Burl Slab Night Stand

My guest room needed a bed side table and lamp so guests wouldn't need to get out of bed to turn off the light and have a convenient place to put a glass of water and charge their phone etc.

I went around the estate looking for things I could use to build said table and light stand.

what I found was an old burl slab I had purchased a few years ago while out yard selling, a nice old wall mount lamp fixture and a switch in my box of electrical supplies, a scrap of MDO plywood leftover from sign I painted.

the first thing I did was to cut a slot with my circular saw. the slot turned out to be a tight fit so I left it alone, I had planned on screwing and gluing but no need as the fit was tight enough that I needed to hammer it in place.

if things should change in the future I can of course do the gluing and screwing at a later date.

the next step was to locate and set the light fixture. I drilled a hole through the slab then used my 4" angle grinder with a 36 grit flap wheel to level out the burl surface enough to create a somewhat flat area.

I flipped the slab over and using my angle grinder again cut some grooves to run wires and the switch.

for the switch I started with the drill and bore out some of the wood to make a pocket big enough for the switch, then used a die grinder with steel burs to carve out the pocket to a suitable depth and capacity for the switch.

I mounted the switch just under the table area so that it is hidden from view for the most part

I used wire nuts to wire everything together and then had to carve out spaces for the wire nuts in the back of the slab.

after wiring I used aluminum tape to hold everything in place, I could have easily used plumbers tape and screws to do the job but would have needed to relieve the areas as the slab is flush mounted to the wall.

while I just screwed it to the wall into a stud, I could have also made up a french cleat and used that as well.

I did use a scrap of 3/4 by 3/4 wood as a shelf to hold the weight at the bottom of the slab out of sight.