The building of a table…

I have to start by saying Knock-off wood is awesome, Ana is awesome.

We needed a huge table for the workshop, one metre by two and a half. The dimensions have to be perfect because we have so much we need to fit in there. We also needed the table to be sturdy, have storage underneath and most of all be cheap!

Enter Knock-off wood. I’ve talked about the site before and all Ana’s amazing (and free) woodworky plans. And not just any plans, these are plans for high-end, high-priced furniture from places like Pottery Barn and the like and the thing is, they’re better made, and much, much cheaper.

Here’s our newly delivered wood. It’s mostly planed, sawn softwood but see those green ones on the left? They are our table legs, and they are un-planed fenceposts. You see, it’s impossible to get planed 4x4’s anywhere near here.

Enter my new friend/torturer the 60’s plane…

…which created this. An enormous pile of shavings. Now, you might be forgiven for thinking I did all this by myself because that’s how I’ve made it sound, but I didn’t. There were three of us – me, ma and Elle, all taking turns, one measuring, one sawing and one planing. And I tell you, it was hard work for all of us!

These next pics show the table in progress. Once we had cut all the wood, which took 2 days (although we were cutting wood for a further two workbenches at the same time) it still took another day to put together but it was worth it.

And the (almost) finished table. It is definitely sturdy! two of us could barely turn it over, never mind move it. All screw-holes need to be filled and it’s going to be painted below, but the top will probably be lightly whitewashed because I hate yellow pine and I think I might be rubbish at applying convincing stains!

So our hands hurt, our knees hurt, we stink of wood and have sawdust in places we didn’t know we had places, but I have to say thankyou so much Ana! The specific plans can be found here if you want to see. I’ll post another pic when it’s properly finished, but for now I was too excited to wait! I don’t know about ma and Elle, but this is the first woody thing I’ve made since CDT classes at school, and I’m proud.

Now onto the other two workbenches…

Beccy