Have a seat at the milk bar

I think old cream separators are a work of art.  This is an old DeLaval electric cream separator that I don't use but do love.  I use a smaller hand crank one.  I hated seeing it sit in our basement collecting dust.  We happened to have this empty space in our new addition just calling out for a bar height table to go with some bar stools we weren't using at our cabin.  The top of the cream bowl was just the right height for a table top.  It took me all of a minute to decide this would make a great table base and a conversation piece.  With a little time on my hands a lots of wood scraps I got to work.  Some friends of ours gave us some leftover sycamore tongue and groove flooring years ago and we hadn't found a use for it yet.  It was pretty easy to put together and the wood is just beautiful.  I love the grain.

 The edges needed to be finished because I didn't like how thin it looked or how the two ends showed the tongue and groove.  Our barns are full of goodies and I found some leftover trim from when the builders were doing our baseboards.  It was just the right thickness for a heavier look to the table.

Because I'm not a fine woodworker I screwed it on and then filled the holes with wood filler.  Because of this I had to stain the table.  It took away a little of the beauty of the natural wood but it still looks ok, I think.  I sealed it with a couple coats of polyurethane.

It wasn't sturdy enough sitting on just the milk bowl so I had to figure out a way to make it sit more solidly.

After much experimenting I decided to buy some 3 prong hairpin legs.  I wish I could say I made them myself but I didn't.  Maybe soon.  I'm signing up for a welding class in August.  Then James will be in lots of trouble.  I'm really happy with the legs.  I probably could have gotten away with using just 2 but I think I'll keep 4 on.  Here it is completed.  It's nice being able to put your feet on the cream separator.  I didn't damage it in any way and it could still be used to separate cream.

Some of my ideas are good and some are questionable.  Remember that floor lamp I built from random objects a while back?  This week it got a new hat.  I have a feeling this lamp will be ever-changing.

 It sits beside our very useful tom-tom side table.