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

larry@woodnbits.com

Making A Simple Outdoor Table – Pt 1

When you make Adirondack chairs for your family the darndest thing happens.  The family sits in them.  Quickly the fact that there is no table in front of them becomes apparent, as I commented here and here.

Quick and Simple Design

The requirements for this small 15″ high, 18″ x 36″ table are small and I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on it as my vanity cabinets are getting bored collecting dust in my shop and they want me to finish them.   Before we discuss the build, let’s talk quickie joinery, Larry-style.

I planned on making the legs by screwing two 2×4 pieces together and so the first “design” question was how to attach aprons to them.  Obviously the simple way is to screw them directly to the outside of the legs but I thought I could do better than that.  Here was my first idea:

This creates a surprisingly clean design.  But, thinking of how low this table would be to the ground, and about the amount of overhanging I was planning for the top, I decided to simplify this approach a bit more and came up with:

Cutting the rabbet in one side and the slot in the other is a piece of cake using handsaws and so I settled on this as the design for the base:

Trying to match the Adirondack chairs, I built the top by attaching slats to the cross-pieces in the base.  I decided that rounding the ends would improve the looks so I planned for that as well.  If you’re interested, you can download a SketchUp drawing here.

Creating the Legs

I had two cedar 2x4s and half a dozen 1×6 fence planks and that’s what I used for this little table.  The fence planks were only around 1/2″ thick.  The first thing I did was to cut 8, 15″ long pieces of 2×4 for the legs.  I sort of matched them up for grain but since I was planning on painting this hardly mattered.  What did matter, however, was that I treated them as pairs, keeping track of the faces that would come together to form the legs.  You need to end up with a set of 4 legs with the slots pointing in the proper orientation so burn a neuron or three as you give some thought to how they have to be oriented.

Yes, I could have used a dado head to cut the rabbets.  But in less time than it would take to install the dado head in my table saw I used a carcase saw and a tenon saw to cut the rabbets, thus avoiding the time required to get the dado head back on the shelf.

Cutting the notches in the other leg halves was nearly as quick.  I just made the two long cuts with the tenon saw and then chopped out the waste using a chisel.  Unfortunately, I got involved in the work and forgot to take a photo of the chisel work.

I cut the aprons at this point as I wanted to attach the long aprons before screwing the leg pieces together.  What’s important here is ensuring that the structure is square.

With this accomplished it’s a simple matter to line up the two leg halves and screw them together.  I use #8, 2″ screws for this.

This post is getting long and I’ve got some more photos to show of the process so I will put them in a separate post in the next day or so.  The “hard” work of this project is over, however.

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com