Time to get busy. I want this tree trunk coffee table in my living room before my company comes for New Year's!
One side of the slab was 6 3/4 of an inch and the other was 7 1/2 inches so I had some evening up to do. I went to the good old ReStore and bought some 1/4 inch thick flooring pieces. Putting the pieces on three of the four corners seemed to level it well enough.
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| This is level enough for me. |
So I gathered my tools and went to work. First I carpenter glued the flooring pieces to the trunk.
I used the wheels as weights for the 30 minutes the glue needed to set. That way I could gawk at what was to come.
(A quickish digression: My husband actually helped a ton with this project. He cut the wood flooring for me and got the screws and did all the heavy lifting. It made sense that he should come along to the Woodcraft Store - the guy there had been really helpful before - to help pick out the wheels and just so we could hang out together. We like hanging out together.
But the guy at Woodcraft only talked to my husband when we were in there trying to figure out which screws to use and what to look out for and whatever other details an experienced woodworker could help with. I felt practically invisible. My husband didn't really notice as this has never happened to us before. It was exceedingly frustrating and added so much tension to our day. I have a little sour taste left over still.)
Back to business. The evil dude at the wood store recommended these fancy 4 inch screws. We also had to buy (Not from the wood store, mind you, they don't sell them there) a special drill bit because we needed more torque to get them into the hard wood.
Fancy.
First pilot hole drilled! There's no going back now! Every step felt that way a little.
Then I hit a snag. The drill couldn't handle the length of the screws. It actually started smoking before I gave up. I had drilled the pilot holes as deep as I could go and the screws were still sticking out at least an inch and a half.
So we switched to 2 1/2 inch screws and yet another fancy drill bit. Problem solved. It added a day to the project but that kind of stuff is bound to come up. And when you procrastinate as well as I do, a little delay is no big deal.
The only thing left do was lug that beast up a flight of stairs! We used a dolly and didn't swear at all.
Tada!
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| Now for the gratuitous finished project shots. |
This is my living room. Just to brag a bit: That's my jeans couch with a scarf pillow and two stuffed woollies and a linen quilt, all of which I made. To the right you can see a bit of the chair I reupholstered. And my antenna is perched on an antique toolbox I cleaned up. A pretty handmade home for my patchwork life.
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| I've been waiting to do exactly this for months! My company is due in an hour...Happy New Year! |
