If you missed Episode 1, watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2u94T7-aiY
In part two we will make the steel frame that wraps the rustic cedar tops. We are using 1.25″ square steel tubing that comes in 24′ sticks. We have the steel place cut them in two so we can optimize our material and also be able to bring it home in a standard pickup.
We first cut the material with 45 degree cuts at our dry cutting metal saw. It doesn’t produce a lot of sparks nor very much heat, if any! Once the parts are all cut, we then bring them to our wooden jig to weld them together. It has a toggle clamp to hold each of the 4 sections in place. The jig rotates on a center pivot allowing me to keep the joint that I am welding on in a nice comfortable location. Once all the 45 degree joints are welding, we can tack on a 4 flat bar to the bottom with a few spacers. These will hold the table and prevent them from falling through. We had pre-drilled three holes per piece of flat bar so we can secure the table to the metal frame.
As I was welding and getting each table top complete, my buddy Matt was helping me with the grinding. He was grinding all the welds flush and smooth.
With the units welding and ground, we clean them with acetone or brake cleaner and then apply JAX blackening agent. We then rinse with water. This will rust the steel a bit and we remove the majority of the rust with steel wool. Then we spray 3 coats of semi-gloss lacquer to seal the metal.
In the next video we will make the bases.
Post time: Jun-27-2017