Welcome back to make bill modify I'm Justin and today we're going to turn
this pile of lumber into a picnic table.
Okay I'm going to break all this lumber down into the parts of the picnic table.
I'm using my plans as reference during this build. These plans will be linked in
the description and at the end of the video if you're interested. I'm currently
cutting down all of the planks for the top and the seats of the bench. Now that
I'm done with the table top and seat planks I'm going to move on to the
a-frame parts. I'm going to cut the horizontal pieces that hold the table
top and the seats. My plans show that you get one small and one large out of an
8-foot piece of lumber and that's important because these plans are
designed to use ten 2" x 6" and to be as efficient as possible. Now that the
horizontal pieces of the a-frame are cut we can move on to the legs. The legs are
basically parallelograms with angles cut on the top and bottom. My plans show the
angle and the reference locations.
You can get two legs out of one 8'x2"x6" and there's a little bit
of extra wood left over with these legs so just pay attention and maybe move the
location of the legs to cut out any unwanted knots or blemishes in the
lumber. At this point if you've done everything correctly this is the last
2"x6". It's going to be for the final cleat it goes underneath the table
top boards and the two braces that keep the table from racking back and forth.
This is the piece that needs to get ripped in half to produce the two braces.
I usually get close and then flip the second board over and cut the last
little scrap off so I don't have to try to get the blade exactly in the center.
Taking a quick check on my angles to see if I'm getting them right.
I designed the angle of these to cross each other under the table that way the
two pieces that are intersecting and have a screw go through them and they
will be a little stronger for bracing. You'll see that a little later on in the
video. I'm using a quarter inch radius round over bit. This step is completely
optional. You could use a rasp to kind of ease the edges or you could do nothing.
This is something that's extra in the build and it just depends on how far you
want to go with it.
Now that all the pieces are ready to put together I'm doing the layout for the
a-frame. The plans show the distances to measure for the horizontal pieces
relative to the legs. You could do this on a flat piece of plywood and just draw
the lines. I prefer to use nails and create positive stops and it's a lot
easier when you're installing them. You don't have to think about where you're
placing the pieces. Especially if you're doing more than one picking table.
Now I can locate the horizontal pieces in the same location over and over again.
Now I'm marking the offset for where the legs are going to cross through those
horizontal sections both top and bottom and I'm going to line the legs up flush
with the top of the top horizontal piece. I'm using a speed square to make sure.
You want to run only one screw in the top portion and one in the lower
portion and do that on both legs. This allows you to adjust the a-frame before
putting the rest of the screws in. I'm doing cross measurements to see if those
two respective measurements are the same.
When they are, you can finish putting in the rest of the fasteners. Now for the
tricky part. You have to line these up and fasten the first top piece without
them falling over on you. You might want to get help with from a friend or just
lean it against something like I did here. I'm finding the offset for this on
each side and I'm going to tack one screw into it on each board. I'm also
using a square to kind of estimate whether or not those are square to the top piece.
Now you can put the second screw in and start moving forward with the rest of
the top pieces. I always check to make sure that they're
following the profile as they should. The same method could be used for
installing the seat planks. I always push the first plank all the way up against
the legs and then just make sure they have the right offset. Now it's time to
flip the table over. I always sweep the floor or find a work
surface that won't damage the top when I'm working on it because it's got to
sit on the top. You might want to get help flipping the table over. We're going
to install the cleat and the braces now. The cleat goes Center on the underside
of all the top planks and I install two screws per top plank. Now I need to mark
center on the cleat and center on the two horizontal pieces of a-frames.
These center marks are going to give us a location for the braces. I'm aligning
the first brace to one side of center and I'm using the same fasteners to run
toe screws and end screws into the brace. I'm aligning the second brace to the
other side of the line so they cross and I always add another screw going through
the two braces. There you have it. A complete picnic table that seats four.
This should only take a couple hours if you follow my instructions and plans.
I'll leave a link in the description and at the end. Thank you for watching
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