Rustic Coffee Table

2014-08-03 written by: Brad





My wife tried to steal my workbench top to use in the house, but I wouldn’t let her have it. Instead I built her a smaller version using some LVL plywood I had left over. The Coffee Table ended up with that rustic look she likes so much. It looks much better in person.




I had four pieces of LVL Plywood left over so I ripped them into 2 1/4 in thick strips. In this picture I had the 2 inch side planed and was getting ready to plane the 1 3/4 side. It is important to get the waterproof coating off of the wood before using it (the yellow looking boards). Paint and glue will not stick to it.




Everything is planed down now and I have mocked up the glue up to use my homemade end vise. I had my wife come out and arrange the boards and orient them which ever way she felt looked the best, then I numbered the ends




I laid some laminate flooring down to use as a work surface so I wouldn’t get tons of glue stuck on my bench. That laminate flooring works great…glue just will not stick to it and what ever dries on it can easily be scraped off.




I used all scrounged wood for this project and some of it wasn’t very straight. I tried a trick to straighten some of it using my table saw. I found a straight board a little longer than the warped oak board I was trying to use and taped it to each end of the straight board with the bow of the bad board facing away from the straight board in such a way that only the very ends of the warped board touched the straight board. Clear as mud right? :)




I used a piece of factory cut 1/4 thick plywood to use as a guide rail for my skill saw. Makes it really easy to cut a straight line. I clamped the plywood, for my saw, 3 3/4″ away from where I had to cut.




Here it is flipped upside down getting a coat of polyshade mission oak #485.The bottom platform is from a table we bought at a yard sale for 1.50. We were in our car at the time of purchase, so as soon as I bought it I tore the legs off and broke it apart so it would fit in the trunk. The people we bought it from probably thought we were crazy…ha.




And here it is flipped right side up with the wheels installed.

lvl plywood
rustic
coffee table
salvaged material

Category: Woodworking