Drafting Table

Drafting tables, for the sake of teaching drafting, are a thing of the past. Even at my high school the kids do their drafting on CAD (Computer Aided Design). Accordingly the drafting tables at my school are mostly used as portable desks and being 50 years old they have taken some abuse. Ok, a lot of abuse. So when I found out that I would be hosting a student teacher this winter I formulated a plan to refinish one of the destroyed drafting tables and put it in the back of my room as a spare teacher desk.

I picked out one that still had its footrails and brought it home for reconstructive surgery. At first I figured I'd do the whole thing but due to space and tool constraints I settled for just pulling off the work surface, refinishing it, and then reattaching it.

The sanding wasn't too bad. I started with a 50 grit belt sander to tear off the top layer of shellac, pencil, sharpie, and amateur scrimshawing. I then switched to a random orbital sander with 100 grit, then 220, and then hand sanded the final before painting on 4 coats of water based polyurethane.

Then I stuck it on its legs and brought it back to school. All told it was a quick and dirty refinishing of a pretty basic piece of wood. That being said, the wide grain and blond color of the wood (maybe maple?) underneath the original stain and shellac is very pretty and it makes a nice addition to my classroom.

not the one i refinished but a good example of the condition of these desks

mine had a few more sharpie renditions of reproductive organs