Picnic Table

[Cochese]

I've been asked to investigate the possibility of creating a picnic table for my MIL for Christmas. As such, I've done some rudimentary online investigation and found something that looks pretty simple.

http://members.shaw.ca/bomr/ptabl.htm

I could easily get that done by then, even with plans to lengthen it slightly and put in a third leg. In fact, it was partially why I sprung for the new miter saw early.

Question is, what should I build it out of. Standard dimensional lumber here wants to twist up in knots as soon as I make my first cut, 2x4 or 2x10 it doesn't seem to matter. They want it to last, as well.

So, materials and a finish to last 5-10 years? Going to investigate cedar pricing now, but I think it would be cost-prohibitive.

[tommyt654]

Chris, I built one for our kids identical ,actually the same plan out of pressure treated lumber and painted it with 3 coats of enamel exterior paint and they are holding up well to the inclement weater we have here in Ga. The paint also keeps any possible contamination from the PT from anything or anyone. I did leave the undersides of the table and seats with only 1 coat so they could breathe a little.I think you'll find cedar will be cost preventative unless you can find a local sawyer who has some and is willing to cut to your dimensions. Try the local CL for a local sawyer,hope this might help,Tommy

[greenacres2]

Nice, simple design. We've got a conduit frame that i took the old bench and top off of a few months ago, and the center braces were shot. I've got white oak milled to 1 1/4" for new top and benches, and was going to reassemble the conduit frame (came from the Great Grandmother of my two oldest sons, would be cool to preserve for them), but it may be toast. If i ust that design for the legs it'd be easy to complete what i started.

Seems like some sort of lateral bracing would be wise, though the designer had his for several years with no problem...so maybe not as necesssary as i'd thought.

earl

[Cochese]

I delivered this last night. I cut everything three weeks ago and assembled it yesterday. A liberal coating of weatherseal awaiting a decision on a final coat.



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[chopnhack]

It came out very nice!! A suggestion: assuming that you did use pine and fir from the looks of the photo, you may want to put some type of "feet" so that the wood is not in direct contact with the ground after you decide on the top coat. The wood is beautiful in its own right and going natural would be nice, but the chances of it looking good after two-three seasons would be nil. At first the pine will age and orange out a bit which is nice, but after that... any film finish exposed to the elements and sun will probably have crazed or started to have cracked. YMMV depending on sun exposure and intensity. Standing water on top will be an issue too. I would go with a solid or semi solid bodied stain. The pigment will protect the wood. You will have less maintenance this way. Another way would be to use a penetrating oil like some on this forum have mentioned, Penofin? But I don't know how that would work on a softwood... an interesting question.

[Black wallnut]

Great looking table!

[Cochese]

Some additional pics from my nice new camera.







Water beading nicely. Good, because I might need to scrap it for an ark.

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[thestinker]

That is a nice looking table!!

[LCHIEN]

that appears to be some exceptionally true and straight lumber!
Looking good.

[radhak]

That's a nice looking table, even the natural finish. Your MIL must count herself fortunate to have such a considerate SIL !

I have heard of suggestions to use epoxy to cover just the feet of such furniture to protect against moisture from grass/soil to eat into them.

Now tell us about the new camera! Those are some awesome pictures, particularly the last one with the water beads...

<nice blog you got - I'll go thru it all whenever I need something to read>

[Cochese]

Thanks for the kind words. This is the rare project that I didn't go through in detail on my site, because December was so hectic.

I picked out the best boards I could at one store. Only one store, because I had to rent a truck to pick up the boards for the church project at the same time. I cut them all to length and the appropriate 45º cuts around December 3. I stored them on the old (really old) miter saw stand I tried a couple of years ago - this one. The top never was perfectly flat on it, and with all the rain we've had over the past month there was still some twisting and warping that occurred. Fortunately, it didn't adversely effect construction. You can see how each of the top boards twists in roughly the same direction, and how one of the seat 2x4s curves toward the middle.

I decided against PT when I purchased the lumber because I was strongly leaning towards painting it before I presented it, but various research I did suggested that I should wait on order of several months for it to dry out to get proper adhesion. That wasn't going to happen, so I went this route. It's already heavy enough, I had to drive it down the street on two flat dollys to deliver it.

I don't honestly know if it will hold up. I wasn't expecting quite as much rain as we've gotten. For the feet, I am considering several routes to make sure they don't soak up moisture. One option was to partially sink pre-cast concrete piers into the ground and have it sit on them. Epoxy was another, along with patio stones.

The construction of this thing was ridiculously easy. You could certainly put it together from stem to stern in a day if you had your materials ready to go. It's a good thing, because I can see myself building a few more with how well it was received. Cost of all materials was around $140, I think you'd be around or slightly over $200 with PT.

As for the camera, it's a Nikon D5100. I've been interested in photography since I rode around with my mom on Realtor listing shoots (it's also how I've become a cartology geek). My dad had a studio in the 80s doing architectural and wedding work, so I suppose I have an inherited eye for it. I've had his old 35mm FM2 for ages, but the cost of film made it prohibitive to really scratch the itch.

I'm hoping this year I can finally launch The144Workshop.com and it will be woodworking and photography together.