Making a Mid Century Modern Coffee Table

A few months ago a local church was getting rid of some church pews to make room for chairs. I grabbed a few before they were thrown away. After a few months of them sitting behind my shop i finally decided to make a coffee table out of one of the bases.

Making tapered legs:
Chris Salomone - Four Eyes Furniture
Music by:
Chris Zabriskie - "What Does Anyone Know About Anything"

[klmbuilders]

Nice work and the stories about the origin of the table are invaluable!

[billsexton]

I have my grandmothers solid walnut drop-leaf table circa "I have no idea" (I know my dad ate at this table as a kid and he was born in 1929. I know what I'm doing with it now. Thank You! -new sub

[taylorsessions]

What a great find! Nice to see that people can enjoy sitting on those pews again. Thanks for sharing the good and bad moments too!

[amdenis]

Great job— thanks for sharing all of it.
BTW, if you use a good glue like one of the Titebond’s, and clamp properly, the glue joint is significantly stronger than the wood around it. In fact, adding nails or screws actually adds stress/fatigue points that will make a good glue joint weaker. They learned this by both stress testing new joints and studying old furniture.

There are times to use screws of the right type via the correct methods (e.g. piloted, cross fiber, etc), such a screwed/glued flooring, setting rafters, fence planking, etc. where glue is not efficient, needed or appropriate, etc. However, in virtually all furniture related woodworking, nails and screws are not used to increase structural integrity, because they don’t.
You will likely notice cracks around the screws over time—especially if you didn’t pilot and use specially coated wood screws that have a small amount of pliancy. This is especially important if the furniture is outdoors, due to thermal and humidity fluctuations (e.g. GuardDog Exterior Wood Screw’s, etc).

[tjerkheringa]

What a pretty design! I am curious how the leg attachment holds up with no glue and just 3 screws

[interact]

It looks fantastic, greetings from the UK

[TheVincent]

I love it ! In my village they are destroying an old Farm and i think I'll take some wood before they burn it all, and do this kind of project

Thumb up from France!

[diegobasterrica]

awesome, new life for something that was being thrown away!

[JamesRichman]

Really nice work. I love that you left the glue up Insanity in the video.

[robinshood]

I love to see wood reclaimed into beautiful projects.  That wood does not look like oak to me.. more like maple. Nice job and we learn from our mistakes....and others on utube :)

[eric]

Beautiful wood. Beautiful design. Congrats and thanks for sharing.
Eric from Belgium ;-)

[MattFriedrichs]

Love the reuse and the final project. I find glue ups to be a time of mild terror and great potential for failure.

[BruceAUlrich]

That turned out great, Eric! And I'm with you, I like the other holes that you left. They look really cool.

[edt]

I am late to the video but want to make this. What about doing a glue and nail combo for each slat? Something to help keep them in place while you finish it off all the way? Love the bench!

[tayred]

Awesome, good job man and a big tumbs up 👍

[oferel]

Very nice reuse of trash!!
One comment, the 2 outer leg screws need an elongated holes, to allow the top slab to move with moisture change because of the perpendicular grain orientation.
They will break over time if the wood is restricted, wood movement is stronger than the screws😊

[thelosttexan]

Awesome idea. Gave me inparation for something

[grimrabbit]

looks really nice, i wonder if a glass top will add to it or maybe not. I am not sure but really nice look overall.

[marc_spence]

Great project mate! Really well put together vid and love the final product. Got another sub from Australia! Peace

[clausfriishansen]

I was thinking Foureyes as you started the legs :) The Table / bench? turned out beautiful and I totally agree about not filling the holes! Subbed!