Making an garden table

S

sxturbo

Joined
12 Jan 2014
Messages
4,582
Reaction score
715
Location
Essex
Country
United Kingdom
Hi all

I want to make an outside table like the one in the pic below

I'm going to use 8x2 boards.

The legs i can buy ready made online for £60.

The table costs around £500 but I can do it for a fraction of that.....

However my only issue is that I'm not sure how to stop the wood from twisting. If it will twist.

Any tips
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_2023-06-17-21-00-51-42_40deb401b9ffe8e1df2f1cc5ba480b12.jpg
    Screenshot_2023-06-17-21-00-51-42_40deb401b9ffe8e1df2f1cc5ba480b12.jpg
    547.8 KB · Views: 63
Plenty of fixings. At the end of the day, any horizontal timber surface outdoors has a finite lifetime.
 
It's under a sheltered pergoda (with roof on it) so the lifetime should be ok for a while
 
Use coach bolts instead of screws and you will be able to dismantle it and move it at a later date. Fully built picnic tables of this sort are space hogs in vans.

Put three battens across beneath the tops.end treat all your timbers as rot often starts at the ends of timbers. Use treated timbers if possible

If you must use screws, use coated decking screws or stainless steel - wood treatments are acidic and will attack ordinary steel screws
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Those legs are steel legs, but I think I'm gonna use a different style of steel leg.

Like the idea of the coach bolts,

My biggest concern is the wood twisting
 
sxturbo said:
Those legs are steel legs, but I think I'm gonna use a different style of steel leg.

Like the idea of the coach bolts,

My biggest concern is the wood twisting
Click to expand...
go and select your timber from the merchant -choose reasonably straight grained boards, without massive fundamental knots.

Avoid boards with any twist and bow in the length, dont worry about cupped boards.

In my experience boards that start out quite flat with even grain wont twist.

When fixing, I recommend you screw down so when you look at the end you see a smiley face -board cup opposite to the smiley face and its better for tables if the top surface of the boards is convex rather than concave


PS: dont try too hard to try and stop twist with fixings -if an 8 x 2 wants to twist it will, the forces involved are pretty big
 
I've not been able to get round to it for a few weeks for one reason or another, so the wood has been sat here waiting, I've laid it out on flat level surface for this time, but although the wood being perfectly straight when purchased it has now twisted, not by loads but a noticeable amount.

I'm guessing the wood has dried out further to when I collected it (it didn't seem wet or swollen)

It will be another 2 weeks till I get chance to build the table now (missus is not a happy bunny with me)

Any tips now the wood has twisted?

I'm guessing I'll just have to put it together best as can and sand the top level after
 
Did you sit the wood on battens or just straight onto a flat floor. It's best to keep air around all the timber to allow it to dry consistently. If on a flat floor it won't do this and if the floor is cold/damp it will be worse.

You could plane the top flat when constructed to take the worst of it out
 
matlob said:
Did you sit the wood on battens or just straight onto a flat floor. It's best to keep air around all the timber to allow it to dry consistently. If on a flat floor it won't do this and if the floor is cold/damp it will be worse.

You could plane the top flat when constructed to take the worst of it out
Click to expand...

It's on evenly spaced battens.

Yeah was thinking of planing the top once done, hopefully it won't look too noticeable when done...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top