I had a few free hours yesterday afternoon after Mom & Dad left and before I needed to send a barrage of e-mails to various work-related folks. So, like anyone with some free time on his hands, I started building a table out of 100+ year-old salvaged lumber. Wait – what? Let me back up.
Missy and I try to visit ReStore once every week or two. It’s mostly pale pink seashell sinks and doors with holes through them, but there are gems to be found. We spent $10 on eight light shades a few weeks ago, for example, and they transformed our entire second floor. Last Saturday we found a stack of old, rough 2″x6″x13′ planks, clearly salvaged when some ancient building was torn down.* It was mostly heart pine, but there was one oak piece with incredible saw marks on one side. Missy’s wanted a salvaged-wood table for her studio for months, but they’re expennnnnsive. The perfect opportunity for me to swoop in and save the day with my truckful of old-growth wood and passable carpentry skills!
But, alas, 100 board-feet of lumber doesn’t fit in an Elantra, no matter how much you want it to.
Enter my dad and his giant pickup! This Saturday, he drove eight 13′ planks to our house. At Menard’s, it would be $200 worth of lumber (except that, of course, you haven’t been able to buy lumber like this for a hundred years). From ReStore? $15.
I desperately need sawhorses.
So yesterday afternoon, I cut the pieces to length, pulled all the old square-cut nails out, and gave the whole pile a good belt-sanding with rough 50-grit paper.** Sanding exposed the reddish-brown of the wood, but I stopped before I took out all the character. With the grain exposed, I could line up the planks for the table with all the good sides up.
Pre-sandingIt’ll be a 72″x42″ table made out of seven 6′x6″ planks, with the oak plank sawmark-side-up right in the center. I have a salvaged pine 1″x15″ to make the aprons out of and enough leftover 2×6es to make bottom braces. I don’t have anything for legs or stretchers yet, but I have my eye on some 5×5 barn beams on Craigslist. They’re 20′ long, though, so I would need to convince the seller to cut them for me.
It’s not going to be done anytime soon, but it’ll be done right.
The planks are incredibly straight - the straps are only there so I can move the tabletop around without remembering which one goes where.
*For one thing, they actually measured 2″x6″, unlike 2×6’s today, which measure 1 3/4 by 5 1/2 or something. Cheap-Os in the lumber industry. These planks were also untreated, meaning they were on the inside of something. I counted 80 rings on one 6″ piece, so they could easily have grown for 2-3 times that many years.
**Running a belt-sander for an hour and a half is hard on the ol’ body. My legs still ache today and I have to sit and stand very slowly. Fortunately, I only have to sit at my computer and run statistics today (and long into the night).
Omg. That is so cool. Make me one! Ok, don’t, I live far away and I don’t need another table. Maybe we can talk about a bookshelf, though.
That is too freakin’ cool! BRAVO!
I’m laughing at the idea of trying to get that lumber home in an Elantra. My T’bird thinks it’s a truck, but even it has its limits!
This is marvelous! We have two giant pieces of silver maple, left from the monster in the back yard that eventually comes down (spoiler alert!). They still have the bark on them, but we’re hoping to figure out a way to do something cool with them and love big old wood tables, so I’ll be eager to see how this develops!
Ok, I want your Restore. Now.
[...] It’s well-established that our Habitat ReStore is the Greatest in All the Land – witness this, and this, and this, and this, and this, for example. At least two other housebloggers have [...]
Did you finish the table? Would love to see what you used for legs. I have been searching for a sideboard/server and can’t find what I want so I will probably have my husband build one. Thanks for the great idea!
Nancy