I broke these down by removing all the nails. Pallets are put together very well and these used some crazy twisted screw nail things. It took me awhile to get all the wood apart.I needed to simply cut one pallet down to size but I needed the wood for the legs.After cutting down a pallet to the right size for the base, I went at it with my belt sander with 36 grit.
This gives you a better view of the slats after being belt sanded down with 36 grit. Notice the nice wood grain is showing through now compared to the non-sanded slats that look nasty and yuck. Wood grain is better.
After sanding down the whole piece, I added the same ebony stain. I had to lay it on thick and quickly because this thing is like an English muffin with all its nooks and crannies. I wanted to make sure the stain got into all those little cracks but I also didn't want to spend so much time that it soaked in too much.
All stained up. One thick coat. Set for about 5 minutes and then wiped off. I let this dry for about 30 minutes and hit it with a thin few coats of Polyurethane letting them dry 2 hours between coats. I was using the brush and can variant this time and that's what the can said so I did it.
After the first few coats, I started hitting it up with thicker coats. Some people like a satin finish, I like a lot of high gloss clear. Just my taste.
Base is complete.Now I need to build the legs. I used the extra slats I took off another pallet. I cut them down to length and shaved off the edges for a nice clean edge. I also cut one edge at 45 degrees so I could miter join them and make them look cleaner. The better the joints look on this project, the more it will offset the "Rustic" look.They aren't perfectly straight but its good enough for what I need.
I had to use my table saw as a make-shift jig to glue all these legs together. In hindsight, I should have used a stronger joint. I only used glue and finish nails. Next time I will use some kind of tongue and groove to make it stronger.
After I sand these down and add stain, it will blend in nicely .Also, a little glue and some finishing nails and this should be a very strong joint. You can see the groove extending down.
I sanded down and finished the cross members on the top and glued and nailed them. I also stained in the slots made in the legs so they would blend in better.
All done with assembly. TIme to put the last coasts of clear.After 3 more coats of clear polyurethane, its done. Time to move inside and enjoy my new piece of furniture.
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