Monday, 2 December 2013

Outdoor Table

I have collecting (/hoarding) a lot of hardwood timber floorboards (thrown out by less enterprising individuals during council cleanup). It's time to get reclaim the lost space under my workbench and turn it into something useful - an outdoor table, in time for summer.

The plan is to build a parallel slat table. The rough layout can be seen below. The target size (wood supplies allowing) is 900x900mm, with a height of 750mm. Approximately 14 boards are required for the top surface.



The floorboards have a tongue and groove on the sides. This was ripped off using my new Freud Diablo blade. (These are worth the extra money, even if it's just for the quietness - my dust extractor was louder than the table saw). The final size is 70x19mm.


After ripping the floorboards, I had a whole pile of thin sticks. Any suggestions for reuse? Plant supports? Chopsticks?

The sharp edges were radiused with a 3mm round-over bit in a plunge router. This makes a huge difference to the feel of the wood and makes it much less likely to get a splinter / cut. 


After all the top boards were cut to length and mitered on the drop saw, the table is starting to take shape ...


Unfortunately., I was fast running out of long boards to use for the legs. The several that I had set aside were unusable due to warpage. I cut some rabbets using the table saw, and joined shorter lengths together to make a longer one. My attempt at chiseling out the grooves left by the table saw can be seen below. 


The rabbets were glued with Exterior PVA, and held with a pair of spring loaded C-clamps.




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