Kitchen Table - Part 3 - Finishing

This project is a big brother to the kids table I built for Joshua and Lauren earlier this year, so the finishing schedule is the same. After sanding all the parts 120-150-220 with a random orbital sander, I took them upstairs to my 'finishing room'.

I finished the table with two coats of Watco Danish Oil - Natural, following the directions on the can. I use scraps of an old t-shirt to apply the oil and wipe off the excess.

Once the oil has dried I'll apply two coats of Minwax Quick Drying polyurethane on the legs, apron and bottom of the table. I'll probably apply at least one extra coat on the top to give it a little extra protection.

Since it's winter time in the workshop and my heating situation is not so good in the workshop, I'll apply the top coats of poly in our heated house after I've moved the table in there.

Once the bottom of the top and the legs/aprons were dry from the poly I glued up the legs and aprons.

After getting it down the stairs into my workshop - I realized that I needed a little extra support for the apron / leg connection. I added the corner braces, gluing and screwing them to the aprons. Around the inside of the apron, you can see the wooden buttons I used to secure to the top to the apron.

Kitchen Table - Part 2 - Top

It took a few tries to get everything right - but the top is finally glued up. The overall size is 48x48 inches.

I first glued up three sections, each about 16". After they dried I ran them through my drum sander to smooth them out.

Next I glued up two of the three sections, then after that was dry I added the third. I used biscuits to help line them up but the glue lines were still a little off. It's tricky working with these large panels. A better way to ensure they kept aligned would have been to use a tongue and groove joint. Maybe next time.

After the top was dry I used a saw guide and my circular saw to cut it square.

Lastly, a belt sander to get rid of the uneven glue lines, then random orbital sander with 80-120-180-220 sandpaper to smooth out the tabletop and all of the legs and aprons. I'm going to apply to finish to this project before gluing it up - so that's the next step.

Rosemary's Quilting

Rosemary finished up a new advent calendar just in time for the Christmas season. There are 25 pockets and each has a little treat inside for Joshua and Lauren. A couple of the pockets didn't seem very kid friendly so Rosemary replaced them with Peanuts characters instead.

It's nice to have a custom advent calendar instead of the $0.99 one from the grocery store filled with cheap chocolate.


Here's some more pictures of Rosemary and her sewing - she's only been sewing for a year but has made some really nice projects.

Here is her fancy Bernina Activa 220 sewing machine - made in Switzerland!

Rosemary working on her first quilt.

The first quilt - completed and hung up over our family room.

A nice little quilt to hang over Lauren's door.