Nothing too elaborate lately, been doing more mechanical work than fabricating lately. Quick little project I did for my wife. When we were sitting watching a movie on New Year's Eve, she casually mentioned that she wished she had a small end table to put her drink on next to the love seat in the living room. I don't know if it was an actual hint of just a passing thought. Either way I am not going to risk it.
I scrounged through my metal pile and found a few 4' stick of .5" square tubing. I ran to Lowe's and grabbed a couple of 12" tile off their clearance pallet that I though matched our entry way and bathroom tile as close as possible. Turns out it matches quite close and since they are going to be 10+ feet apart, they will work perfect.
This is what I started with.
Using my miter head horizontal bandsaw to 45 the ends.
The gauge is pretty accurate. When it is placed on 45-degrees....
It cuts at 45-degrees.
In one instance I was a tad long so I had to take a sliver off.
And a sliver it was measuring .036" and dead nuts parallel all the way through the cut.
All clamped together for tacking.
One of the corner welds.
I then cut some spacers for placing under the tile for positioning.
I needed to cut some spacers to space the tile down into the frame so that the top will be flush with the .5" square tubing. The tile measures .3" so I needed a spacer for each side (4 total) measuring .200". I scribed a line and then manually cut them and was able to consistantly be about .010" over is all, just enough to kiss them on the belt sander and debur them.
Four spacers cut, one already welded in the background to the underside of the framework.
Close-up.
And top frame perimeter completed with tile test fit.
I wanted a rust/patina look for the table so I used some muriatic acid to etch/clean the metal and then some hydrogen peroxide, vinegar and salt mixed together then spritzed onto the metal while it sat outside in the rain for about half an hour.
Here is the freshly patina'd rust on the table that tool all of about a half hour.
I lightly wiped it down to remove the loose stuff and here it is after a couple of coats of clear.
Completed with the tiles inserted and the rubber/plastic feet on the tubing.
I brought it into the house and presented it to my wife. She was pleased.
Chocked myself up some "brownie points".
Mike.