Kitchen Table (2x4 & Recycled Pallets)

Having seen the cost of solid wood furniture in places like IKEA; I searched and found a really great guide for building benches over at Jay's Custom Creations and took the inspiration from there to build a kitchen table.

If you like the design and the Instructable, I would appreciate your vote in the "2x4" competition (click the 'vote' option; or the award cup at the top of the page).

Thanks for taking the time to view.

Inspiration & Getting Started

The materials for the build consist of 2x4's, reclaimed pallets and a sheet of 12mm ply

Reclaiming Pallets for the Decorative Insert

I stripped down a pile of pallets (and some other reclaimed materials from my garage), making sure they were free of nails and avoiding any particular bad sections.

I ran everything through a thickness planer, brining all the material down to around 10mm thick and then ripped everything on the table saw to 30mm wide

Table Structure

Enlarging the basic style for the benches (from Jay's site) I made the framework for the table and added a few extra bracing pieces under the table to give additional support to the centre area and provide some additional strength. The pictures don't quite show; but from each cross-brace on the legs, runs a single 2x4 at around 45' to the centre of the table, where it joins a central strut across the table.

The sheet of 12mm ply is located in a dado near the bottom of the 2x4 and held with glue and screws

Filling In

With the main structure built, the top was laid with a picture frame style, mitred corners and held with glue/screws.

Between the two top frames, is a row of 3 lengths from the reclaimed pallets; glued and clamped for several hours

Filling

With the two frames in place, it was then a case of gluing in many strips of reclaimed pallets; clamping after every few rows

Decorative Corners

Because my mitre saw wasn't set accurately, I ended up with a small gap that I wasn't happy about.

I inserted a small filler piece and used a router to cut the diamond shapes and insert a matching diamond cut from some scarp wood (used to be a fireplace in my house).

Finishing

With some very small gaps here and there between the pallets, I bought and used 300g of clear epoxy filler, applied to the top as directed, which was then sanded to a smooth finish.

Finally, 7 coats of a natural Danish oil with a light sand between each coat.