Hi folks,


I recently moved into a new Appartement and my parents are moving homes too so we needed to get rid of a lot of stuff, and I needed some new furniture.

As we went through our basement we found some old overseas suitcases, apparently from my grandmothers first husband who did a lot of traveling. (No, no watches sadly ...no sock drawer 2915 ... believe me I looked everywhere ).
I even found an old picture of him, he was running two Hotels back in the 1920's-1930's.




We can see him infornt of one of the Bed&Breakfast joints he was running at the time. The story goes that our kitchen chef had an accident with my grandmother's cabriolet while running some errands. Needles to say he wasn't very pleased while examining the damage haha.


Back to the suitcases.

I thought one of those would make an excellent couch table and be a fun Dad&Son project, so we started working on it.

I didn't just want to put the plain suitcase in front of the couch, as it isn't completely straight and not realy useful as a table that way.
I soon realized that I wouldn't be cutting into the suitcase so I decided to build a table around it.

We started with some copper piping:

(This was just the Test mule)

The copper piping wasn't welded but pressfitted using a radial press, once pressfitted correctly it becomes very stable.

We then proceeded to build the table frame:


I ordered some copper screws to mount the glass plate on to the frame. I cut them down to fit, drilled the frame and fitted some rubber pad's on top of the screw heads so the plate wouldn't move around:


A glass plate was ordered to specific measurements and the overseas suitcase fitted into the frame, finishing the project:


And here it is now in my Appartement:



Why is there so much space between the plate and the Suitcase? I'm glad you ask .
I like my favorite watch and car magazines at hand when relaxing on the couch:


And because this is a watchforum, and no post without a pic of a watch is worth something, here is my 145.022-69 straight writing .



I hope some of you enjoyed my little Dad&Son project as much as I did.

Have a nice day!

Cheers,

Max

 

This is very cool.

Very cool indeed! What a superb project and it looks great.

 

Thank you very much . Next up is going to be a lowboard for the TV in the same style. Maybe a bit more refined as I learned along the first project.

Max

 

Love it! That's great inspiration, we have a couple of trunks that we'd love to find a new use for and you've provided an exciting option thankyou!

 

I'm flattered, thank you .

And it's realy not that difficult, just make sure everything is straight and double check the measurements before bracing. Because after it's braced together there is no way of getting it apart, except for sawing through .

Max

 

Very cool ... Copper should oxidize right? Will be even cooler.

 

Thanks .

I think it will over time yes. There are ways of treating the copper so it won't oxidize but I'm not sure if the piping I bought was treated that way. The overseas suitcase has some heavily oxidized copper on it so maybe it will get the same patina over the years. As with watches, I don't mind a bit of patina .

Max

 

very cool.

 

Came out nicely.

 

Nice! Did you seal the copper or are you going to let it age?

 

Looks great, very cool idea!

Love the old pics too.

 

Thank you .
No I didn't seal it, not sure though if the copper is already sealed from the manufacturer, time will tell I guess.

Thank you . I found dozens of old pictures and advertising brochures of the Hotel, even a menue from the restaurant, apparently turtle soup was a big thing back in the day haha. It was a lot of fun going through this old stuff.

Cheers,

Max

 

I have a French copper saucepan, and it will oxidize and tarnish on it's own in a matter of weeks after it's been polished up. It doesn't take much time at all.

 

Hm, then the piping I got must have been treated already from the factory. As from the start of the project until completion almost 3 month passed and it hasn't changed a bit.

Cheers,
Max

 

OK, here's my version of the funky couch/coffee table.

About 25 years ago a friend of mine said he raced cars in 1960's. I think he mentioned Formula 2 but I'm not certain about this. He said he once had an accident where his vehicle wheel touched another car's wheel. His car flew in the air at full speed and hit a tree while still airborne, falling through the branches (there could have been storyteller's embellishment here... but who knows). He still had parts of the damaged car in his garage: a broken fiber glass "nose", Webber carburators, and the like. He also had one of the magnesium rear wheels that was involved in the said accident. He generously gave me the wheel, one that I still have, and converted it into a coffee table, sitting proudly in my living room. I attached an a few pictures of what I imagine the car might have looked like.

 

@Deafboy thats an interesting story and a very cool table!

 

I really like it! Nice work!

 

Love the table. Great idea.

 

Love it - great project and is a perfect match for that gorgeous couch. Enjoy it!

 

What did you use to brace the copper together?