I built a new outdoor dinning table this weekend, and thought I'd share the build here !
Thats the table in question above. I've built the majority of our outdoor furniture include the seating you can see above - so its not the first time I've tackled something like this. Although I've not had any woodwork lessons beyond what I had in first year of high school (thanks Mr Gregalski) !
We needed a new outdoor table as our old one simply rotted away ! We were looking to buy one and it would have cost $600 or so, and my wife suggested I have a go at building one with the spare wood we had - and hey presto !
Seeing as it was outdoors - a rough finish was good enough, which is perfect as that meets my skill level ! I took a fairly simple approach. Cut equal lengths for the top, and then braced them in 3 places, widthways, underneath. I made sure the middle one was right in the centre, as I was also going to need to add a hole for a parasol, and wanted extra thickness for that, as a parasol can add a lot of strain at the table top.
As can be seen above our outdoor seating area has an angled corner which I wanted to replicate in the table. When it comes to woodwork like this I always try to keep my angles simple - 45 degrees - that makes cutting and calculating the cuts much easier.
I do most of my cuts with a mitre saw, as it gives a great neat cut. However I had to do the corner cut by hand, and to be honest, my hand cuts are not usually that great. But I drew it out, and simply took my time on it, in order to keep it as straight as I could.
Then to help bring some finish to the top, I added a finishing edge all the way round - it also helped to give strength to the top as I secured it into each of the main top planks across the ends.
For the parasol hole I used a standard hole cutter - I think it was a 32mm from memory.
And just dropped that right through in the centre.
A lot of the wood was rough outdoor stuff, so we had to sand it quite a bit to get ride of splinters and the like - but that also brought up the finish - and I really like the different colours of the planks - quite outdoorsy-rustic looking !
The legs werent so pretty ! I just took nice solid timbers for the main legs - 3 each side. 2 x 4s I think (inches). And crossed braced them.
I was trying to keep the legs simple as above, but in the end had to add more bracing at the bottom running widthways across the table from leg to leg to help with strength.
You can see that leg bracing in the picture above. And then I simply drilled down through the top with 3 screws into each leg.
The biggest bonus was not having to buy anything at all to make this. I had all the wood, screws, tools, etc - so used what we already had and saved around $600 ! Also, its mostly outdoor treated wood so should put up with the elements quite well. We are going to let it weather for a while so that it takes on a similar colour to the other wood, and then will either oil or varnish it.
It seats about 10 (3 each side and 2 on the ends). I'll also need to build a bench for the longer side - but thats a project for another day !
There was one other item that you cant see in the pics. The parasol will move around a lot and damage the table top if it is not anchored at the bottom. So I had an old slice of a tree, and just drilled a hole through that. Its a bugger to make such a long hole and you need the right drill bit for it - but again it saves on buying a parasol stand. So another saving !
So that was my sunday. I had a lot of help from my wife and daughter for the measuring and cutting which is great. And it also weighed a ton, as its completely solid - and I'm sore all over as a result today from all the lifting and shifting. But we are really happy with the results !