Upright and ready to bolt!

This table is finally starting to take shape!

It took four strong buddies to get this table on a couple of carts. This thing is ridiculously heavy and I've already had a wheel fail on one of the carts. 

Once I bolted the legs in place, it was time to turn my attention to the aprons. Notice that there's no simple, yet sturdy way to attach the aprons except at the corners, where they can be bolted to each leg. 

Since there isn't any support behind the aprons....hmmm... plan B.  I clamped them in place, and considered my options. 

I decided to bolt some 2x bracing on each side, so each apron could be firmly bolted into solid wood.  

The two shorter ends were fairly easy - the carcase of the table was solid, square and plumb on each end.

But holyhell - the two longs sides were a different story. Most of the wood was rotten and/or missing in some areas. This side (shown below) was so punky rotten, you could scrape it away with your fingernail. It was so uneven that I had to pull a string to simply see where I needed to build out the underside. 

And each of the sides had to be done differently, since none of the side dimensions were the same. 

 But I managed to find some solid wood down there, and bolted the 2x material to it. 

 Luckily, none of this will show, and it sure added a lot of strength to the table's structure.  

The next challenge will be attaching the old aprons in place.  I'll need to cut a little off of them, as they need to be a little narrower. 

That's going to be a challenge, as there are a ton of old nails in each board. I will probably put an old blade in the saw, and just cut right through the nails, instead of trying to pull them out - there are just too many! Oh - and since I'm cutting on a SawStop - the nails are liable to trip the blade. So I plan on bypassing the safety feature.

Wish me luck, and stay tuned!