Outdoor table / chair build

[TomH]

Evening all,

I'm starting the process to build a 1m x 2m outdoor table, inbuilt bench and a few chairs. Done a bit of researching and there's some interesting designs available (mainly in teak), so went to a few shops and got some ideas.

The quest for timber has been interesting. I need decking timber but also need matching timber for the table & chair legs. I found that the decking suppliers can mostly supply a variety of timbers but getting thicker timber for the legs is much more limited.

I got in contact with Greg Ward who passed me on to Mal at Boutique Timbers. I happened to be up at Port Macquarie a month or so ago and so thanks to Mal I have 5 slabs of blue gum. They require a fair bit of work to get them up to scratch, as they all have cracks in them, but are ok for my purpose. Looks good - quite a deep red colour with some fiddleback.

I'd been looking for a thicknesser for a few months and also on the same weekend picked a delta 12.5" from a forum member. Not having a bandsaw, I also splashed out on a 235mm Makita circular saw as I was certain by 184mm Makita would struggle and also lacks the depth if I need to run with a saw guide.

Last weekend I ripped on of the big slabs and put them through the thicknesser to make the table legs & rails. I then used my $3 router table to rout the mortices for the legs, then used my SCMS to trench the tenons. Cleaned tenons with HNT gordon shoulder plane. Made a lot of saw dust. All new tools worked very well. The 2000W Makita sliced through this stuff so easily. Had a bit of a feeding problem with the thicknesser, then read up on the forum about waxing the table and cleaning the rollers and worked much better. Due to not having a jointer some of the timber is not perfectly square but the critical bits can be fixed with the hand plane.

The rails are made out of 60 x 45. Probably needed to be slighly thicker, as they bow when I sit on the edge. When I was in Jati lookig at tables, I noticed that they run a piece of angle along the rail to add a bit more strength. I might do this with a bit of aluminium - any thoughts on this idea? The table will be sitting under a patio so is not directly exposed to the weather.

Here's a few pics to get the project started. I'll post more as I get through.

Cheers,

Tom

[derekh]

Interesting series of pics and looking forward to see more pics as it progresses.

cheers

[TomH]

I've done a fair bit since my last post.

1: Make reinforcing bits for the corners and screw in.
2: Trial fit up and plane table to make even.
3: Cut and biscuit join table slats. In order to provide adequate support for the decking planks I added two intermediate supports parallel with the short side of the table, biscuit joined into the edge. So simply, the long decking pieces are supported at four points (two each end and two in middle).
4: I've also (and probably unneccesarily) reinforced the rails by adding some 50 x 12 x 3mm aluminium angle. I got this idea when looking at the Jati tables. Without them, the table rails deflected 5mm when I sat on them. With them installed this reduced the deflection to 2mm. With the table top on then this has been reduced further. This is also then the link between the table top and frame.

I needed some longer clamps in order to glue the tables. I have some existing t-style clamps which are around 1.2m long, but obviously the table is longer so needed something better. The most cost effective option ended up being the Groz bar end clamps at Carbatec ($30 / set), with a bit of 3mm x 25 x 50mm gal RHS from ebay. $50 for 8m. So I now have 2 x 2.5m long clamps and also 2 x 1.5m clamps if I swap the ends.

I've got a few more posts with the deck and chairs to go tonight...


Cheers,

Tom

[TomH]

Next step was to build the bench seat. My aim is to have 5 stand alone chairs + a bench seat the length of our outdoor area.

I first made the frame for the bench from blue gum using M&T joints. Glued using titebond III then a couple of coats of outdoor estapol as these will be hidden. Took a fair bit of stuffing around to get the heights level as the wall and the ground are undulating.

Dynabolted into the brick wall. I also put 3mm plastic feet on the bottom so they won't get damp, and also packed the frame up from the bricks using 5mm window packers to allow drainage.

I then installed the ironbark decking. I originally thought this might be able to be done using by cordless but found it struggled. So I ended by pre-drilling the holes, then bought a Makita corded impact drill for $100 from the big B. Worked a treat.

Next step is to built the deck on the other side.

Cheers,

Tom

[Avery]

Fabulous!

I really like your router table.

The finished product looks a million dollars, except for the legs. They look a little skinny to me. I would be really happy to have that table on my patio.

[TomH]

Ok here comes the next part, which is creating a small elevated deck to hide the crappy and uneven concrete.

Sounds fairly simple, but alas, getting the levels correct for the deck was a real pain in the ***.

I got 90 x 45 rough sawn hardwood, put it through the thickesser then ripped it to suit the slope of the deck. Ended up tapering from 60mm down to 45mm at the end. Packed up with window packers and also used some larger hardwood packers for the more raised bits. Sounds simple but this took a long long time. Dynabolted into the concrete a bricks. Found concrete in some areas was 30mm thin then hollow underneath, so stuffed around modifying dynabolts to suit. Also managed to split a few edges of the bricks. Note for next time to avoid drilling dynabolts near edges of bricks - they tend to fracture.

Once this was done cut the back. The cut the slats. Left slats too long on purpose so then set the circular saw to the depth of the slats and ran it down the edge using a guide to get the perfect edge.

Screwed it all in and looks pretty good, and evidenced by the model in the photo. Over the last week I've also coated it using Feast Watson natural decking oil, and it looks sensational. I'll post some more photos when I remember.

Cheers,

Tom

[TomH]

So on to the chairs. Five to be precise. 18 M&T joints per chair so should be fun. Chair again are made from the bluegum, with slats of ironbark.

First cut the chair back legs using SCMS to get the 15 deg angle on the back rest, then cut out the remainder of the leg using a circular saw and jigsaw. Then cut the remaining pieces to length and marked off the various joints. For the 1st chair used the drill press but the for the next ones I've built a jig for the router table.

One joints are done pre-assemble then cut the slats and biscuit join.

Gluing them up was not fun. Too many joints to get aligned all at same time, but managed it in the end. As you can see needed a fair few clamps to get it all lined up.

Happy with the end result for the prototype chair, so now I am working my way through the remaining four.

Cheers,

Tom

[TomH]

Last post on this lot - I was reminded of this when I was posting a reply in another thread. Here's 1/2 of the timber once thicknessed. This goes to show that with a $300 2nd hand thicknesser and $250 circular saw you can get pretty good looking boards. And the good thing is that I still haven't changed the blades.

Sure I can only take 0.5mm per cut (1/3 - 1/2 a turn of the adjustment mechanism) but it's good enough for me until I can afford a bigger thicknesser in the distant future.

It does make a fair bit of noise.... I have also used it inside the garage, and it doesn't produce a whole lot of dust, mainly lots and lots of shavings. Still, I think a dusty would be a worthwhile purchase...

Cheers,

Tom

[johnredl]

Nice work Tom. Thanks for posting it. I need to make pretty much the same table & chairs, hopefully it comes up 1/2 as nice as urs.

[artme]

Great work on the whole project!! It has come up a treat!!!

[TomH]

Evening all,

Here's the photo of the finished deck + table. In the process of gluing up the chairs at the moment. Hopefully should be done in a couple of weeks!

Cheers,

Tom

[TomH]

Evening all,

Through a concerted effort of oiling this week the outdoor build is now finished. Christened today with some friends round, and performed very well. Next project is to build another bed to make a bunk bed. Then entertainment unit. Then hall stand. The list goes on!!

Cheers,

Tom

[NCArcher]

Very nicely done.