Posts Tagged ‘childrens table’

After cutting all the parts and do a dry fit with clamps, you will next need to prep the stock.  In my case I used MDF for the chairs and that means the end cuts have to be sanded.  If you don’t sand them it will continue to suck up paint or primer forever.  I recomend using an 80 grit then an 120 grit.  You might think that is not enough, but here is why.  The minute you prime the ends of MDF, you will raise the grain (so to speak)  Then you will have to go back and sand again.  Some use some sort of sealer, joint compound, spackling, and even bondo (yep).  But I have found that if you sand once, prime it, sand again, and then prime again you should be ok.  The last prime will of course need a sanding, and I use a 240 paper for that.

Prime the stock

I use two coats of primer on my chairs and table.  This helps me and saves some paint since the stock somewhat sucks up the primer fairly quickly.  This can be time consuming but if you are making a future family heirloom, it does not matter.  Besides most primer today is quick drying and you can reprime it fairly fast.

Next I lightly sand the primer and then paint with my final colors.  If you are going to do some art work, I recommend using a flat latex paint.  The satin finish and gloss finishes make it hard for the acrylics that most artists use to work with.  After you get the artwork done, let it cure for a couple of days.

Seal

I like to seal my artwork since little kids are involved and they like to bang on everything.  I have had very good luck with polyacrylic protective finish by Minwax.  It comes in a blue can and I like clear satin for the gloss factor.  Again I let everything cure for a while before shipping or using the item.

The last step is the assembly.  Hopefully you will have figured out your joinery technique before you have even started to cut any stock.  I knew mine was going to be assembled with screws and glue.  Now I know that some of you die hard woodworkers are snubbing your nose at my choice but I do have a reason.  Originally I built the chairs with dowels which worked pretty well.  But, I had to ship the chairs whole and the mortality rate from Federal Express was enough to make your stomach churn.  You have to outsmart the guy working third shift who is cold and tired and really wants to go to bed instead of handling your package with utmost care.  So I choose to have the chair ship flat and have the receiptaint put it together themselves.

In order to dress it up a bit, I did choose to buy birch buttons, paint them and have them cover the screws.  This gives the chair a kind of a mission look, but it is better than looking at the screws in my opinion.  If the chair did not have to be shipped, I would go back to dowels and call it a day, but that is not the case and if you are thinking about selling some, you will have to cross this road too.

Table Skirt

The table skirt is basically a wood box with the table legs attached to the inside.  Very easy, very simple and quick to build.

Table Top

The top started out with a 30″ piece of Plywood, edged with a round over bit and then primed and painted.  This also is pretty straight forward.  Attaching the skirt to the top can be a little tricky, but again the name of my game is shipping the table, so I opted for these neat little 45 degree corners that I made on the miter saw.  Screw one end to the top and one to the skirt.  This allows seasonal movement and and easy assembly.

Here are photos of the final assembly.  You can gather a lot of information from looking at the pictures.  The real fun is in the finishing artwork for your projects.

Skirt to Leg Assembly

Placing the skirt and leg assembly

Clamping the chair for drilling the holes

A small cleat to hold the seat in place

Table Top with Artwork

Finished chair with artwork

Carved Chair back with name