Patio Table / Dining Table

• INTRO

While browsing the internet I saw a dining table that caught my attention but the price tag was a whopping R11000 (South African Rand) around $740. For the life of me, I could not see how this price can be justified.

So I decided to take on this project, I might add that this was the very first time I have ever attempted anything like this. The results were satisfying and only ended up costing me just over R3000 or $200.

First things first, I needed to decide what size table I wanted.

I measured the area where I wanted to place the table, and as I already had a 6 seater table in that area I could see that there was enough room for a 8 seater table. I decided that the table would be 2 meters in length and 1 meter wide.

The planning had now begun, down to the local hardware store I went. I decided the PAR pine would do the trick (PAR - plained all round)

I used the following materials:

(12x) 1.8m x 97mm x 32mm PAR pine wood

(4x) 1.8m x 44mm x 22mm PAR pine wood

6m x Rectangular Tube – 76mm x 38mm – 1.6mm thick– Mild Steel

wood glue

clear epoxy varnish

wood filler

sand paper

Tools used:

- Battery drill

- Circular saw

- Buscuit jointer

- Clamps

- Sander

- Trim router

Using a biscuit jointer, make the slots for the biscuits and glue. The wood then needs to be clamped together and left to dry for a couple hours. I chose to do this in stages and left it to dry overnight.

As I only had two clamps long enough to get across the width of the table, I quickly used some threaded bar I had laying around and made make shift clamps.

A total of 10 planks were laminated or jointed together. Each plank was 97mm wide and 1.8 meters in length. This puts the table top at 970mm wide and 1.8 meters in length, just short of my expected 1 meter by 2 meter design I had in mind.

But I had a plan...

After a bit of research I found out about bread boards. This is when you join the wood with a staight edge on the long ends. Maybe my explanation is not the best but you can see in the pictures the effect that I was going for and where I was going to get my extra length to reach my 2 meters.

Again I did not have clamps long enough to go the full length of the table, threaded rod to the rescue.

In the end this did not work, the ends started to bow and I had to cut off the ends and make another plan.

So plan B was to put a border around the sides. Using the 1.8m x 44mm x 22mm PAR pine wood I had now gone to purchase. I made a border around the edge ot the table mitering the corners for a nice finish.

I chose a nice size rectangular tubing as I did not want the table to look flimsy.

Basically cut the legs to the size that I wanted, welded them up and send them off to a shop up the road to get powder coated. Originally I was going to spray paint them myself but it worked out cheaper to get them powder coated and they will be a lot harder wearing..

Then came the sanding, followed by more sanding. Wood filler to hide the little mistakes and then some more sanding. I suggest a well ventilated area and a understanding wife as there is going to be dust everywhere.

Once I was happy with the finish it was time to dust off and varnish.

The pine was such a light beach sand color I did not want to lose that, so I went with a clear epoxy varnish. It was sugested to use marine grade as it would harden and protect the soft pine.

So for a first time big build, I am happy with the outcome.

Making something out of nothing is very rewarding. Looking forward to my next project.