Patio table 2.0

Here it is in all its glory. Just in time for Memorial Day!

Just imagine it later in the day with plates and garbage all over it.

Honestly, we probably could have gotten another summer out of the old table. It was hard enough to tear down and get rid of that it absolutely had enough left in the tank to survive a little longer. But the more I thought about living with the warping joints, and useless covered up planter troughs the table just had to go. It's in a better place now, and despite the stress of a new job and school, we have a much nicer table I'm very happy with right now.

What I'm not happy about is our current weather; We might have gotten lucky over Memorial Day but as soon as it was time to finish the top and get it together things turned to shit. It spent the past few days covered with half the umbrella stand in:

So sad.

Despite the shitty weather I love how it came out. I hope the finish holds up and lasts a long time. It's a little more aesthetically pleasing and definitely a little lighter so we'll see how the summer rain and fall winds treat it. Fingers crossed.

The good news is I already have a few more projects lined up. I wanted to redo the couch table, but the wife wants a cabinet for the garbage cans so that takes priority. And that's an outdoor pizza oven hiding under the table in that first shot; that's just dying for a little brick-top table to put it on. Either way, once I find more time I'm happy to have the rest of my summer projects lined up.

Oh joy, time to pick a finish.

Feeling good about how the legs had come together, I figured it was time to pick a finish and get the top installed. Unfortunately, I got delayed when I forgot to charge the drill's battery and had to wait to get the umbrella hole done before staining. Whoops.

Nothing like not being able to fix something you've worked so hard on.

With the hole done, I put in a support strut directly beneath it. This table looks nicer but it's also a lot lighter, and even the old 2x8 table broke when high winds pulled the umbrella out. I thought some support would help, we'll have to wait and see. I screwed it in across the table, and carved out a little cover to hide the screws.

That's a tight fit with the umbrella pole! It works though.

In terms of finish, I decided to start with a semi-transparent deck stain. I liked the cedar as it is and didn't want to change it too much. But I also wanted something low maintenance capable of standing up to the elements, hence semi-transparent cedar toned deck stain. It looked good, and there's plenty left over to try out on the fence posts later this summer. Good times.

First look, before & after. That'll work. 

Out of habit, I put a coat of poly on just to give it a little extra protection. With that on, I got some help to carry it out (even thought I carried it by myself at one point), and popped it on the table to finish drying. Of course, it proceeded to rain the rest of the week, so I could have timed that better. Whoops.

Once I get it attached and put the umbrella in it might be time to throw a dinner. But until then I'll just hope the rest of this week's weather takes it easy on it.

You need legs to have a table

Alright, time to get back to work.

I might hem and haw about the type of finish to use, but I can worry about that once the legs are built. So I might as well get cracking on putting something together.

This table is a few inches longer and wider than the old one, so even if I had been able to get the old legs off in one piece they might not have worked. Fortunately I think I have a better plan for this one, plus keeping them separate will make it a lot easier to move them once they're ready.

These are nice, way nicer than the old ones. I don't think I'll even need finish.

I went with 7 8-foot lengths of cedar toned pressure treated 2x4's; the finish is so nice I think I'm going to just leave them as they are, or at least not stain them before I seal them. 7 of them only cost about $40, which will bring the total cost to around $100 if things go well. Math is not always my strong point though; I was worried about my numbers here and almost got an extra board but this was actually perfect to within a few feet. Here's to not messing up.

Trimmed four lengths to 29.5 inches, then four more a little shorter with room for the aprons to fit on.

Glued them all at once and left them there all day. 

These will hold the two long apron supports for the table, I just had to decide how far apart to put them. Turns out 27 inches would put the aprons right in the middle of the two outside boards, so that was my spacing.

Consider this proof of concept at least. 

Even dry fit this put me in a happy place. 

I was a bit stressed at this point as I had to figure out how to get the mower out and stored since the grass was getting pretty long. Eventually I moved the legs out just to have more space, and was pleased with how well things were staying together just balancing there. And I could do it in pieces and still move everything myself, so that was a bonus.

It sounds so simple in four sentences but this was more than a weekend's-plus worth of time working when I could. It didn't help that we also bought 15 bags of mulch and I spent some time putting that out. Ah, home ownership. It put me in the mood to be outside at least, so hopefully I can get this done in the near future.

A better breadboard this time around

April has turned out to be a busy month, but I was still able to squeeze some work on the table in. I'm optimistic that it'll actually be together sometime in May, granted I can get the time off I'm planning on taking...

I'm doing this in part b/c as much as I loved how the first table turned out, it didn't stay that shape for long. Two summers out in the weather have gotten a lot of boards warping until they're practically un-usable. I'm hoping knowing what I'm doing a little more will help with that kind of thing this time around.

Slow going at this point.

But I like where we're at by the end. 

So I'm trying to use breadboard for more than just appearance's sake this time, routing out an actual joint and installing a board across the table planks to help let things breath but also hold them still. Fingers crossed.

A lap joint is probably too simple here but it doesn't look terrible.

Got both on, I think we might have something here. 

Just seeing it up on the sawhorses I see a lot of potential; I'm super excited to see this all together. I was hoping to re-use the legs from the old table but it looks like that's not going to happen, which means I have a little more to build. But again, I know a little more this time and I'm hoping I can build something really great this time.

Looking at it now, I'm shocked at how differently things are going. The first time around I worked practically every day, spending hours after working out at night planning things out and trying to make progress. Part of the thrill was seeing how things slowly came together even though I didn't really know what I was doing. This time I know a little more, and I'm working way more sporadically, but it's coming together much quicker. It's funny how much difference a little knowledge can make.

And this is why you clean

Cleaning has gone really well the past couple of days. On top of getting the dust and scrap together I managed to stash the decorations, and even put a new bike hook up in the event I get my act together and bike commute. I split the legs for sawhorses too, giving me two that can be taken apart and stored out of the way when not in use to keep things clean. I can't even finish straightening up without making more work for myself. 

But things are finally looking good; tools are stored properly, the workbench has been vac'd, scraps have been chopped, the floor swept, and the decorations hidden away. And why was this so important? Two new items: putting together the boy's birthday bike, and getting a new table top together. Good times.

Is it overkill to put a kids bike on the stand to get it all set? Maybe, but if you've got the tools then why not make things easier on yourself. Even with the right set up this bike was still a pain to get acceptable. Did I feel silly buying a cheap box bike for the boy's first real bike? A little bit, yes. 

But the good news I have a nice clean garage to get all messy with this new table top I'm all set to throw together. And I can't wait! I only have to find the actual time to put it together between work, kids, classes, and everything else going on. 

Just laying the boards out looks like it has so much potential my hands start wondering where the tools are. This is going to be fun!

I found it's final form!

Well, that came together rather nicely.

For not having a single straight line on the cooler and looking pretty crooked half-way through, this thing rounded into shape pretty nicely.

One big help: even though it's the same area to cover, I realized it would be easier to put the bottom shelf supports on the side and cover it with long boards versus supports on the wide side and many more short boards. Saved me some time and it was easy to cheat that last board to look straighter when compared to the bottom trim. At least I realized it while I was still working on it vs after things had been sealed and left outside for a while. And that's why it's usually better to have a plan.

That trim saved me a lot of headache too. Much cleaner.

The many short boards approach was alright for the lid, although it did leave some oddly short openings to cover to keep everything symmetrical. It looks better completely covered though vs leaving evenly spaced openings.

That did make the lid a lot heavier, but it still balances to stay open.

There's still lots of sanding to do, and seal, but if I can get this out to the porch next week there's lots of other stuff I can poly on my first Friday off. Sounds like a good way to spend the day to me.

Okay, now don't rain on it!

Building a patio table for our new house was such a positive experience that it basically inspired this entire blog and just about everything else I’ve done around the house this year. Most of it has gone pretty well, and I have the table to thank for that. So imagine how sad I felt to see how much abuse that table has taken during a hot, wet, first summer in the suburbs.

Seeing this wounded me on a spiritual level

Basically all the rain we’ve had got the poly to start peeling and no one wants to sit down and get flakes of polyurethane all over them. Thankfully, with the office closed for Columbus Day I had some time to fix things up before the weather turned too much. Now I just have to hope it doesn’t rain for the next few days. 

I was optimistic that sanding everything down and re-sealing would be enough to keep the table usable for at least one more summer. The first few passes with the sander had me a little dubious though.

Woof. This did not have me feeling any better.

Once the polyurethane came out things started to turn around though. I managed to get two coats on through the course of the afternoon while working on a bunch of other stuff around the house, and thankfully it didn’t end up raining afterwards. Fingers crossed I have good weather and a few minutes a day to sneak a few more coats on this week. 

First coat. Okay, that looks much better.

I’m hoping that picking up a cover will give the table enough added protection this winter that things stay in decent shape. I love this table but if we get one more summer out of it that might be enough. There are a lot things I would do differently if I was building one today, and with a hand me down cooler ready for the stand treatment, I think building a plain table with nicer wood might yield better results. Those are questions for next summer though, as I spend the fall trying to make sure the table we have now makes it there.  

Off to a good start

So, amidst all the excitement of selling, moving, buying, closing, moving (it was complicated) of all the things I wanted to do in a new house the first was build a patio table. A big shiny one, that you could sit and drink around for hours on summer nights with plenty of your favorite drink cold and within reach. Why, with two kids who keep the wife and me up all hours of the night and too tired to drink anything if we ever had the chance, this project got stuck in the top slot was beyond me. But as the clouds parted and it started to look like we'd actually close on a new house in mid-December of '15, I started making plans...

And a scarce 4 months later, my brother-in-law and I were carrying this beast out of the garage and up the steps of our deck. And thank god too, b/c it was one of three projects I had in there at the time and I needed the space.

Ta da!

Although it was at the top of my list this wasn't quite the first thing I ended up doing. There was the moving in and getting settled, finding a new home for our mounds and mounds of boxes, all the good stuff that goes with moving in less then 10 days before Christmas. By March, things were actually together to the point where I had room in a garage to work and I thought I was ready. "Thought." Most of it came together in a day with additional time spent slowly getting the sanding done, then staining, then sealing, to the point where I finally finished it just before we had a bunch of people over for the boy's birthday party.

First day, March 7th, w/the beginning of a console table too

I say "thought I was ready" b/c it looks good (it looks great) now, but there were some questionable moments in getting it finished. This seems like a good time to mention I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to wood working, power tools, building or fabrication of any sort. I saw this project and my brain just wouldn't let go until I finished. My wife, bless her, was more than happy to let me work on this with the agreement that if she was not pleased with the final result it was not going on the deck and we'd be purchasing our table. There were a few moments starting out where the likelihood of that happening seemed pretty high. But eventually, when I got the legs on and flipped the whole thing over, I knew we were in good shape.

March 20th, legs on and about to get trimmed for a straight edge.

The legs were actually one thing that changed; initially I planned on using 4x4 timbers but they were so bad looking at Home Depot I ended up just using 2x4s glued and kregged together. I don't think it hurt things structurally but it definitely tells you the thing was DIY.

One thing that surprised me was this project's ability to spiral into more and more purchases to get it done. Of course, I had to pick up some basics to get started. A kreg jig (love it), circular saw, clamps; basic tools that help you get any job done. And I justified it by saying I was saving hundreds by building a set that would cost us a ton with $100 of lumber. But then there was sanding. And stain. And sealing. And each of those was a purchase/design decision with the potential to derail the whole thing. Initially all I wanted was to see if I could do it. By the time I finished I wanted things as close to the picture in my head as possible.

April 9th, 4 coats of seal and ready to move.

So now it's on the deck, with a matching bench (also from the shop) and new chairs, and we ate outside last weekend and it was great. We need an umbrella, b/c it was hot as balls on an amazing 80 degree Sunday, and I can't imagine every having enough people around it to warrant 60 inches of planters in the middle to fill with ice, but for a first DIY project this one hit it pretty much out of the park.