Antique Lineberry Cart restoration...kinda

MotorSeven · Mar 14, 2014

I always wanted one for a coffee table. A couple of years ago I found one online & had a friend pick it up for me near Roanoke Va. He made a special trip down here to deliver it so I sent him home with some sawmill lumber for some of his projects(Thanks Ross!). A month ago I finally got around to tearing it down.

The frame is made out of Oak but the deck had been replaced with some unknown planks including and I shudder....particle board

. Here is what it looked like before I started:

The 1" stenciling was so faded I could barely make out that it came from Greensboro? NC:

The cast parts were all in good shape, so I started pulling nails...no screws were used in it's original construction............

MotorSeven · Mar 14, 2014

The corner guards and the long rods actually do most of the job of fastening the frame together:

All apart:

MotorSeven · Mar 14, 2014

I did remove the wheels and their brackets, pulled all the nails, then replaced them with 3" screws...all of them will be hidden under the hardware once re-assembled. I then wire brushed all the iron, primed and painted it flat black. The center "joist was so bowed I had to sand off about a half a inch from it's top center using a 6" disc sander.

I milled and dried some 4/4 Sassafras lumber in the solar kiln back while building the house and saved it for this project. Sassafras is a hardwood and has some spectacular grain. I used small head square drive screws to attach the deck planks each recessed in a 1/4" hole. I didn't plug the holes since they go along with the utilitarian theme of the cart. A couple coats of Waterlox(Tung oil based) on the lumber before hardware, and another after the painted hardware was on to protect the paint.

Here are the final pic's:

MotorSeven · Mar 14, 2014

The two small wheels on the end originally do not touch the ground unless the cart is tipped forward or rearward. So I dropped them down about a inch & a half then drilled a hole through the shaft and put a set screw through the shaft into the wood. The cart is now stable(a stable table:laughing

and can't tip at all. Also, the original design allows the wheels to spin 360 to help steer the cart, so I turned them in to keep from stumping my fat toe on them in the dark.

A few of the carriage bolts were stripped/rusted and had to be cut off, so they were replaced with new ones. Total cost of the table plus parts was under $200. I like the way it came out, especially since it is most likely 60-80 years old.

Brad_Blazer · Mar 14, 2014

Nice work! That thing is cool.

Bill 55 · Mar 14, 2014

Another beautiful job. I have come to expect nothing less from you. The sassafras is beautiful, we rarely find one big enough to make lumber out of in my area, but when you do run across one it is usually exceptional stuff. A buddy of mine has made and sold some high dollar quilt racks and gun cabinets out of sassafras. Most of the stuff on my farm is smaller and gets chunked up and used in the smoker. My neighbor always uses sassafras in the smokehouse when we butcher down there. I just stuffed and smoked 70 lbs of exceptional sausage the last week of Feb.