Thread: WIP - Patio/outdoor dining table

Hi Juffy,

What is the saying, 'Necessity is the Mother of all invention'. You certainly got busy there. Onya.

Will be one huge improvement over the old table, plenty of table area.

Would recommend that the lower edges of the knee braces are rounded over so the people knees and wood knees knock together with no ill effect.

Keep us posted.

Cheers
Pops

Hi Juffy,
Thats quite a clever idea you came up with. No legs in the way when you sweep the deck. Keep the pics comeing as it progresses.
Regards
John

SWMBO thinks it looks like a flower...I think she has more imagination than I do.

Thanks for the comments guys. I've been thinking about it, and I think I might trim each leg by about 20mm to bring the top down a bit - it's currently sitting at about 820mm, which feels a shade high. The old round table in the background is 720mm which feels low.

Is there a standard height for tables? Obviously you can compensate to some degree with the chairs (which I intend to make later) but there's presumably an accepted norm.

BrettC made one at 770mm (after correction down from ~795mm)
BozInOz made his shaker table at 750mm...

Unfortunately searching for 'table height' gets you a lot of people talking about their routers.

Originally Posted by Pops

Would recommend that the lower edges of the knee braces are rounded over so the people knees and wood knees knock together with no ill effect.

Hmm....knee braces. I'm a bit confused as to what part you're talking about, Pops - the lower edges of the legs?

The result of day 1's jointing:



(I only get about 2 hours' machine time a day, between getting home from work and darkness - trying to not off the neighbours too much.)

Starting to look less like a spiderweb and more like a table, and damned if she ain't huge. About 10 more pieces needed for the deck, then I can start sanding....

The table is coming along nicely Juffy! I like it - will be an excellent one to sit around for Christmas

Originally Posted by Juffy

(I only get about 2 hours' machine time a day, between getting home from work and darkness - trying to not off the neighbours too much.)

I know where you are coming from mate......it's a bugger....I get home from work a bit after 5pm, then have max 1.5-2hrs to do any machine work. Even hand tools are a bit loud as I'm in a pretty dense residential area and other people are only a few metres from my workshop & I'm such a nice respectful neighbour In winter it's even worse!! Get home and before i blink it is dark Gotta say, it can get me down having to break up the woodworking so much, also sometimes makes me rush things which never ends up well.

Cheers,

Will

Hi Juffy,

Yes, spot on, the lower edges of the legs.

Looks great.

Cheers
Pops

Originally Posted by Pops

Yes, spot on, the lower edges of the legs.

Yep, they were going to be hit with a roundover bit along with every other lower edge I can reach. I don't like splinters.

I reckon there's about two afternoons' sanding in this thing - I'll probably do the exposed parts of the frame to 120 with the ROS, and the deck to 400 - which takes me through to Wednesday night for the end of the power tools. First coat of poly that night, then one Thurs morning and night, and a final one Friday morning if I'm feeling stupid. The tin says 12 hours between coats, so I'll hit it every 12 hours.

That leaves 48 hours for final drying time, with final assembly on Saturday. I might actually make this deadline...

Originally Posted by jackliveshere

I know where you are coming from mate......it's a bugger....I get home from work a bit after 5pm, then have max 1.5-2hrs to do any machine work.

I've never been a huge fan of daylight saving until this year when I started getting into woodwork in a serious way. That extra hour in the afternoons is very useful when you're trying to get something like this done.

Originally Posted by Juffy

I've never been a huge fan of daylight saving until this year when I started getting into woodwork in a serious way. That extra hour in the afternoons is very useful when you're trying to get something like this done.

Yeah never thought of daylight saving like that, well probably because there isn't any daylight saving up here in 'ol Queensland - definitely a topic of debate between north & south of Queensland! haha. An extra hour in the afternoon for woodworking......hmmmmm.....there's an idea

OK....I need some advice from...well, people who have built more than zero tables in their lives.

I've just finished the primary sanding on the deck, and I'm putzing about lining things up and cutting the pieces to length. It occurs to me that having an unmarked deck would look far better than my original plan of screwing it down to the frame.

So the question is - can I get away with gluing the deck slats down? I figure they don't need a lot of strength per se, they just needs to be held in place. If it doesn't hold, I can always get some pieces of angle and screw it from below, or give in and screw from above. Do I need to account for movement in such thin/narrow pieces?

Each piece of deck was originally 70x20, dressed down to ~68x18, and contacts the frame in 6 places, for a total contact area of ~7800sq.mm except for the two end pieces, which contact the frame all the way down.

All advice welcome.

Originally Posted by Juffy

OK....I need some advice from...well, people who have built more than zero tables in their lives.

I've just finished the primary sanding on the deck, and I'm putzing about lining things up and cutting the pieces to length. It occurs to me that having an unmarked deck would look far better than my original plan of screwing it down to the frame.

So the question is - can I get away with gluing the deck slats down? I figure they don't need a lot of strength per se, they just needs to be held in place. If it doesn't hold, I can always get some pieces of angle and screw it from below, or give in and screw from above. Do I need to account for movement in such thin/narrow pieces?

Each piece of deck was originally 70x20, dressed down to ~68x18, and contacts the frame in 6 places, for a total contact area of ~7800sq.mm except for the two end pieces, which contact the frame all the way down.

All advice welcome.

Looks great, will there be a gap between slats 2-3 mm means you don't need to worry about expansion.
I would screw 3 cleats 19x19 to the inner sides of the frame then screw up into slats use galv or stainless. Glue won't work the grain is running the wrong way.

m2cw

Mike

That's a great table Juffy! Looks like you'll have a great gathering around it.
I'd go for the screws from underneath if you don't want to see them on the top.

PS: haven't been able to catch Wally for a while but there will be a finishing course early 09

Originally Posted by m2c1Iw

Looks great, will there be a gap between slats 2-3 mm means you don't need to worry about expansion.
I would screw 3 cleats 19x19 to the inner sides of the frame then screw up into slats use galv or stainless. Glue won't work the grain is running the wrong way.

m2cw

Mike

Thanks Mike,

There'll be a gap, more like 7-8mm than 2-3, but a gap nonetheless.

By 'wrong way' I take it you mean the grain of the slat and the frame running perpendicular to each other?

Originally Posted by Marginata

PS: haven't been able to catch Wally for a while but there will be a finishing course early 09

Sign me up, I'll be there.

Originally Posted by Juffy

By 'wrong way' I take it you mean the grain of the slat and the frame running perpendicular to each other?

Yep for gluing the grain in both pieces need to run in the same direction otherwise some type of joint or mechanical fastening is required ie tenon or screw.

BTW you going to have a lazy susan for passing the beers

So something like this...? (image attached) where the two circles are screws going into the frame and deck.

Originally Posted by m2c1Iw

BTW you going to have a lazy susan for passing the beers

I reckon I could run a model railway with flatcars for beer bottles around this thing and not interfere with dinner. It's hoooge!