Table rebuild

gpraceman

New member
I bought a table off of Craig's List and am refinishing it and trying to get it back together. This is for casual use by our family. It is a 3 piece slate, 3/4" thick, with MDF pieces underneath that the old felt was stapled to. I don't see any brand name anywhere. Maybe from the pictures below somewhere can identify the brand. Hopefully, it was a good enough of a buy for $300. The old felt was not in good condition, so I trashed it.

Anyways, I've completed refinishing the wood and have the table itself leveled the best that I can without having a machinst's level. I did put a ball on the table to see if it would roll any and used that to do a little fine tuning. I am now working on getting the slates on.

After reading a bunch of threads on this forum, it seems that most of you are using bondo on the seams. This table had bees wax on the seams before, so how do you clean that off so the bondo will adhere properly?

Here's some photos of the table so far. The slates are just set in place.





 
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I was able to find an old post about cleaning off the old wax. Torching it and then wiping up the wax with a paper towel followed by some Goof Off did the trick.

I tried bondo on the seams, but not having worked with the stuff before, I had some difficulty getting a thin smooth application. I ended up scraping it off and just using beeswax. That was probably best anyways, since the seams were not nice and smooth to begin with. I definitely have respect for the mechanics able to work with bondo. Also, the smell was awful. I would think that your clients would complain about it.

Anyways, I just got finished covering the table and rails, so the table is done in time for our kids coming home for Christmas. It's not perfect by any means, but I think that it will do fine for our family.

My next project will be to build a floor cue rack.

Here's the finished table:
 
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my guess on brand would be "World of Leisure" or a "Winner Choice by World of Leisure". The had a factory in china that that was making table for them with that unusual frame liner for a couple years.
 
I was able to find an old post about cleaning off the old wax. Torching it and then wiping up the wax with a paper towel followed by some Goof Off did the trick.

I tried bondo on the seams, but not having worked with the stuff before, I had some difficulty getting a thin smooth application. I ended up scraping it off and just using beeswax. That was probably best anyways, since the seams were not nice and smooth to begin with. I definitely have respect for the mechanics able to work with bondo. Also, the smell was awful. I would think that your clients would complain about it.

Anyways, I just got finished covering the table and rails, so the table is done in time for our kids coming home for Christmas. It's not perfect by any means, but I think that it will do fine for our family.

My next project will be to build a floor cue rack.

Here's the finished table:

You done fine sir:thumbup:
 
I was able to find an old post about cleaning off the old wax. Torching it and then wiping up the wax with a paper towel followed by some Goof Off did the trick.

I tried bondo on the seams, but not having worked with the stuff before, I had some difficulty getting a thin smooth application. I ended up scraping it off and just using beeswax. That was probably best anyways, since the seams were not nice and smooth to begin with. I definitely have respect for the mechanics able to work with bondo. Also, the smell was awful. I would think that your clients would complain about it.

Anyways, I just got finished covering the table and rails, so the table is done in time for our kids coming home for Christmas. It's not perfect by any means, but I think that it will do fine for our family.

My next project will be to build a floor cue rack.

Here's the finished table:





Very nice Well done ! Im still trying to finish my sons table ! wish me luck, Ive had so much trouble with this from being ripped off by a table installer who ran off with 200.00 of my sons money to now just trying to get it done ourselves. Been over a 6month project now...lol :frown:
 
Thanks guys for the reassurance. The MDF liner did make putting the felt on a challenge. There was quite an overhang of the slate at the pockets, so it was hard to get the corner pockets done without a bit of puckering on the edges. With the extra large cutouts for the rail bolts, there were just small tabs of wood to staple to adjacent to the corner pockets. If the felt ever needs to be redone, I may just scrap the liner pieces and make my own. Though, I'd probably be tempted to get a better made table instead.

Im still trying to finish my sons table ! wish me luck, Ive had so much trouble with this from being ripped off by a table installer who ran off with 200.00 of my sons money to now just trying to get it done ourselves. Been over a 6month project now...lol :frown:
Sorry to hear about that. Good luck on finishing your son's table. I know that I gleaned a lot from this forum and YouTube videos that certainly helped in getting our table finished.
 
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