Reclaimed siding - end table

[Darren Almeida]

This was a bit of a different project for me. A friend of mine got trailer loads of old siding that came off of a mill. He used the best of it to side his firewood shed. I was talking to him about it and found out that the old siding was mahogany. I could not believe that at some point in time people would side something the size of a mill in mahogany. I also could not believe that he used all that mahogany to keep rain off of his firewood...ugh. I took his leftover scraps - about 300 linear feet of broken up 1"x6" tongue and groove mahogany covered on one side in lead paint. Most of he pieces are about 6' long but some of them are up to 18' long.

My first attempt to make something useful out of the scrap was a shaker style end table. Here's a few pix (pix are from my phone, so they are not the best):

Stripping off the lead paint:



Rough wood after being stripped and scraped:



I then ran it through my jointer and then used a jig on my table saw to rip off the broken tongue and grooves. I ended up with 4" wide boards of varying length. I cleaned up about a half dozen boards, each about 5' long.

I have only made a few simple pieces of furniture and this was my first attempt at mortise and tenons:



I tried to lay up some of the boards to get enough thickness for the legs but it looked like crap, so I broke down and bought a 2"x6" slab of mahogany. I cut out the 4 legs and made a nice tapering jig to taper the legs:





The draw is made of poplar, but I forgot to take a picture with the draw open. The table got a coat of teak oil and then 3 coats of poly.

As you can see, it looks pretty cleaned up, but you can tell it is reclaimed wood when you look at the edge of the top and if you look closely at the sides. But that is what it is, a reclaimed wood table. It is not a showroom piece from new wood. At the end of the day I like how it came out. Certainly better than a firewood shed. Ha.




In it's final resting spot in my living room:


I welcome comments, good and bad. It is my first "real" furniture project and working with reclaimed wood certainly added to the challenge for me.

Darren

[Frank McKinney]

Great use for the old mill siding. Nice job on the table too!

[Jim Becker]

Very nice work and a great example of recycling material with some fine character!

[Peter J Lee]

Very nice... the crazy use of wood a century or so ago is a topic that can probably go on for a while.

If that's your first effort at a mortise and tenon, I say yipes that's pretty good.

[Tony Shea]

Very good to see a wonderful use of reclaimed lumber, especially considering that most would have crumbled it up not knowing it to be mahogany under the painted surfaces. I always check old painted surfaces during demolition jobs and it never ceases to amaze as to the quality of wood that someone would throw a coat of paint on. I recently was part of a large house where the owner wanted Honduras Mahogany as trim throughout the house but then decided on painting it all. I was heartbroken.

Nice table btw, I think you've done very well for a first time M/T project. My only critique is to maybe add a chamfer to the bottom of the table top to trick the eye into thinking the top is a bit thinner.

[Darren Almeida]

Thanks for the comments guys. It is crazy what has been done in the past (and what some people do today) with quality wood.

Tony - good comment on chamfering the bottom of the table top. I just watched an episode of Rough Cut Woodworking and he made a very similar shaker style table and he beveled the edges of the top and it looked nice. Wish I saw that before I made the table. I will probably end up making another similar table at some point and will bevel the top. Next project for the reclaimed wood is a shaker wall clock though.

[Phil Thien]

That looks terrific! The table came out great, the story behind the materials used makes it even better!

[Mark Valsi]

I like the design of the table very much. You got the proportions just perfect.

And, I really like the looks of your Taper Jig. Up against the fence, is that a groove so the main part of the jig will not "wander"?

[Darren Almeida]

Thanks guys.

Mark - the design of the taper jig came from a FWW magazine. I modified it slightly. You are correct, there is a rail that you clamp to the table saw fence and the jig slides under / behind the rail so it does not wander. The inside piece on the rail is cut from the same piece of wood as the one on the right side of the jig. You put a couple layers of painters tape (you can see the blue in the picture) between the rail and the fence to widen the gap so the jig will slide down it smoothly. It works really well and made making the legs with two sides tapered both easy and repeatable. I spent an afternoon making the jig, but now I have it for future projects.

[Darius Ferlas]

Amazing what you can do with what appears to be, at first sight, a pile of garbage.
A really good looking piece of furniture.