I’ve wanted something bigger to play games on in the living room, as my coffee table is tiny. I can barely get Terraforming Mars on it, never mind Great Western Trail. I’ve seen some for sale second-hand that were either too expensive or too small, or just plain ugly. That all combined with the fact I needed to invest my time into something instead of buying more games meant I set myself a project - make a table.
I picked up a couple of pallets locally (I only used one in the end) and armed with a jigsaw, sander, hammer, drill and crowbar, I set to work.
The pallets as they came, I got lucky and found an intact one, and the stamp indicated it had been heat-treated too, so I know it won’t warp or rot easily.
Starting to come apart. Dismantling a pallet without damaging it is by far the hardest and most long-winded part, unless you have a reciprocating saw, which I do not.
Naturally, being June, the heavens opened, so I put a gazebo up so I could still work.
Planks off, and realising a gap is exactly half a plank width, I set to splitting them down the middle with a jigsaw.
Pallet cut-down to size with the split planks screwed and nailed into place.
Bottom braces cut to size and attached.
Ready for sanding, the unfinished wood was rough.
After a lot of sanding with 40, 80 and 120 grit I got the finish I wanted. Still showing its roughness, but smooth enough to use as a table.
On go the hairpin legs.
Then I oiled it. I used Danish oil which is a mix of boiled linseed oil and a light varnish, just to make it a bit more hard-wearing.
That looks better!
Ignore the mess of wires. There it is again, in-situ.
So far so good. I played the biggest game I could find this morning (Maracaibo) and it fit handsomely. I need to get some baskets/trays for the openings to finish it off and add some storage, but I’m really pleased with how it turned out.
