Arizona Woodcraft on Sonoran Living, Trash to Treasure Contest

Arizona Woodcraft on Sonoran Living, Trash to Treasure Contest – Project 1

Frank Posted on Oct 26, 2016 8:33 PM

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The first time Dwayne Ernest stepped onto a live audience stage was to show 3 examples of refurbishing projects he and his Woodcraft team built for a refurbishing contest sponsored by Sonoran Living Live and his Chandler, AZ Woodcraft Store. If you missed our first blog, entitled, Arizona Woodcraft Supports Sonoran Living Live Refurbishing Contest, you may check it out for the initial storyline by clicking on the link.

In this first project, what we thought was a coffee table turned out to be a child’s playset table, owned by Todd Volante of Queen Creek, Arizona. Todd viewed the Sonoran Living Live morning show, entered the contest and his offering was chosen to be reformed by the Woodcraft team. Dwayne said, “Todd’s kids destroyed the original top and he kept the frame for a few years.”Destined for the curb, this bare bones frame only table was requested by Todd to perhaps be reborn into a game board table. Dwayne and his Woodcraft crew ran with Todd’s idea and took it to the next level. This project was completed in a week and shown live on ABC15′s morning show segment called, Trash to Treasure: Woodcraft teaches how to refurbish wood.

Here is the video segment,

Now let’s get into how Dwayne and his crew actually changed the table. The crew, pictured below from left to right with the finished table are: Kurt Weber, Todd Volante (table owner), Sam Moore, Janet Bolyard and Dwayne Ernest (Chandler Woodcraft Franchise Owner).

In this trash to treasure themed project, the team begins by disassembling and stripping the table with the all natural Franmar Soy Gel Professional Paint Stripper. Initial game design concepts are drawn up for Backgammon,

Chess/Checker, Triangle Jump-A-Peg Solitaire, Tic-Tac-Toe, Cribbage and Chinese Checkers, all made with various veneers.

A center Baltic Birch Plywood base and support system are created for individual game compartments,

followed by routing the top outside edges, sanding with the Festool Random Orbital Sander and then reassembling.

Behlen’s Solar-Lux Cherry Dye Stain is used for the entire game table.

Janet adds a touch of decor with her artistic talents using some left over acrylic paints Woodcraft used to carry some time ago. Janet is not only proficient in woodworking and products but always finds a way to help out the store by doing illustrations and artwork.

Once the artwork is dry, Sam masks off the wood areas of the table and adds colorful flocking to the player fields.

Sam also turned Maple & Walnut Chessmen and made Backgammon chips from Ash & Birch Dowels, followed by Kurt applying Transtint Dyes to the game board areas and player pieces.

Wow, check this out, what a transition from a bare bones table to this! Simply amazing and definitely over the top!

The Game Table is complete with added Inlay Border edging on the top surface; nice touch Dwayne and crew!…

…Mark shoots with General Finishes High Gloss Polyurethane with the Apollo Sprayer for a lifetime of durability and a great finish.

Now for the interchangeable games…Triangle Jump-A-Peg Solitaire, Tic-Tac-Toe, Cribbage and Chinese Checkers to…

Backgammon & Chess boards made from Lace & Cherry woods with Red Dyed Veneer and a Curly Maple boarder. The Checkerboard was created out of Cherry & Wenge and a matching Curly Maple boarder. The inside of the game table is Red Oak with Curly Maple Veneers.

Todd and his kids will have their game night back again once more with plenty of family time around this beautiful game table that almost ended up in the trash.

Dwayne commented, “This was a great team building experience, spending about a half hour to hour per day on the project. You can only clean shelves so many times, and with plenty of down time, why not build something!” Dwayne and his team are looking forward to the next Sonoran Living Live “Trash to Treasure” entries and it will be back to the drawing board with another Woodworking Adventure!

So don’t throw it away! Look around your house, find that long overdue refurbish project that you’ve been waiting to tackle and head to the professionals at Woodcraft. We’re all here to Help YOU, Make Wood WORK!

Stay with us for the second of 5 projects to come, sometime in November!
auf Wiedersehen…Frank