TV Console Build

The wife and I have wanted a new table to put our TV and assorted electronics on for quite a while now. The table we had been using finally gave out so it was now or never. The top will be made out of 5/4 poplar I ripped, set on edge and glued. I had planned on just ripping all the slats the same length, but I got a real god deal on some poplar that wasn't long enough so I pieced it together. Because of that, and my lack of enough clamps, I had to glue the table top in 3 sets and then put it all together. I finished the final glue up last night just before bed. It will be 14" deep, 60" wide and 1.5" thick once I get at it tonight with the belt sander and square off the ends. This would be a great project to have a drum sander!

The base will be made from wood that originally came from my high school gym's bleachers. My dad made each of us kids a shelving unit out of some of it about 20 yrs ago. It didn't really fit size wise in our house anymore so I took it apart and will be cutting the pieces to fit my needs for the console. I'll get pics of that soon. This all has to be done by Thursday night as we have some guest coming Friday and watching a TV that sits on the floor isn't very much fun.

Jeff, you are in a pretty big town. Check with the limber dealers as to who has a wide belt sander that they rent time on. That may speed things along a lot!

Jeff Bower said:

...we have some guest coming Friday and watching a TV that sits on the floor isn't very much fun.

Click to expand...

Well, a considerate host would simply get on his hands and knees and set the TV on his back...the human TV stand.

Looking forward to seeing how this one comes out, Jeff.

Carol Reed said:

Jeff, you are in a pretty big town. Check with the limber dealers as to who has a wide belt sander that they rent time on. That may speed things along a lot!

Click to expand...

Yep I thought of that, called one taht was reccomended and they said next week was earliest because they are super busy. Happy for them and I'll make it work with the belt sander. It's really just a BIG cutting board, right?

Vaughn McMillan said:

Well, a considerate host would simply get on his hands and knees and set the TV on his back...the human TV stand.
...

Click to expand...

I'd do that, but the wife says different! Plus I have hardwood floors and bad knees!

Jeff Bower said:

Yep I thought of that, called one taht was reccomended and they said next week was earliest because they are super busy. Happy for them and I'll make it work with the belt sander. It's really just a BIG cutting board, right?

Click to expand...

Or....a big workbench top....Jeff dunno if u have an old jointer plane but it will cleanup quick and flat in no time and a good workout too.
With a sharp #7 its no problem to flatten and smooth a laminated slab like that. Dont think u have time to get one on ebay and tune up before company comes but if u happen to have one or can get access to one, it would be well worthwhile inho.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

Well Rob I have a #7 that was my grandpa's and it's tuned up pretty good too, but time was the biggest issue here so I went with the belt sander and 50 grit to get it flat. Had to mix up some glue and sanding dust to fill a couple gaps where strips were butt jointed. (I blame that on this being my first big glue up like this. I know what I did wrong and won't do it next time ) Got it flat except for one valley that I got a bit aggressive with the 50 grit. The TV should cover it though so no harm. I applied a coat of dark walnut stain last night as well and will get couple coats of oil finish on it tonight. The wife stil has to choose a color to paint the base, so it might just end up white for the visitors and finish it up at a later time. Like I said, I've learn a bit doing this and will be doing more tops like this in the future. Sorry for the bad cell phone pic. It was late, I was tired and dusty.

Looking good Jeff!

You could flatten that sucker in a half hour or less with a scrub plane or a jack plane with a heavily radiused blade.

Well you gonna have to build another slab soon cause you need to see that #7 in action. I agree with Bruce a scrub plane would have done it in half and hour and so too would your number 7 if you get some practice with it. Then no dings from sandpapering.

Rob, The #7 has seen some action, from 3 generations of Bowers...4 if you count the couple passes my daughter had with it last year. I have a slab of white oak from my parents place in KS that I started cleaning up a couple years ago. I'll get back to that this winter.

Here's a pick of the top stained and with 4 coats of satin General's Arm A Seal. I got it installed last night as well, but the phone was dead so no pics yet.

The finished project...

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

Thta turned out great Jeff, luv the light & dark mix

That came out just great Jeff. A wonderful re- use of material.

Thanks guys!

Wow! Nice work!

○|||||||○