining table sat in. These were the days before I really did any woodwork (not that I do much now mind) so I reduced it in width by removing two of the beans and shortening the two stretchers and all the iron mongers underneath that held it together.
Fast forward five years and we have made some changes to the house and SWMBO would like to return it to its gargantuan proportions; the two seats on each end didn’t fit well together and my previous butchery of it meant it was a little uneven (or characterful as I like to call it). So I have procured some oak of the correct width and some new steel and stainless steel bolts. The table is 10’ long and going to be 5’ 5” wide. The design is supposed to be chunky and industrial looking but to be honest like most of these things it is not particularly well put together and all the beams are a little twisted which makes it a pain in the rear to sort out.
So my plan is to use the floor as a reference surface (it’s perfectly flat and level surprisingly) I have disassembled it and reassembled it upside down with the top against the floor. I plan then to wedge it and try and get the top surface against the floor as level as possible. Then I need to work out how best to do a few things with the tools I have:
1. the best way to flatten out the two rebates in the middle where the thick steel straps go so I can drill the steel and set the spacing between the beams.
2. Same method to Create a new rebate to allow my new beautifully flat PAR oak stretchers to sit in and then drill the angle iron pieces that run the full width of the stretchers and physically attach the top of the table to the leg assemblies.
3. Once I’ve done that I will bolt it all together before disassembling again and then reassembling the correct way up. I think that my flat rebates will now cause the beams to have a much flatter surface. If not I’ll have to work our some way of flattening the entire surface in situ.
Fast forward five years and we have made some changes to the house and SWMBO would like to return it to its gargantuan proportions; the two seats on each end didn’t fit well together and my previous butchery of it meant it was a little uneven (or characterful as I like to call it). So I have procured some oak of the correct width and some new steel and stainless steel bolts. The table is 10’ long and going to be 5’ 5” wide. The design is supposed to be chunky and industrial looking but to be honest like most of these things it is not particularly well put together and all the beams are a little twisted which makes it a pain in the rear to sort out.
So my plan is to use the floor as a reference surface (it’s perfectly flat and level surprisingly) I have disassembled it and reassembled it upside down with the top against the floor. I plan then to wedge it and try and get the top surface against the floor as level as possible. Then I need to work out how best to do a few things with the tools I have:
1. the best way to flatten out the two rebates in the middle where the thick steel straps go so I can drill the steel and set the spacing between the beams.
2. Same method to Create a new rebate to allow my new beautifully flat PAR oak stretchers to sit in and then drill the angle iron pieces that run the full width of the stretchers and physically attach the top of the table to the leg assemblies.
3. Once I’ve done that I will bolt it all together before disassembling again and then reassembling the correct way up. I think that my flat rebates will now cause the beams to have a much flatter surface. If not I’ll have to work our some way of flattening the entire surface in situ.