Our plastic patio table had been blown about by the winter gales and broken, so we
needed a new table for our BBQ's. The wooden ones that we preferred and we have seen for
sale are well beyond our price range so we decided to build our own!
Our local DIY store sell Patio decking planks 2400mm x 150mm x 25mm for less than £5 each
so I bought six of these, trying to select ones with little or no cracks!
The six lengths of decking wood |
Cutting 70cm off one end |
I cut a piece 70cm long from five of the pieces ( to use as legs) and the sixth piece I
cut into four equal lengths of 60 cm. I used a low cost hard point saw which cut easily,
even though the wood was slightly damp. Taking one of the 70cm pieces I drilled three
holes about 15mm in from one end and screwed it to one of the 60 cm pieces.
Screwing the top leg to a crosspiece |
The two leg sets and the table top boards |
I screwed another 70cm piece to the other end of the 60cm piece and another 60cm piece
between the 70cm legs about two thirds of the way down. I repeated this and made two sets
of legs as shown in the photo. The orientation of the top piece and the bottom crosspiece
is at right angles to give to table strength in all directions i.e. to prevent wobble!
The table ready to be assembled |
The completed table |
I took the parts around to the patio before assembly so as not to have too great a
wieght to move! I stood the two leg sets up and laid a board across so that the leg
centres were about 30cm from the end of each board. I then drilled and screwed the boards
down starting with the middle one until they were all fixed into place. The finished table
looked quite smart and as the wood is pressure treated it shouldofbe OK to leave out in
the weather. The whole thing cost less than £30 and will enable us to entertain a few
friends when the weather gets warmer! Later I found that a couple of cross pices from the
legs to the underside of the top made things a lot more stable after the wood dried out a
bit.
