Simple, But Unique ! Wire Spool Table ! With Its Own Chairs!

We all know somebody or someone who has one, or you may even have one yourself. And if you do you're probably using it as a table right now. But with a little work you can have a pretty cool table. This idea came to me because my mom was in need of a good outside table. But once she received it, she said it was too nice to keep outside. So now it sits in her dining room, with her Christmas tree upon it.

Step 1: Finding a Spool

Once you find your spool you need to disassemble it. The spools are held together with long rods and nuts.

Depending on how new your spool is this may be quite a easy or it might take a little elbow grease.

Step 2: Sanding the Top!

Now these spools are made out of some pretty hardwood so you are going to need at least a 50 grit sandpaper to get things started. You want to sand the side of the top that has the nail heads on it. And if there are any nail heads sticking out you need to take a punch and a hammer and drive them down so they are underneath the wood. I recommend a belt sander for this. Now I started out with 50 grit and ended with 120 but, this is your project. And you can just keep going to 220 grit, or until your happy with it. And the same thing can be said about the table legs.

Step 3: Finding Your Legs

Now I got lucky and found some old Amish rough cut 4×4's. I do recommend 4×4's for the table legs because you are going to need something with girth to lag table top to. Once you have your legs you need to cut them to size. The tabletop itself is 2 inches thick so I need to cut my legs at 28 inches to give me an overall height of 30.

Then you need to do a 15 degree cut on one end of your legs. This will the kick out the legs. I found this angle by just measureing another ( store bought table ) outside table.

Step 4: Putting It Together

1. Pre drill the center of each leg where the lag bolt will go. This will save you some time when tighten them up.

2. Install the lags through the original holes from where you took it apart.

3. While tightening the lag bolts make sure the legs stay Square to each other.

4. I added threaded rod to the legs for additional stability. ( I DID this because it was meant to be an outside table ) But this step is optional.

Step 5: Finishing It Off

Find yourself a good stain that you like. ( follow the directions on can ). Once you have stained the whole table, take 220 grit Sandpaper and lightly scuff the surface ( just the table top). Then apply a clear polyurethane over the table top it self, not the legs. Then wait for it to dry , the lightly sand the poly coat with 220 grit, and repeat. Keep adding polyurethane until your happy with your table.

Now you can see in my pictures that I added some rope to the top of the table in the groove that was made for the spools slats. By doing this it covered up the head of the lag bolts and gave it a nice clean look. Also I took flat black spray paint and sprayed any damage gauges, holes, this gave the table a little more character.

Tools used: materials needed :

Basic socket kit. Sandpaper

Belt sander. (4) six inch lag bolts

Drill. Stain and polyurethane

Circular saw. Cheap foam brushes

Step 6: Extra Mile

At the same time I was making the table I reclaimed 4 chairs which were in pretty rough shape. They were silver at the time, I painted them black added new rubber feet, and replaced the old metal seats with seats I made out of an old barn plank. And even hand carved butt cheeks spots.