Nursing Table From a Single Board of Pine (One Board Challenge)

I needed a new nursing table for my second child but did'nt want to sacrifice any space in my bathroom and the pre-existing tables that are designed to work on top of bathtubs did'nt match my height, design or use. So what to do then? Design and build it your self! Follow along on how I made my own, custom built nursing table from scratch!

I started to find the largest board I could possibly fit in my car, and that was a pine board with the dimensions of 2350 mm x 600 mm x 18 mm. In hindsight I should have used oak or another hard wood due to bending issues later in the project, but that is a lesson for me for another time ;)

I had a CNC at my disposal that could cut a maximum of 3000 x 3000 mm, but it is also possible to use a jigzaw to do the same.

I used the CNC to learn how to set up and use Fusion 360 to create path for the CNC and how to manufacture a "compex" piece like this.

The whole project uses the IKEA Vadra nursing mat as a base for the portion of the table where the child is supposed to lay (https://www.ikea.com/no/no/p/vaedra-stellematte-80226137/).

Other supplies that you would need is:

• Small wood screws
• Woodglue
• Sanding paper (or belt/orbital sander, but handsanding would also work)
• A lot of patiens....

I designed this nursing table to maximize my space in the bathroom. I measured the space on top of the bathtub and started to scetch out different designs. I really like the vertical design elements so I tried different designs on that to see what was more "good looking". I also wanted to have a storage space beneath the table and a space to store diepers and cloths on top of the table (also to use the full lenght of the bathtub).

My design is attached as a Fusion 360 file (instructables did'nt want to accept 3MF, but comment if you want that!) with the toolpaths used in this project.

After I was satisfied with the design, I used the manufacture function in Fusion 360 and the arrange function. In the arrange function you input the size of the board you are using (mine was 2350 x 600 mm) and all the bodies/components that you want to arrange on the board. When you click ok, Fusion 360 arranges all your selected bodies/components on top of the provided board. It is absolutely neccessary to check EVERY piece that is laid on top of the board, especially because some of the bodies/components might be the wrong way (you want the 18 mm side to be the right way in order to not make to small/big cuts).

When the arrange and order is done, then it is time to make som paths for the CNC!

I used for the most the 2D contour function because that is a basic vertical cut. I used two passes on all the parts where the first path cut down to 2 mm above the underside of the board in order to keep the vacuum that my CNC uses to hold down the board while cutting. I also grouped just some of the parts in order to abort the cutting if something went wrong.

I used one function called parallel to cut the sloping sides, but in hindsight, I should have just cut that with a miter saw instead...

Now you have finished the toolpaths and it is time for some cutting!

As stated before, it is not necessary to have access to a CNC. It is possible to cut it with a jigzaw, but then I recomend taking your time measuring (and double measure!) and scething out all the parts before cutting.

After the CNC is finished with cutting all the pieces, I used a belt saw to cut some of the pieces of that wasnt cut all the way throug (the board started to warp a little due to low vacuum after many of the parts where cut). After every part was cut (it was a lot of parts! Around 70!) I used a belt sander to clean up all the edges and smooth all the pieces out.

I tried to be meticulously in not sanding too much of the wood due to incosistent thickness and shapes of each part.

This might be the most difficult part of the whole build! I first intended to use wood plugs and glue to attach all the pieces to eachother, but ended up screwing everything together. I screwed everything from the top because on the top surface I intended to use a nursing mat from IKEA and that would cover-up all exposed screws.

All the little, tiny pieces that is intended to be alongside the long vertical ones was glued together with wood glue. All screw holes was pre-drilled to not crack any of the pieces (due to just 18-20 mm width of each piece).

As I stated in the intro, I used pine to make the nursing table. This was kinda mistake, because where I stored the pine board prior to cutting it with the CNC (around 1 month before cutting it), it was super dry and a constant temperature. When I assembled it, I did it in my garage where the temperature was around 5-6 degrees Celcius and the humidity was extremely fluctuant (due to being winter here in Bergen, Norway and the weather changing from snowing to raining every day). This resulted in the pine board bending and I had to "rescue" it by attaching 3 sturdy planks in order to make it straight again :P This also made my wife more safe that the table was going to hold both my 2 1/2 year old son and the newborn baby, so it was a win-win.

After everything was screwed together and the wood glue had dried up (give the glue at least 1 day of hardening. I gave it 3 days) it is time to do some more sanding. I used 80 grit for the initial sanding to trim away some larger edges and then went on to 120 grit to smooth everything out.

At this stage the sanding is just to make everything flush and sand away some of the mistakes that you have made along the way (extra wood glue that has poped out, tiny misalignment of some of the parts etc). I had some slightly bigger gaps that I used sawdust from the sanding and wood glue to fix these gaps. I waited a day and sanded it down again until it was relatively flush. When you feel that everything lines up and that every part is smooth you are almost done!

Wow! Nearly done!

The last step is to paint the nursing table in order to get aproval from the boss (aka the wife) to take it inside!

I used a white floorpaint and painted two strokes on the whole table in order to get a clean and good looking table. I'm not that familiar with sanding in between layers, so I just painted both layers on top of one another, but waited 1 full day in between.

When the paint is dry it is time to set the table up on its place and have a blast! For me this was perfect and I am really pleased of how the result is!

Hope that you got some ideas and tricks from this tutorial, and if there is anything that you wonder about, feel free to ask me in the comments below!

Chers!