The Rustic Steampunk table (work in progress)

This is about 1 and a half pallets worth of wood with steel plumbing parts. The idea was to do some of the popular pallet wood projects that wasn't overly worked or painted. But used all the natural weathering and character of the wood itself. Rustic Steampunk was the direction I was aiming for. The plan is to eventually woodburn in a design, spray paint the pipes and finish it in a bit of a lacquer finish. Lots of chunky bolts.

First for the design I settled on. Forgive the terrible changing perspectives, it's only for showing the overall idea (and was done on a bus commute).

The workspace (my kitchen/livingroom/computer room) and all the pallets pulled apart. I've saved a good chunk of all the old (rusty) nails for later. A lot of the wood was warped, bent and different thicknesses.

I planed the backs of the wood slats to try and make all the different thicknesses as flush throughout. Then started gluing and clamping each strip down. 

  (that is indeed Top Gear on the computer screen)

(and that is indeed my cat after a romp in all the sawdust, as well as the crucial Canadian handyman problem solving lubricant... an empty whiskey glass!)

The final table top configuration. The big slats are ordered (to keep all the barrel stains) while the thinner slats are offset. 

Not the final assembly, more of a rough in to check that all my initial plan measurements were accurate. SOMEHOW... miraculously, they were. Despite the LARGE quantities of the Canadian problem solving lubricant.

Those original rusted nails I kept from the pallet dis-assembly have been put back into the wood to keep it's character. I didn't have quite enough of the original nails, so I grabbed some spare ones and left them outside in the rain for a week.