This started out as an experiment to use up a bunch of scrap OSB that had been cluttering up the shop for quite a while. The top and the lower shelf are made of OSB strips glued up butcher block style. Prior to gluing I ran each strip through the drum sander to get each side flat, as the back side of the OSB is dimpled, and the front has a finish on it and is far from flat. This uses a lot of glue, but it was a good opportunity to use up all the old glue I had in the shop. After the glue set up I ran the whole thing through the drum sander to flatten the whole thing. I can’t imagine doing this project without a drum sander. At this point the wife decided she liked the look of the top and she wanted it to be a table to feed her cats on (so the dog can’t get the cat food). Initially I thought it’d be a table for my mini lathe. I filled small voids in the top with glue mixed with sanding dust. This was a mistake as those areas didn’t absorb the finish in the same way the rest of the top did. The bottom is made of 3/4 and 5/8 inch Home Depot OSB with the red edge paint. The top is made of 1/2 inch OSB with the green edge paint. I’ve been told that the green paint indicates higher quality OSB. Whether or not that’s true, the 1/2 inch OSB produced a much lighter colored product. I finished these with System Three’s MirrorCoat. I hoped one coat of this would be enough, but I made a mistake. I didn’t put any kind of sealer on the OSB so the epoxy soaked into the wood unevenly and left dry spots. So I had to apply a second coat. It looks really nice except for the gnats that flew into it.
The frame structure is made of pine that I salvaged from an old deck I tore down. It’s just basic mortise and tenon construction, nothing fancy. I filled nail holes and cracks with Bondo and painted it with regular latex paint shot with and HVLP. The wife picked the color. Opinions are mixed on that subject.
