Working on restoring my family’s old dining room table. It's the closest thing I have to a family heirloom, my dad got it out of someone’s back yard when my folks first got married. It was pretty beat up, he sanded most of the marks out of the top, varnished it and put it to use. I got it from them last year, all the glue joints were coming loose and a piece or two missing. Cool old table, solid oak double drop leaf, made probably early 50’s by a company called A. Brandt. It was a line they produced called “Ranch Oak”. It was made to look like the pieces were rough cut out with a chisel. 

Love it!

Cool table with lots of history. Good on you for making certain it lives on. 

Thanks. Got a lot of personal history with that table. Ate every meal at it, did my homework, played cards and games etc. 
It has a lot of character, it was an outside party table when my dad got it around “68”. Initials carved in the top and burn marks. He sanded some of them out but the deep ones are still there. I know every mark in it and I’ll leave them there.

Nice table Zack! Love it, ya definitely leave all those character marks in there, wonderful memories.

Great piece of furniture with a storied history. Looking forward to following through to completion. Thanks for sharing the back story too Zack. It adds a very personal touch to this thread and restoration.

Looks like at least one of the feet and the swing out legs need to be taken apart and reglued.  New dowels if needed.

Took the whole table apart and stripped each piece. Some of the glued joints were broken around and between the dowel holes. Chiseled out the broken areas and glued plugs in place. Redrilled the dowel holes and glued the frames back together with new dowels. Made a new top stretcher for one of the swing frames. Some of the edge glued pieces in the table top were separating. I was able to reglue some of them. Other ones as well as some cracks are getting mended with butterfly keys from the bottom side.

Edited January 31, 20251 yr by Zack

You've been busy. Nice progress and solutions.

I’ve actually been working on it for a while. Nights and weekends when i have time. I’m far enough along now, figured I’d share it.

You definitaly take salvage to a new level. I almost think it would be easier to build a replacement.

Very nice, well on your way.

Love that drop leaf table.  Great job.

The repairs and final sanding are done. I stained the top today. I applied a washcoat of 8:1 mineral spirits and linseed oil prior to the stain. I used natural stain, doesn’t add much color but it gives nice contrast to the grain.stained next to unstained for comparison underside stainedtop unstainedtop stained

 

The pics of the center piece make it look twisted for some reason. It isn’t.

Very nicely done Zack. Really coming along well. I like the look of the stain choice. 

Great fitting pewa patches!

Looking really good Zack!

 Your efforts are beginning to pay-off, well done

I was cleaning up the hardware and I always get a little giddy when I see how well made things used to be. The screws and hinges are all bright steel without any zinc plating. The hinges are made from 14 ga plate and they all have a manufacturers stamp in them from Rockford mfg. made in USA.

Put 4 coats of polyurethane on the table top pieces. I’m happy with the amount of grain filling so stopping at 4, just the deeper grain still shows. I’ll let that cure for a couple of weeks and rub it out with some 0000 steel wool. I’ll get the frame finished while the top is curing.