Pallet Wood Coffee Table

Step 1: Wood Selection

I had my eye on several stacks of pallet skids at the warehouse next to our shop for quite a while. I asked their shipping manager about using the wood and he gave me the green light.

Several weeks ago 2 large stacks of skids appeared and the wood in them looked great. So during the New Years break I went over with our fork lift, brought one of the stacks over, went through the entire stack and found a bunch of lumber I liked.

It took an entire day to disassemble, select and prep the wood we wanted.

Step 2: Design and Assembly

Next, I began by building a outer frame and lower lip to support the boards as I assembled it.

The design of the table was made up as we (me and my wife) went, we were not in a hurry and primarily started out building a table for fun.

I have wanted to build a table with only wood dowels and glue for a while. So for the joints I bought oak dowels from Home Depot for the border joints and table top.

After building the frame I put in one layer of wood, glued it and left it over night.

Step 3: Assembly Step 2

Next, I added the top layer of wood in the opposite direction of the lower wood, glued it, drilled and doweled it.

We spent quite a bit of time selecting this top wood based on grain, color, knots, ect.

While we were waiting for glue to dry, we got started on some sanding and stain tests spots.

Step 4: Step 3

Once the glue dried. I sanded the top with several different grits using a belt sander, palm sander and "Elbow Sander" :-) until the edges and grooves were smooth.

We then used some wood filler to fill any cracks and sanded it again once dried.

Finished by basic sanding and fine tuning on the entire table. Added a boarder around the bottom and planks on the bottom.

Step 5: Final Steps

We used standard pressure treated 4x4 wood that you can get from Home Depot for the legs.

Note: the pressure treated wood didn't except the stain very well and I will not use it again.

We sanded and routed the edges of everything then used a Minwax pre treatment on the entire table.

Then we did one coat of Minwax Polyshades in Bombay Mahogany in a satin finish on the entire table and let it dry overnight.

Then the next day we hand sanded over all surfaces with a 00 steel wool (per stains instructions), did another coat and let that dry overnight as well.

Now it's home and is truly an amazing addition to our home!