When my wife's grandmother moved into a condo several years ago she gave my wife her old foot-pedal sewing machine. It sits on display in our home. Over the past several years we have seen quite a few of these machines at antique shops, usually tagged at $100.00 or more. We have also noticed some of these sewing machine cast iron stands that were converted into tables. Some had glass tops, some marble, and a few wood. We saw one that had a cherry drop-leaf top that was really attractive. My wife recently found a base and asked me to make a top for it. She wanted something simple and made of wood; a request that I thought I could handle! I had some walnut in the garage so that is what I used.
The top and rails are all from one board. The rails are joined to the corner pieces with biscuits. I cut the top to shape with the bandsaw, used a router to shape the edge, and smoothed the top with hand planes. The old Stanley No. 4 was having a bit of a problem with the slightly figured grain, so I switched to an old Stanley 4 1/2 with a Hock iron. That did the trick. The top is finished with a couple of coats of Minwax wipe-on poly.
It was a quick and simple project but I am pleased with the results. This walnut has some figure to it and the wipe-on poly seemed to be a good choice for highlighting the grain and offering good durability. I'm not good with the camera but I hope you can see the beauty of the walnut.
Thanks for looking, Vince