Inspiration
I saw a table on Overstock that I wanted badly; but it was $2k+ which was too much for me. I had the idea that I would create it and it took me a really long time to figure out how to put this table together with all the 1/2'“ wooden dowels.
Tools
I first started by screwing the dowels into a birch plywood circle. I bought 2 different sized wooden circles, one 12 in. and one 18 in. Which was completely wrong, I did NOT need screws. I basically wasted a whole bunch of time drilling holes into the dowels and into the wooden circle.
I eventually had to go back and use Gorilla Glue Wood Filler to fill all the holes I had previously created. Which worked perfectly and quickly. After filling all the holes I had to sand down every single dowel one by one. Extremely tedious work, i was starting to get why the table cost $2,000.
I started sanding with 60 grit, then 100, 120, and lastly 300. After sanding the dowels and wooden circles down, I used some tac cloth to remove all the dust and particles and I started staining using a standard staining brush, a plastic drop cloth, and Behr Wood Conditioner, and Behr semi-transparent water-based stain and poly in True Black.
Putting the table together
After staining everything separately I went ahead and started putting the pieces together using my Ryobi Airstrike nail gun. I started by nailing 6 dowels into the smaller wooden circle. After I had 6 dowels nailed onto the smaller wooden circle I stood the wooden circle up resting on the dowels so that I could nail the dowels that were already there into the bottom wooden circle. After attaching the wooden circles to all 6 of the dowels I added an extra piece in between all dowels to create a cross in the center of the table to add more support to the table. All that was left is adding all the rest of the dowels which is did by using a 1/4'“ square sized dowel in between each of the 1/2” dowels.
After the base was created all that needed to be done was adding the table top that I sanded down with 120 & 300 grit for a smooth finish before staining. I used Liquid Nails to glue the table top onto the base and then nailed it down in the creating a triangle with the nails for added security, because the glue was NOT enough. The table top came off while i was moving the table, if i didn’t nail it down it wouldn’t have worked. Then I ended up adding a pole wrap border onto the table to add more texture to the table. Which required me to use bondo, I will probably never use again. Because it didn’t harden quick enough, and the fumes almost suffocated me. But I sanded that down and then stained the sides and at the bottom of the page is my finished product.
