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Send to friendIt's still a work in progress, but here are a couple early pics of my factory cart coffee table. I used Ana's plans for inspiration, but made a lot of changes. The main one being that I decided to make it into a small storage unit. I used new 1x8's for the sides and a couple 1x2's for support and the rest is all going to be reclaimed pallet wood. Since the 1x8's gave me a little extra depth, the lid is going to be hinged allowing for a little bit of storage inside (TV remote, game controllers, etc.). Since it's a "factory cart", I stenciled an old Detroit company logo on opposite sides. I bought casters at Harbor Freight. They weren't the old-school cast iron, but they've got a cast iron spoked center and rubber tread. I'm in the middle of painting the pieces black and I think they'll look appropriate when they're ready. It was $28 total for the four casters.
Now I just need to settle on a stain. Any tips on applying the stain? I started with one color on the inside, but it was way too light and I'm not even sure I was doing it right. I was using a rag to apply it, but it barely looked like I was putting anything on despite shaking the bejeezus out of the can to mix it up. I'm kind of wishing I had gone with the Minwax stain+poly the first time, and I might still end up going that route.
I'll post more pics later on. It's farther along than the pics show, but these are the only ones I have at the moment.
Thanks for the staining tips. As for the logo, I was looking for something from back home (as a Detroit native, living in FL now) that had some history and found the logo online. I couldn't find an exact font match, but was able to get pretty close and printed it out on some thick paper. After that, it was just sitting down and spending a few hours cutting out a stencil to spray paint. Two, actually. One for the gray, another for the black. It's a little fuzzy in places, but overall I'm happy with it.
You might want to check out amber shellac, which gives it a nice orange color close to what pine naturally ages to. You brush that on with an oil brush rather than use a rag. Then brush a couple of coats of poly on it, and you'll have a nice durable finish.
Thanks, I might look for that. I just bought some of the poly w/ stain mixed in, but haven't opened it up yet. I had some luck with that stuff in the past when I refinished an old dining room table w/ chairs that I picked up at a garage sale.
That is awesome. I love how you customized it for storage and the fuzzy parts of th detroit logo just sem to make it more authentic. Now hurry and finish. I wanna see the pallet top and wheels.
Alright, all done. Here are the latest pics. Sorry for the poor quality. I had to take them with my phone in lousy light.
Thanks. It turned out well enough that someone I work with is paying me to make one for her, too, with a logo from a company in the town she grew up in.
The logo on the side looks great! How did you do that? On the stain issue, you may have just applied it too lightly and rubbed it off too quickly. If you are trying to go dark you can let it "soak" in a bit then rub the excess off. You may consider distressing your new wood a bit so the whole piece looks more cohesive if you use pallet wood for the rest. I can't wait to see the finished project. I so want to build one of these carts but it wouldn't work in our home.