Bowling Alley Bench Top

[William Parks]

I just received 11 ft of bowling alley to make into a bench top. Has anyone ever used one of these before? I can see a lot of nails on the side and I'm told there are nails on top. First, I would like to take off 3" off on each side but don't know how deep those nails go (can't seem to pull them out since they don't have any head on them). Next I would like to remove the hard poly top coating and plane the top smooth. My thoughts were to set any top nails, then using the router on my Legacy mill and the 2 3/4" planing bit taking just enough material off to make the top smooth. I'm open to ideas, suggestions, and comments.

Thanks,

Bill

[Glenn Clabo]

That's what I have on my bench which I built 20 years ago. It's full of nails (cut) that I found when I drilled holes for dogs. I didn't want to take a chance so I just sanded the top so I didn't have tools flying. It works great...but BE CAREFUL if you decide to plane or drill into it with anything you can't see broken or worn rapidly.

[Steve Jenkins]

I made three conference tables from bowling lanes and found an easy way to surface them. I laid them on the floor and called around till I found someone who sands hardwood floors. He came by and for about 100 bucks he sanded 38 ft of lanes down to bare wood and it was pretty darn flat. A few nails showed up and I just left them there. If you wanted you could rent the sander and do it yourself. If you check my website you can see them. Steve

[Dr. Zack Jennings]

Steve Jenkins Table
O.K. I quit. I went to Steve Jenkins website. His Bowling Alley Table is really neat. I like all the other stuff too. Here's a link to: Maple Wall Cabinet (http://www.stephen-jenkins.com/porthtml/DETAILS.CFM?&PID=19) And....Here's a photo of the Bowling Alley Table. He has a longer one on the same page. If you haven't checked out this site. Do it..... right now.

[Steve Jenkins]

Thanks for the compliment on my work.I edged those bowling lane tables with 12/4 maple 6" wide then black lacquered the maple and clear coated everything. Talk about heavy. The biggest one is 14' long but in two pieces to get it into the building. Steve