Making a table, on a balcony! Part 5 - All done!

Well this has been an experience as well as an education!

On one hand I proved to myself that I could get a table made, with minimal tools, on our balcony, on the other hand I learnt that not having a workbench makes for some back breaking work. Not having a nice solid place to clamp / hold stuff in a vise means simple things are sometimes a bit too complicated.

I also learnt I need a better hand plane, the one I have just frustrates me so much, it's unbearable.

Here is the finished table with the shelf, as I mentioned in a previous post, the wood I had left over had some twisting, so I had to get pretty creative to make that wood work. It looks ok in the ned though.

A different view, not as much bowing in the shelf as I had expected, we will see how it holds up over time.

Here you can see the shelf is made up of four thin planks glued together, these are the original planks ripped in half (lengthways).

A closer view of the shelf, after ripping the planks in half, I planed them square as best I could, the went through the process of dry fitting, planing and fitting again till they matched up nicely.

When it came to gluing the planks together, I did not try to clamp them flat, as I tried before, but rather laid them down loosely and clamped them across the glue joints only. This meant that the planks did not match up very nicely, but I used the hand plane to bring the ridges down.

Once I had planed the top semi flat, I sanded it with some 80 grit paper, then 100 grit and finally painted some water based varnish on to seal the wood.

This took a bit more work than I was expecting, but I think much of that was down to the low grade wood / useless hand plane.

I am planning table # 2, as well as a coffee table, but think i should find myself a better hand plane before i take those on.

I hope you enjoyed my little foray into woodworking, please let me know if you did!

Part 1 - https://steemit.com/creativity/@shaunmza/making-a-table-on-a-balcony-part-1
Part 2 - https://steemit.com/makerwannabe/@shaunmza/making-a-table-on-a-balcony-part-2-makeshift-clamps-and-glue
Part 3 - https://steemit.com/makerwannabe/@shaunmza/making-a-table-on-a-balcony-part-3-cutting-to-size
Part 4 - https://steemit.com/makerwannabe/@shaunmza/making-a-table-on-a-balcony-part-4-almost-there