Before looking at this, take a look at the original project back in the Projects Gallery.

After the completion of the Trestles project, I was unhappy with how the end product turned out, it wasn't up to my standards of quality. So I decided to update this project in my free time over the course of my final semester in college. Over that time period I tackled three main facets of this project: 1) Metal finish 2) The top of the trestle and 3) The connection between the metal frame and the trestle top.

First part of this project was addressing the finish of the metal. I really liked the texture of the frame from just sanding the factory finish off the metal tubing, but I wanted to preserve that texture and not have it rust over time seeing as I plan to use these for table legs in the future. For that I contacted a local company, based off the recommendation of my furniture design professor, to get the pieces chrome plated. This would preserve the texture of the metal and have it last forever with little maintenance. The company, AAA Metal Finishing, did a fantastic job and I couldn't recommend them more!

The second aspect of this project was the trestle top. Because my metal frames weren't as square as I wanted them to be, the tops looked off and weren't centered in the originals because they came right to the ends of the metal frames. To fix this issue I made new ones that had a constant overhang around the whole frame which helps hid this a bit more. I also made the tops thicker to relate to the chairs I made and paint them the same so they were cohesive. It ended up being 3 layers of 0.50 inch plywood glued together and then using Bondo wood filler and spot putty I could smooth out all the edges and imperfections so the plywood wouldn't soak up the paint as much. That way I could get a nice smooth surface, and you wouldn't see the layer lines of the plywood or the plywood wood grain on top or bottom.

Then lastly, the connection between the metal frame and the trestle top. In the original I used scrap wood as plugs because I ran out of time to think of a better solution. When in reality I had the solution the whole time because all I did was to use square tubing plugs that I already had. I used these plugs for the bottoms for feet, so the metal tubing wouldn't damage any floor. All I did was put some in the top of the frame put a dab of super glue on them and square up the top and let that dry for a little bit. I could then pull out the plugs with the top attached to them and use a screw to attach them more permanently to the top. This way if I wanted to change the tops I can unscrew them and rescue them to a new top.

Overall I am much happier with the outcome of this project. It is much cleaner and even more cohesive with my chairs, which is what I was going for. And it looks so much better in my eyes.