Making A Simple Outdoor Table – Pt 2
Do you ever have one of those moments where you wonder “This ain’t right.” I’m having one of those moments right now as it’s clear that it’s taken me longer to take photos, edit/size photos and to write about this project than it did to build the table. “That ain’t right!”
But here we go with part two of this saga. For those who missed it, you might want to read part one first. At this point the legs are built/assembled and the long aprons connect pairs of legs.
Finishing the Table Base
I cut the short aprons and planed them both to smooth them and to fit them into the notches in the legs. What’s important in this step is that as you fit each end of the apron into its leg, do everything in your power to get the apron square with the leg in all directions. This will determine whether your table base is square or not.
Once you’re convinced the pieces will fit together, it’s time to glue/screw the base together. At this point it starts looking like a table.
If you’ve taken the time to study the design you can see that I have made an error. I forgot to cut the dados in the long aprons that hold the cross-pieces to which the top planks are attached. I was just glad this table wasn’t made of hard maple as cedar is easier to chop. I marked out the dados using a cutting marking gauge, cut the dado sides using a carcase saw, and carefully chiseled out the waste.
Whether you do this at this stage or before you assemble the base, you should work from both sides to avoid tearing out one side. Fit the cross-pieces to the dados and the base is complete.
Adding the Table Top
The top consists of five 1/2″ x 4″ x 36″ boards. I crosscut the boards to length using a handsaw but ripped them to width using my table saw. I laid them out on my table with 3/16″ gaps between them and centered the base (inverted) on them. I attached the top boards with screws through the base cross-pieces using a “hybrid” approach. I predrilled the holes with an electric drill, countersunk them with an eggbeater drill, and then drove the screws with a Yankee spiral push screwdriver. If you haven’t used a push screwdriver for driving screws, give one a try. It’s my favorite way to drive screws.
I used a beam compass and marked out an arc that fit each end of the table. I believe it was around 11″ radius but I just set the beam to ‘looks about right’ and used it on both ends of the table. Then, with an ancient Craftsman jig saw I rounded the table top ends. It gave me a good reason to dust off the jig saw and it was probably feeling neglected anyhow.
That’s it…fini! This would be a good project for those taking early steps into furniture making. I enjoyed the project as it came together so quickly. Though I did use an occasional power tool, mostly I used handtools and darn few of those. The simplicity of the joinery allowed me to create it in 4-5 hours and it could have been done more quickly by someone more interested in “quick” than I am. I painted it light blue to match the chairs I made. Have I mentioned how much I hate painting and how bad I am at doing it? Anyways, here is a view of the table frolicking in its native habitat.
Cheers — Larry
Is This Woodworking?
Friday night the weather here was great and I was sitting as my slothful self in one of the Adirondack chairs I’ve built recently. I was trying to enjoy a brew and trying to read Brandon Sanderson’s latest novel, Warbreaker. But it was hard. Warbreaker is a good read but all my two neurons could concentrate on was the large space in front of me – the place where a table needed to be. A place where a table I need to build needed to be. No matter how hard I tried to ignore it, there it was… open space. How would I build it? From what? Design? When?
Into the shop, looking for materials and I found two cedar 2x4s and 5, cedar 1x6s (which are actually fence planks and thus only about 5/8″ thick. They are slightly cupped so I’ll be lucky to have 1/2″ by the time I get them flattened. But this fodder seems sufficient for a smallish, 15″ high, 18″ x 36″, slatted table.
And so it was that I woke Saturday morning, anticipating the “on-the-fly” design/creation of a simple table. I was enjoying a cup of coffee and staring at the ceiling, deep in thought about how to join very 1/2″ aprons to short legs when my wife came in from the garden and said, “Can you help me?” We went outside and there, on the ground, were several long pipes and one with a pruning head on the business end. “I brought this from work and I can’t get it together.”
And so I helped her plug the pipes together. Using this device requires one to hold a relatively heavy and long pole while pulling very hard on a rope to operate the cutter. Guess who ended up doing it [picture of me with his hand up here]?
She “just” wanted me to remove some branches that were shading a portion of her garden where she wanted more sun exposure. No big deal me thinks. But then there was the tree next to it with these branches that hung in a “remove me” fashion. So I did.
Across the yard and along the driveway there are a series of trees. Each of these, must have felt ignored, as simultaneously they all started sticking branches out that they wanted removed. And so, by 1:30 in the afternoon, this is what my back yard looked like.
About two feet below this field of branches is my lawn. It’s not a great lawn but it was mine. If woodworking means cutting wood, I was sure doing it. In fact, I was using hand tools as I prefer. It was just a hand tool that gave me a couple doozy blisters in spite of my gloves.
I even used power tools for a couple thicker branches so I think this means I was doing “hybrid” woodworking.
And yes, it was only 1:30. I could have run into the shop and started that table if only I could have mustered the energy to do so. And if only my hands didn’t hurt from that pruner. If only I weren’t so darned old.
So, instead, I ate lunch and played with SketchUp, drawing a simple plan for my table. I’ll cut wood “real soon.”
Cheers — Larry
A Woodworker Goes Gardening
My wife is a gardener. I’m not. My wife likes plants. I like to cut up big plants. I’m not a mean guy but in the eyes of tree justice, it doesn’t look good for me.
And so when my wife came home and said, “I need your help in the garden tonight”, my lizard brain started scheming for a way out. Fight or flight? Fighting with my wife never works out for me. Flight in this case required an excuse. She’s had me and visions of weeding or some other horrible task skittered between my ears. “Ok… I’ll be glad to help dear”, I said, in what was a less than enthusiastic tone.
When we went outside she headed for the car and opened the hatchback. There were two aspen/poplar logs there. Each was a foot in diameter and about two feet long. I should add that they were heavy. All I could think of, though, was how fun it would be to clobber them with my froe. I guess I am evil.
But these logs were different. They’d been girdled heavily on one end and this slot and the end face were covered with a whitish, fuzzy material. My wife says, “I’ve already dug the holes but they’re too heavy for me to carry them. I need you to carry them and put them in the holes, with the mushrooms on top. ”
Of course my immediate response was “Mushrooms? Will they be mushrooms we can eat?” After all, eating plants is almost as good as creating sawdust from them. She reassured me that these will be the eating kind (she’s a mushroom-ologist) and so we planted our poplar logs in a shady corner of the garden. If ever there were a form of gardening I could get into it is this. Who’da thunk you could plant logs?
Cheers — Larry
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