Diving Right In!

So today I wanted to write about an ottoman that was given to us by a family member. I’ll start by saying that this project was very gratifying. This would be the first time I would actually create something from a block of wood to replace damaged parts on the original. After this project, I can honestly say I was fully hooked!

Before….

Here’s some shots of the original product. You can see some pretty severe damage to the legs and the trim. This was going to be my biggest challenge, how to make new legs, something I hadn’t done before. I started this project like I do with all refurbishments, taking the whole thing apart and sanding everything down to the original wood, by this project I was a pro. I had acquired a new orbital sander and it made life so much easier for me, especially with such large flat objects.

Initially I wanted to try and repair the original trim, but the farther along I got in the sanding, the more it began to dawn on me that the trim just wasn’t worth saving. Ultimately I would use a rubber mallet to remove the original trim from the base…and here is where I learned a new lesson! As I started knocking pieces of the trim off of the base, pieces of the base started to separate with the trim (a true testament to wood glue). After separating the trim (and panicking a little bit) I figured out that I could use a small chisel to remove the broken pieces of wood left on the base (some of the notched wood was left in the base slot) and basically give myself a clean space to insert new trim.
I don’t have any pictures of this part, but this would also be my first time using a dado set. As I have said in other posts, asking questions is important. When I was trying to figure out how to create a new notch on the new trim (where I could insert the wood slat that I would connect with glue to the original notch on the base), the only thing I could think of was a router. Being unfamiliar at the time with using a router, I did some damage to the new trim in the process of trying to make a clean straight notch to insert the wood that would ultimately be used to connect the trim to the base. This is where a friend introduced me to the joys of dado saw blades!
After a lot of trial and error, and using my new calipers and dado set, I got nice straight notches in my trim that I could easily slot new fresh wood with witch to glue to the base as you can see below.

Not to take a step backwards, but prior to starting this job, I went on a shopping spree (with my wife by my side) and I walked away with lots of new tools. Table saw, many small tools such as clamps, rulers, square edges, calipers, dado set, the list goes on and on (remember I was and am hooked, and my wife is pretty awesome…).
With the new trim under my belt (and a lot of new abilities added to my “tool kit” pun intended…) I moved on to the damaged legs. This was really the most intimidating part for me. I had a lot of new challenges to address; how to make a template for the legs, how cut the new legs out of a block of wood, how to make sure the legs were all symmetrical, and ultimately how to make them sturdy and strong enough to support the weight of the ottoman.
Creating the template was fairly easy, some of the legs had only minor damage, and as such I was able to simply trace new legs onto the a block of wood. Where the real fun began was how to cut the new legs out with my tracing. First I tried a jig saw, but I had a hard time controlling the cuts, especially around the curves of the legs. So guess what I did….that’s right, I bought a new tool! This time it was a band saw made by Ryobi. Using the band saw I found I had a lot more control of the wood since I could use both hands, and a whole lot of gratification after I got it right!

I had to sand my new legs to get the rough edges off. But overall I thought they turned out pretty well.

Riding my success from the new legs I had made (and having not lost any digits to the band saw), I ensured strength and sturdiness by adding the same support you see in the picture above (triangle in between legs).

Here’s a shot of the braces I put on the new legs.

Now the assembly on this project wasn’t to bad. I did have a little bit of a struggle getting the new trim to sit flush, but with some handy clamps, and plenty of wood glue (and a few curse words) I got everything pretty well lined up. The rest of the assembly went smoothly, it was already made to go back together, and did without really any issues.

 

I opted to stain everything a dark walnut before assembly, so that added a day or two to the project while I let everything dry. In retrospect it probably would have been easier to put the polyurethane semi gloss coat on without it put together, but I think I was to excited to see it all reassembled. The final product turned out great, I took huge steps forward in my abilities, and I was pretty proud of how it turned out. Of course there were small things that I could have done better, but I learned from it by DOING it. After this project I had the confidence to build my first “from scratch” woodworking item….I’ll be discussing that project in a later post.

Before….

and AFTER!

I left a lot of the detailed steps out (no need to write a giant post) but if you have any specific questions about things I did or didn’t do, please leave me a comment and ask!