Lids ahoy!
We received some lids today in MDF that we’ll paint ourselves, not sure what colors yet, maybe all white (because we have that paint already), I suggested we paint them CMYK but we’ll see what happens.
Hmm, this just won’t do.
As our local “plåt-niklas” seems totally incompetent after letting him make some covers for the holes in the tables.
The result was totally awful, like he’s been in the metal workshop in school making very large ninja “throwing stars” with sharp edges that’ll cut into the lacquer and a hole in the middle which looks like he did it with the back of a hammer! (unfortunately we threw them away before taking pictures of them, so you’ll just have to take my word for it)
Obviously he’s not into the details so instead we’ve got a new plan: redesign!
After some testing we’ve found that a center pole is probably gonna be either unstable (unless we drill it into the floor, which is not ideal) or in the way for the chair (that hole for the cables takes quite some room). We though about different ideas, but all the ones that require a single leg will need a plate on the floor which the chairs wheels won’t approve of. And we thought of having a triangular structure (as the triangle is the most stable geometric shape and all…) but it wouldn’t really match the square-ness of the tables.
So we’re thinking something like a simple frame using 40x40mm square steel pipes. Something like this:
This should be easy-ish and cheap-ish to make, now we just need to find someone who can do it for us, as our welding would probably look like sh*t. And even though practice makes perfect, we just want these suckers done now!
Screw it, we’re doing it ourselves!
Once again we decide to do it ourselves after realizing it’s way to expensive. This time it’s the “adjuster”, they wanted almost 10 000 SEK, OMFG?! So instead we’ve asked our local “plåt-niklas” to do something similar for us. It probably won’t be adjustable but we’re getting used to the current height (~70cm) anyway.
Paint job!
We finally got these tables sent to the lacquer people (Hammarby Industrilackering). They worked fast an the table top finish was real nice (makes it look like we bought it!), but they were totally sloppy when it comes to the holes and edges: the paint has already fallen off and they didn’t spackle any of the holes like we asked if they would, bastards!
Anyway, we’ve finally got some usable tables now! And now we only need to get those cool “adjusters”.
This is what it looks like with some data on it (once again, sorry for the quality):
Ready!
We’ve drilled, glued and screwed this slowly but steadily (we did have some time off for the summer as well) and now we’re finally (yes, it really has been 6 months since we started) ready to send of to the paint shop (as soon as we find one).
Sorry for the poor quality photo.
Look at that, it resembles a table!
Phew that’s tons of sorting, cutting, sorting, drilling, sorting, measuring, sorting, gluing, sorting and nailing…and sorting. All that sorting because after each step there’s been visitors, dogs, kids and ourselves rearranging (mostly by accident) all those sticks on the floor.
But the effort has paid off, now it’s almost a table! Yay!
Next step is routing to get some nice edges of the holes.
Holes done!
Only like 6 weeks later, but at least the dust have settled a little bit. Now we need to make those square things that’ll be the walls in the holes (see all those sticks on the floor? Those should be cut into proper pieces and then assembled to perfect little squares). Damn those Bauhaus employees for making our wood in different sizes! Gaaah!
Work work work
Well, it didn’t take two weekends, that’s for sure. But we’re getting closer! One thing I’ve noticed is that making 4 tables is so much more work than making 1 (almost 4 times as much!). And since this is our first actual handyman job we need to get new tools every time to start doing the next thing, damn we’re n00bs!
Tools!
Power tools is truly awesome! They’re loud, dangerous and leaves nothing dust free after being used.
Got wood?
We acquired some pieces of MDF boards at the (somewhat local) store Bauhaus. We rented a truck to get there and after measuring, guessing and calculating the pieces we’d need we got them to cut them up for us (unfortunately they did a terrible job, no piece are really alike!) before getting it back, and this is what the result is, yay!
Now we just need some tools to cut those holes…
