Table Saw Project Part 3 Building a Counter top

And repurposing an old dresser.

 

           So this is part 3 to our table series.  The first two series covered table saw safety and how to rip boards with a table saw.  Well this is about bringing the two together and building something from it.  I know you will see that I have used other tools and an old dresser as well, but that is the beauty of woodworking.  So how about we get this show on the road.

 

           So the first step to this project is make sure you have all of the right tools and supplies.  I used 10 boards of various sizes, a dresser, a table saw (with a make shift guide), biscuit joiner, biscuits, sander with sand paper, wood glue, and what ever varnish needed. After setting all of this aside I began inspecting which side of the wood was going to be the top and which was going to be the bottom.  Of course, the nicer side is always going to be my top side. 

          The next step is to rip the boards.  I wanted to rip .25 inches from each side of the board so I would have a flat smooth edge.  I would measure from the side of the blade the majority of the would will be on to the guide rail from the front and back side of the blade so I would have an accurate cut.  After I lock my guide into place I would then begin ripping my boards. 

 

           After ripping all of my boards I will line them up so that I can mark where I need to place my biscuits.  It is important that the cuts for the biscuits are lined up so when joining the two boards together they would be the correctly join.  So to do this I used a pencil and marked each board as they were lined up so each mark corresponded with the mark on the board next to it.  And then since I was using biscuit size 20, I selected 20 on my biscuit jointer and then began making my cuts.

 

 

          Then next step is to line the boards up and put the biscuits in them and glue the boards together.  By gluing and joining the wood with the biscuits, the wood gets strengthened.  And of coarse it definitely helps the bonding process when you clamp the boards together and let them sit and cure for at least 24 hours.

 

 

           The next step is the part that starts the finishing process of the counter top.  First, I removed the clamps and then began sanding.  I used a coarse grit of 36 with my belt sander and the final sanding was used with 320 grit with an orbital sander.  The 320 grit made the wood feel like glass (meaning it was incredibly smooth).  After the sanding I put the varnish of my choice on the wood and then let it dry.  While letting the varnish dry I began working on the dresser that I was going to repurpose.  I knew there was a section of shelving that needed to be removed which I did by using my hand saw and a mallet.  Once that was done, I had to play the wait game for the varnish to dry.  Once the varnish dried, I moved the counter top to the dresser and placed it on to and securely fastened it with screws from the bottom side of the original top of the dresser.  And this is how I repurposed a dresser to become a sewing table.  Hope you all learned something and enjoyed it.  Thanks for reading and take care.