The Story Behind the X Farmhouse Table Build
There’s always a story behind every piece of furniture I build in my shop located in Cypress, TX. This is the story of building the X Farmhouse Table with bench.
Before beginning this project, I knew that I wanted to try something different in order to improve my quality of work and look of professionalism that I strive to achieve. This would be accomplished during the sanding process. Learn more about who Father and Son Crafts is by clicking here.
Like with any table build the first thing that is completed is the tabletop. The key after gluing anything up such as I did with this tabletop is to remove all traces of glue during the sanding process.
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Any glue that is left will leave a discoloration after staining. Prior to this project I had been using my Dewalt random orbital sander to do this and it required a significant amount of time.
I decided to use my hand plane combined with my new Rigid belt sander. Using these two tools cut my time in half and gave the top a true flatness while removing all traces of glue. The random orbital sander is then used in varying grains of sandpaper making it baby smooth.
I had also read a few articles of a process called Water Popping which I wanted to try and sure glad I did. I basically sprayed a light coat of water on the surface and waited for it to dry. This caused the grain of the wood to enlarge making the surface rough. I then touched it with a light sanding bringing it smooth again.
The table and bench legs were then built to give me the desired height as specified by the client. The key to joining these separate pieces of wood was to make sure there was no gap after assembling them.
When angled cuts are involved this is much more difficult then it sounds. I was able to ensure this smooth transition by once again using my belt sander followed by multiple passes of the random orbital sander.
Next up was the assembly of the table legs to the horizontal runner boards. The 4x4 runner post at the bottom was fastened to the legs using a 6” long 3/8” thick hex screw. This guaranteed that the base was solid.
I then continued reinforcing the table by notching out areas on the legs to support the 2 upper runner boards. After I thought I was done with the assembly I realized that the table could use reinforcement in the center because of the table length. After contacting the client for permission, I added a vertical support post in the center. The table was ready for stain and paint!
One thing that I’ve learned is that you do NOT want to rush the staining process. Since I was using a new client specified stain made by Duraseal I wanted to ensure that there was more than adequate dry time.
Afterwards I applied 3 coats of a protective clear coat polyurethane with light sanding in between. Lastly 2 coats of paint was applied with sanding in between coats.
The table/bench were loaded in an enclosed trailer and delivered to the client where the tabletop was also attached to the base.
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