Thread: Outdoor table project

I'll leave welding advice to the experts. But I'd leave a bigger gap between the slats. Maybe 10 or 12mm. 3mm is just enough for crap to get stuck in. And sticky drink spills you won't be able to wipe. Also consider that fixing the timber from the top can add a decorative effect. Imagine a neat row of countersunk stainless screw heads against the timber. I've seen it and liked it.

thanks for the input mate, i guess in ever considered fixing from the top. Yeah i guess 3mm is pretty small.

cheers again

Corgan,
Do you have enough spare tube to make a test corner?
If you don't leave a gap between the tubes, in theory it can't move to far but the end of the tube would need to be square.
Stuart

theres not enough tube to make a test corner- and ive tacked them with zero gap. maybe i'll experiment on one corner, worse comes to worst i'll cut it out and reweld it. then be set up better for the remaining 3, lol.

I didn't tack with any gaps, but the joins are kind of naturally bevelled due to the rounded corners of SHS

cheers Stu

We weld up hundreds of these frames per year and this is how I do it.

Weld the internals on the legs first, then use a mallet to make sure they are square. Then weld the outers, check for squareness again with a mallet.

Do this while the welds are still warm so the legs will still move with relative ease.

You can put the timber slats in the way you describe but I like to screw each individual slat into the frame. Use a piece of angle steel or thin tube and predrill all the holes where the slats are to go. Then screw them in from underneath, remember to predrill holes in the timber too, so that they don't crack where the screw goes in.

Corgan - looks like nice work so far. I was going to make some outdoor tables similar ot the photo (not a great photo I know!). The slats where attached to 25mm angle from underneath with stainless self tappers. The gaps between the slats were probably about 8mm and seemed pretty clean (these were in an outdoor restaurant).

Regarding squareness have you got a large enough bench that you can put the table on its side and firmly clamp the frame down square?

What thickness tube are you using?

Also are you going to add some adjustable feet?

Cheers

- Mick

thanks for the help guys,

I welded the legs on fully today. What i basically did is bounce the welds around only doing one side of one leg at a time, and i picked the side which needed pulling as the side to weld first. the legs came out nice and square and didn't have any real issues with the process.

I'd love to have a MIG for projects like these, i can imagine it would make the whole job easier start to finish, with less heat input in general and an easier time grinding the welds down to invisible at the end. The corners of my table did not come out perfectly flat because of this, i had to grind down a little too far to get a seamless finish, but that might just be something that will come with practice.

Started on the legs with a fresh box of 316L electrodes and they welded really nice, better than the last box i had. attached a pic of one of the fillets:


did all my welding today at around 70 amps, the previous box of 316L electrodes didn't seem to want to lay down a nice inclusion-free bead until cranking up to 85-90amps

pretty keen to get the slats in and look at the finished product!

that's a nice table mick, I'm planning to make some painted mild steel tables and matching benches in that style for the back patio. the current one is 38x38x3mm 316 tube

its been a fun learning experience though i'd definately call it the school of hard knocks, I only have a few welding qualifications and don't have any on the job experience fabricating things like this, so i've been learning as I go but its a good feeling.

cheers fellas

We used to do about 1000 table and bench frames a year. For this style of table/bench, we did the end assemblies as an inverted U with mitred corners, TIG welded both sides and the external corner, internal corner seam not welded to avoid pulling the weld out of square. This was done in a pair of corner clamps to ensure alignment and hold the joints square. The welds were then dressed and finished if required. The rails were then welded in, either flush with the top as per your photos, or lower down to allow a semi inset top top to finish flush with the ends as in Mick's picture. (This is where youhave to finish the internal sides of the ends before welding in the rails).

For a slatted top, the slats need to be close enough to prevent children getting their fingers into the gap, and should be at least 5mm for clearance and drainage.

We used to mount the slats to pre drilled 25 x 5 strips tack welded to the ends, with additional units spread along the rails with a max 800 spacing. If the top had a brolly hole in the middle, we generally had two strips about 50mm either side of the brolly hole.

We also did a lot in MS tube for powdercoating or chome plating. These were done in the same way except that we used MIG for welding.

Thanks for that post mate,

I've seen tables done that way (with the two end pieces done as the inverted U etc) as well as the way I did it.

It does seem like it would be quicker doing it the way you described. when you put the rails in, did you clamp the end pieces to a flat table and clamp the rails square before tacking, or did you use corner clamps again to square and level it up?

flat space is often a problem for me, the concrete slab in the pics is not perfect and the welding table is less perfect lol. i did the top square frame in two L pieces, then clamped them together with two corner clamps and tapped them level.

For my next project i'll be making a mild steel version in the same style as the one in micks photo so any advice on setting the rails square and level will be much appreciated, given that I don't have much of a setup to work with

cheers!

Did them both ways, clamped to table and squared up, then later on used corner clamps to set them up. Both ways work, corner clamps are a bit quicker to set up in production runs.

after a long period of not doing anything with this one i finally got around to staining and installing the slatted top, here is the finished project and i'm quite happy with it.

some things i'd do differently next time are spend a bit more time dressing the welds, (i ground down past flush on a few of the legs and it bugs me a bit) and the main one is get some gas and TIG the whole project instead of stick

but all in all i'm happy with it, and the next project is a 600x2000 long serving bench for the BBQ area, done in the same style.

Thanks for the tips, my next project will turn out better because of them.

cheers!

Nice work Corgan, thanks for the photos. - Mick

Looks a million bucks Corgan, great work

Stuart

Corgan...you must get stainless at the right price...the fishing rood sand spikes look great