Todays Project - What did you do today?

[zmotorsports]

Quick little project I started on last night for my wife.  When we were sitting watching a movie on New Year's Eve, she casually mentioned that she wished she had a small end table to put her drink on next to the love seat in the living room.  I don't know if it was an actual hint of just a passing thought.  Either way I am not going to risk it.

A couple of nights ago I scrounged through my metal pile and found a few 4' stick of .5" square tubing.  Yesterday I ran to Lowe's and grabbed a couple of 12" tile off their clearance pallet that I though matched our entry way and bathroom tile as close as possible.  Turns out it matches quite close and since they are going to be 10+ feet apart, they will work perfect.

I started with this last night after work.


Using my new Baileigh BS-210M miter head horizontal bandsaw to 45 the ends.


The gauge is pretty accurate.  When it is placed on 45-degrees....


It cuts at 45-degrees.


In one instance I was a tag long so I had to take a sliver off.


And a sliver it was measuring .036" and dead nuts parallel all the way through the cut.


All clamped together for tacking.


One of the corner welds.


I then was able to get a feel for my new Birmingham KB-45 vertical bandsaw and was able to see it's accuracy as well.


I needed to cut some spacers to space the tile down into the frame so that the top will be flush with the .5" square tubing.  The tile measures .3" so I needed a spacer for each side (4 total) measuring .200".  I scribed a line and then manually cut them and was able to consistantly be about .010" over is all, just enough to kiss them on the belt sander and debur them.


Four spacers cut, one already welded in the background to the underside of the framework.


Close-up.


And top frame perimeter completed with tile test fit.  


Tonight I can get the legs done and I will frame out a lower section for another 12" tile closer to the floor.  My thinking is by having a heavy tile lower on the table it will make it not so top-heavy and be more stable.  Plus this way she can put a small planter or something decorative on the bottom shelf.

Stay tuned for the completed project.....

Mike.