Tips/pointers to Restore/refinish old table?

[Dr. Strangelove]

I brought an old drafting table home from my parent's house today. Family lore is that it was hand built by my great great grandfather, probably sometime in the 1880's to 1900 timeframe. It appears to be a drafting table, because when the top is assembled on the base, it will adjust and lock into any angle from horizontal to almost vertical.

It was in my dad's home when he was a kid, and in mine(his) when I was a kid. It's been stored for 15+ years in a backyard shed exposed to summer and winter temps and at some point some the shed had a water ingress problem in bad rains.

The top appears to be glued strips of wood, one section of which is about to give up the ghost, it has a huge crack across the whole top and flexes, I'm sure I could tear it off if I tried. It appears to be made of red oak (?) and I'm sure the original finish was almost certainly oil based varnish of some sort due to the time frame. My mom applied some kind of finish to the top of top probably thirty years ago, I'm sure some kind of Minwax polyurethane product. That has also now powdered and is flaking off.

Top (with crack along the glue line):



Crack from the bottom, this is what is flexing and could pretty much be torn off:



The base has some rot on the bottom of the legs, enough to make it unstable. One side is worse than the other.



The base is cracking as well, overall the piece looks like it has dried out considerably and then rotted on the bottom where the legs were in contact with water:



Lastly, the base seems catty-whampus and out of square altogether:



My goal is to partially restore the table and use it for a nightstand or perhaps in my office. I want to repair the damage to the top where it appears to want to fall apart and strip/refinish the rest of the wood. My woodworking experience to date has been building houses 30+ years ago and some limited experience on boats. I'm guessing I need to remove all the rot in the legs to good wood and decide if I want to graft something else onto it to match the original profile or just install some shims and call it good.

I have a decent selection of tools, belt sander, orbital sander, saws, chisels, etc. Chime in here, but I plan to strip it, sand it, repair the top somehow, and refinish. Any suggestions are welcome, but mostly how to repair the top and what finish to use at the end? I've always used Cetol Marine finishes on boats but that seems a bit of overkill here. What's a good wood finish that would hold up to a drink being sat down/spilled on it or worse?

Also, the top, best way to repair the faulty glue section? Tear off and re-glue and clamp? Biscuit joiner? Dowels? Something else?

Thanks for any and all input! I look forward to a fun winter project!

 

[Doboy Dawg]

Lots of possibilities, get you a Kreg blind pocket screw jig. You can place a few blind pocket screws in from the bottom of the top to tighten the failing table top glue joints. I’d inject some waterproof wood glue into the cracks before tightening the joints with the screws.

You could cut off the rotten portion of the legs, and use a biscuit joiner to splice the pieces back, or old school mortise and tenon joints.

Lots of options and you’d have a fine heirloom table.

 

[treemanjohn]

Either rebuild the legs or cut off the water damage and use a lap joint to repair. It will be stronger that the original piece

You have a lot of good wood there. Should just be a little time consuming

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

@Doboy Dawg - I'm trying to keep this project to what tools I have around the house, especially since furniture isn't really my thing and the next project is a 68 Spitfire (car, not airplane) so I'm not trying to buy a bunch of woodworking tools.

That said, I have say many thanks. I was intrigued by the Kreg blind pocket screw jig you mentioned and picked one up, shoot it was $40 at Lowes, I don't mind spending money on tools if I'm going to use them more than once and $40 is a nice lunch or a Friday afternoon at the ol' watering hole, so why not.

I bought the Kreg Pocket-Hole Jig 320, and holy smokes is that thing cool. It came with everything needed except a drill. Jig, drill bit with adjustable stop, square head driver attachment, an assortment of screws all in a little plastic case.

The only cut I would give it is that for what I was trying to do, the instructions are not super clear, but a couple of YouTube videos and such later I was able to figure out how to use the jig without the pre-setup parameters.

In keeping with my "using what I have" philosophy, I used a ratchet strap to put pressure on the top while I glued it.




Then I separated the Kreg 320 and held it down with screws, as suggested by Kreg. I had to do this because I had an existing piece and the edge guides and such wouldn't work.



I was a little skeptical, but I let her rip. Oh wow was I pleased. I could have done this a couple of different ways but this was the most efficient and exactly what I was looking for. Here's the finished pocket screws:



Eh, the crack is still there but that part no longer wiggles like it wants to fall off. I'll evaluate it once the rest of the glue dries but I'm super happy with the pocket screws, I don't think that piece is going anywhere.

Now for striping and refinishing!

 

[Doboy Dawg]

Doc looks really good!, that’s about what I would have come up with, anyway you can clamp it up. Once the glue dries you are good to go.

Sometimes when old glue joints open up and moisture gets in the wood can be hard to join back together without using a jointer or block plane to square the edge. That’s not always practical. Sometimes you can sand the edge to prep it, but that usually rolls the edges.

I’m old school on restoration, I like to go as original as possible. Sometimes original just isn’t feasible or possible. I cringe every time I see a beautiful original wood piece that some Karen has painted. I love the beauty of the wood and paint only covers it.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

Thanks Dooby Dawg! I don't have a table saw or jointer, or even a block plane for that matter. That Kreg pocket screw jig was just what I needed.

I feel the same way about restorations, I'm not trying to make this thing brand new, just stop any further deterioration and protect it from the elements. I sanded down the top of the top and I'm Citri-Stripping the bottom and sides. I'm strongly considering just putting another coat of lacquer on the base or even leaving it as-is, this finish cleaned up pretty well today when I wiped it down with acetone. I'll pick up some mineral spirits tomorrow and find out.

@treemanjohn Thanks, it's an easy project but as you said, time consuming. Not sure what I'm going to do about the "feet" yet. Knock out the rotted wood for sure but if it sits level on carpet I may just seal it and be done with it. We'll see.

 

[gunnurse]

You could take Starbond CA glue and mix it with fine coffee grounds. Force the mixture into the crack. Spritz on a little CA glue activator, then sand it flat. Or, Starbond has a brown CA glue that may come closer to matching the original color. The coffee grounds would certainly make a much darker fill-in.