A Paying Gig!!!

I'm SO excited!...(And I just can't hide it!)

Pointer Sisters, anyone?

Anyways, I actually earned money last week by doing a job I absolutely love. This may sound strange to some of you but believe it or not, I don't LOVE my job. Don't get me wrong, it's a good job, and I times I really enjoy it. Other times... not so much. And that's the same with jobs I've had in the past. But woodworking, that's the job I LOVE!! Or I will, if it ever becomes my "job," and I don't think this is one of those "grass is always greener on the other side" cuz I had a whiff of it this weekend. I actually got paid for doing a woodworking job!

(I just did a little dance. It may or may not have involved some booty shakin, but either way, I'm really glad nobody was around to see it. See, I have this problem... I'm white!)

Anywhoo, here was my project:

It wasn't a start-from-scratch job, it was a modification.

A friend from work had the above oval table (notice the legs have already been taken off because our vehicles weren't big enough to transport it put together). It was made in the 1950s and has been in her family since that time. She really loves it and it's great quality but she wanted it to be smaller so that it would fit in her kitchen nook.

And I was SO up to the challenge.

First step, I removed the already-removed legs.

You know what I mean.

So this was my raw material. I was making absolutely no modification to the table's legs so I stored them nicely in the corner of my workshop.

Speaking of my workshop, if you want to see what's in it, well, too bad. I thought I'd written (written? Is that right?) a post about it forever ago but apparently not. Maybe soon, though, eh?

Step 2. remove the skirt and hardware (aka all the stuff circled in green below) from the bottom of the table.

Step 3. Realize that the skirt support blocks (see below) are super glued on and removing them is going to be the hardest part of this whole effort.

Now, I was left with my "blank canvas" if you will.

You can see the beautiful bare wood poking through the unstained parts! Doesn't that just get your blood pumping?

No? Hello? Anyone there?

Step thirty ten (that's where we are, right?) Measure, measure and measure. I don't know if I've mentioned the end goal here. We want this table to end up totally circular and less ovular.

Yes, ovular is a word. (Just nod your head and smile and we'll get along just fine.)

So, step forty eighteen, cut 8 inches off the inside section of each half of the table.

Step forty nineteen: Measure, measure, measure, and mark the cut point (shown in green below)

Step fifty eleven, hold your breath, start cutting, and hope that you measured right cuz it's going to be really hard to add wood back on if you've messed up.

Step seventy something: repeat on the other side.

Step seventy something plus one, do a test fit to make sure the two halves line up.

Oh, crap!

Step seventy something plus one plus one: realize that it is going to be necessary to keep your day job and start trying to figure out how you're going to explain this to the table owner.

Step eighty nine: JUST KIDDING! The above photo is just a product of some fancy photoshopping.

Did I get ya?

Here are the real results of the test fit:

Step... oh whatever: Whew! Deep breath. We have what appears to be turning into a round table.

Maybe I do have a future in this career/hobby path!

Steps 100 through 200: Continue to take pictures of the following processes: Cutting down the support boards, routing the cut edge of the support board so it is rounded like the original piece, cut down the long edges of the skirt so the skirt becomes square rather than a rectangle, and screw all the modified and non-modified pieces back onto the bottom of the newly cut halves.

Unfortunately for you, the photography of steps 100 through 200 did not occur.

Let us now join step two hundred thirty eleven already in progress.

Another sigh of relief, everything fits back together! And although I have to have the legs removed to fit it in my car for transport, I have to put the whole thing together to see the finished product.

Look at how darn cute it is! It makes me want to go out and buy an oversize table so that I can cut it down and make it small!

And once again, the best part is... I got paid to do it!!!

And the other best part is... I "had" to buy a new tool to complete the project: a doweling jig. I bought one similar to this simple kit from home depot:

And, boy, did it work fabulously!

Hopefully I got those dowels matched up just right so that the leaves from their formerly oval table will still work, thus making their formerly oval, currently round table into an oval table.

Got that?

And there you have it, a thankfully successful woodworking gig. I couldn't be happier!

And as fabulous as this table looks now, it's going to look even more spectacular once the owner finishes sanding and re-staining it. I can't wait to see the finished product. I'll post pictures when I get them.

So, you got anything you need built? I can provide a reference now!