Carpenter on the Go

Within the Society, one of the many things I dabble in is woodworking. I say "dabble," but I have been doing real woodworking (from plans to finished product) for more than 20 years. My most recent SCA project was a collapsible table that I had seen many people carrying around at events. I started by looking at my favorite woodworking site to find some plans to work from. I found these plans and went off running!

First, I had to pick out the wood. I found some oak from an old bed frame and an old broom for the structural pieces. I found this lovely piece of idunno wood for the table top. It's some kind of soft wood, which means it scratches easily, but it was what we had that fit the size (and we all know that free is better than $). It will also be easy to replace, when that time comes.

Next, I cut all the pieces out and did some light sanding The legs all needed to be rounded. This required a vice and a belt sander. Very exact work, here. 

Next up - routing the table top pieces and the brace pieces. After this, lots of sanding. And more sanding. And a little more sanding. Once all the sanding was done, I assembled the table, per the instructions in the plans, and generously applied five coats of linseed oil. 

Overall, the project was fairly easy to construct. The plans were well written and easy to follow. If I were to do it again, I would choose a better wood for the table tops. After just 2 uses, there are deep gouges in the tops. I did know this would happen, given the soft wood I used, but I was not expecting it to happen so quickly.