How to Build an 8 Person Picnic Table | WOOD Magazine

this is a really easy project done with just a few tools so a couple of drills and a circular saw and a jigsaw [Music] and a router okay guys let's go build this this is a great way to sit eight people in your yard it's a picnic table with a lot of class it looks really big but it's not hard to build at all in fact the tools that you see here along with a table saw and a miter saw are all you'll need to build this and though it looks large and complicated taken in individual sections it's a snap to do we use standard store-bought lumber this is cedar but treated pine would work just as well to build this project so once all this material has been prepped it's time to break this project down into more manageable bites so we've broken it down into four sub-assemblies the first of which is the seat assembly and that's it here so we start with the bench rail you'll see that here and it runs the length the bench rail has an arch in the bottom of it and we'll be cutting that with a fairing stick it also has a couple of notches that allow part of the assembly to log into that next we have a couple of legs like this there's a small notch in the top of the legs we'll show you how to cut that and then lastly we've got a couple of cleats on the end here and those little cleats have a radius on them and that's a two inch radius and the bench seat tops will go on at the very end of this project because we need that joint open for putting all the rest of these pieces together as you complete that bench assembly you'll really be doing a lot of the same types of cuts throughout the rest of the project the radiuses may change and the notches may be a little bit wider or shorter but all those basic steps are all in the rest of the project and once you've done the seat assembly you've mastered them all these are the four pieces necessary to make the bench assembly and these are the seat rails i'll start at the miter saw by cutting two 15 degree angles on either side it will give me an overall length of 36 inches now the next operation here is to measure five inches in from each side so we'll do that here find the center of this opening which is 26 so that's 13 and from this mark an inch now i've used the material to put a small mark behind each one of my outside lines and then finally just the tip of a nail to provide a pivot point and now putting my fairing strip in here i can bend this back until i'm just touching that one inch line so now that that line is there i can cut this out with a band saw or with a jigsaw and finally use this as a template to make that same mark on the last three pieces now that the arches are cut and sanded i've joined all four pieces because i want to cut a center notch four and a half inches wide and one inch deep in this stack and it's easier to do when they're all together so by measuring to the middle of this and a four and a half inch notch like so i can do my layout i like using a circular saw but occasionally it can be a little bit tough trying to get that blade to line up with exactly the spot that you want to cut here's a jig that works with that saw that will make this one of the most versatile tools you have let me show you how to make it i'm going to start with a piece of half inch mdf this is 12 inches by 15 inches and i've made a cleat like this that will go on one edge and i need to glue that down but i want this cleat even with the back edge of the jig once the glue sets it's time for the second part now to finish this jig i'm just going to turn it over take my circular saw and i'm going to move it to where the blade is just about a quarter of an inch from the edge over here and i'm going to fix my stop there i'll glue that down and lastly we use the saw to cut off that extra piece now what you've got is a jig specifically made for this saw this cut edge will always let you know exactly where the blade is going to cut and because it's used just for that saw i will mark this with the number so i know that this saw goes with this jig this is a great way to add versatility to your circular saw so this is the cut line of my saw and i'll lay that right up against the edge of my stock and make my first cut [Music] now i established my inside and outside edges now it's time to just make multiple passes [Music] so and finally losing a chisel bevel side up now clean up all the edges so now that this groove has been evened out and smooth with the chisel it's a perfect joint it's an easy way to do these grooves and using that jig makes it even better table and leg risers need to have the bottoms cut at 15 degrees so i've set the miter gauge to that i'll cut from this corner to the upper corner and then rotate my piece and do exactly the same thing here that will give me complementary miters on both ends there will be 40 cuts total again cutting both the corners on all pieces now the next operation on this seat riser is to remove this little section of material here and the reason we're doing this is that the cleat is ultimately going to sit on that spot this holds the seat together so i've used the cleat itself to give me the depth of this cut that's my pencil line here and again using the same cleat i'm going to lay that on my pencil line and move it until it's even with the top edge and then finally put my next pencil mark here this is the part that gets removed this part will be cut with a circular saw and this one with the jigsaw and i'll mark all 16 of these legs i clamp four pieces together that makes one full seat set and gives me a better stable base for the saw now i'm lowering the blade until it just touches the horizontal line and using a framing square to help guide the saw blade past the vertical line i'll make one cut through all four pieces and as always i'll do a little test cut just close to the line and then move my square to make sure that the blade is directly on the line and this is the seat cleat now there are eight of these and we're providing a little decorative radius on the edges of each one of these so to do that it's a two inch radius if you don't have a compass you can just use a tape measure like this and it's got a small little cut out at the end and if you hook that over the corner it holds pretty well and then by just putting your pencil in the two inch mark use that to mark your radius that will give you a one inch lip at this end which adds a little decorative element this then will be cut with a jigsaw and hand sanded or if you have a drum sander you can use that so be doing the same thing on this one side and that side on all eight of these i would suggest because you're going to be doing those rather than use this each time use it one time only on a piece of quarter inch tempered hardboard again make your two inch radius so that now you can lay out the radius on this side like so and you can flip it over and do the radius on this side this is just scrap material it'll come in handy and it certainly simplifies putting all those radiuses on there now it's time to take this to the jigsaw here's a tip on cleaning up a jigsaw and edge we've used a template like this to approximate where the radius is going to go and then we can take this and cut with a jigsaw but the jigsaw leaves some pretty tough lines on the side and those can either be taken off with a hand sander or a drum sander if you have one but as long as you've got the pattern there's no reason why you can't use some double stick tape and use a router to actually clean that off instead and that's what i want to do a couple of things before you use a router if i'm routing here i'm always routing left to right and if i start on this edge and finish up here there'll be no chip out but if i tried routing this way and again left to right and starting on this edge as that router bit that's turning this way tries to exit here it'll most likely blow it out so the idea is whenever you're routing just set up your pattern so that the end of that router bit pass is made against an edge that won't chip this particular router bit is called a bottom bearing so in this case i'll take my pattern and double stick tape it to the bottom edge of here this bearing will ride on this edge and anything that extends beyond that pattern will be cleaned off this will be cleaned smoothly and nicely and when you've got a lot of them do this is the way to go now that all the pieces are cut and sanded it's time to assemble each of the four bench assemblies this is the what it'll look like when it's done this is our bench rail these are the risers on both sides and these are the cleats and they're put together with screws some bolts and also some construction adhesive here's how you do it so i'll begin by taking the seat rail and marking three quarters of an inch in from either side so once i've got them even at all edges i can now attach them with two screws diagonally one from the other and i'll do that on the opposite side as well i'll turn it over and now i can see the actual lines that i put on which i couldn't have seen before that allows a much quicker placement of those uprights on the second side and again screws diagonally in each corner from there to secure that whole system i've drilled two holes on each side three-eighths of an inch in diameter through and through to keep the bolts from turning i've added torque washers those are anti-turn so as the bolt seats into those they will not allow that bolt to turn on the opposite side i have a washer a lock washer and a nut and lastly i'm adding the two cleats one on each side they are spaced three and a half inches in from the end of each one i put a small pencil line as a reference so that i can put the screws directly into it i put a little bit of construction adhesive behind each one of these before setting them with the screws that completes the assembly on this piece after the adhesive dries i'll use a scraper to clean up any excess squeeze out the next assembly is the lower frame assembly that includes the bench beam on the back and that runs from one end to the other and this is a short bench beam on the bench beams they have a radius on each end that's a four inch radius that's here and they also have notches on each corner where they will ultimately sit into the seat beams lastly we have a small block on either side here that will allow for an umbrella frame so that's the completed lower frame assembly and that's next since the bench beams and the short bench beams both have notches cut at the same depth i've done them both together i've taken two of the short bench beams and put them next to the regular bench beam and did one side and then reverse that for the other side so all the cuts are the same and then finally used a test block just to make sure the fit is nice and clean we're now going to cut the curves on each end of these and the radius here is four inches instead of the two that we did previously so i made a template the same way scribe that line with a pencil on here and then wound up cutting it with a jigsaw and again i've cut this nice and smooth leave it if it's not a little hand sanding will finish it up now it's time to assemble two short beams from four pieces i've cut a short inch and a half by inch and a half block that's going to be attached to one notch on one of the two pieces using construction adhesive and screws then i add a temporary spacer to the opposite end and attach the second piece on the other side i've just added some adhesive and clamped the two together prior to clamping i make sure that i put a straight edge on the opposite side to make sure that those ends line up perfectly because they will ultimately be attached to the big beams so i'm going to use the same process to attach those spacer blocks to one side of the bench beam ultimately those bench beams will be connected but it's only after the short beams have been attached center the two short beam assemblies on the outside faces of the long beams and attach them with screws then you can remove the temporary spacers from the short beam assemblies use a square to extend the location of the gap between the short beams we'll use that mark to locate and attach additional spacers between the long beams [Music] the center gap that this forms holds the bottom of the patio umbrella and finally i've joined the two beams together the two big half sections with a little bit of adhesive and a few screws [Music] the next part to make are the risers this is one of them they'll be four they are inserted between the beams and they're notched at the top ultimately they will allow the upper frame assembly to sit on those this is how you make those the risers get notches that connect it to the upper assembly i'll form those using the same method i used with the bench legs in this case the notch is two and a quarter inches deep so i've cut a scrap down to use as a pattern once again i gang the pieces together to extend my marks set my blade angle and depth make the first cut with my circular saw and finish each notch with a jigsaw now to place these accurately i've measured 17 and 5 8 from the end and put a mark here and once it's in place like this and it's flat now it's bolted through and through once i do this one then i'll do the next three all in a row and we'll have all the risers in place the next assembly is the upper frame assembly and that consists of table beams which is this one that runs front to back here and then the small table beams on this side each one of these at the end have an arch cut in them we've added blocks in here for the umbrella and ultimately these will be notched but not until after we finish the next phase of this operation these are the pieces for the upper table assembly this is the table beam and these are the short table beams we'll be doing the same process as we did for the lower in that we'll be putting four inch radiuses in the corners of all of these they'll then be joined together much like we did before to cut the radiuses for all these pieces and there'll be eight of them we're using the same template we did before that's a four inch radius i cut it with a jigsaw and the cut was pretty smooth but if you had to sand it the hand sander will work perfectly using the same process as we did with the lower section i'm just going to use a couple spacers on the short beams and then screw those to the long beam and i'll do that with both halves once i'm done with that i'll use the two spacer blocks that are four umbrellas and put the two long beams together creating the total assembly again much like we did the lower assembly now you're beginning to see the enormity of this it's really beginning to grow so with a friend we place the top of the assembly here this this upper assembly onto the risers that we're standing on all four sides and i wanted to make sure as i work my way around that they stuck out the same distance from here so i measured from this edge all the way around all four sides to make sure those were even and then secondly to make sure that the height from here to here was even all the way around so once i've done that on all four sides i'm pretty comfortable that this top assembly is parallel with the bottom one so once i've done that to hold this all together temporarily i'm going to put one screw in each of these four arms that will hold us together for the next step which is cutting all the notches all the way around the top so the last sub-assembly are these top cleats and braces the cleats each have a radius on each side they're two inch radiuses they are set into notches on the top and once secured then the braces are cut to size to fit the top braces are cut oversized so that they can be cut to size for the final fit now i'll gang clamp the four pieces to be cut two of the braces and two of the cleats the cleats are cut oversized but in both of these i measure to the middle and then measure out two and a quarter from each side so that i have an overall notch of four and a half inches that notch will be cut three quarters of an inch deep this makes it easy to cut both at the same time now it's time to cut the notches in the upper assembly and we'll do that much like we did the lower there is a slight difference in depth so i'm lowering the circular saw to two and a quarter inches i wasn't able to use the sled because the combination of the sled's thickness and the circular saw would not allow me to cut to full depth so i went back to using a framing square as a guide so i've cut the notches on all four sides and used a chisel to smooth them out now we're ready to move on so i'm placing the notched cleat into the upper assembly after first adding some adhesive to the joint this is pressed in flush and tight and a screw placed through the face of that into the riser and before i leave this side i'll take the temporary screw out and put the bolt in its place and then finally after tightening the bolt remove the clamp i'll do exactly the same thing on the opposite side i'm now placing the braces where they'll join the short table beams once they're in place i can mark the overall length next to the top cleats attach it to the cleats on the outside finally i put a screw to attach that to the riser and then remove the temporary screw and put in the five inch bolt once that's tightened i'll do exactly the same on the other side and that completes the upper assembly well with the help of a couple of friends while they held the table up i placed the seat sections underneath each one of the notches so the notches and these beams match the notches in the seat table once these are together they will provide an exceptionally strong system and all i've got left is to put the table top on and finally the seat top on now that all the table boards have been sanded it's time to place them and the most important one is the center one it will establish the relationship of all the rest of those boards and the square of this entire tabletop so a little caution here the first thing is i measured from either end and put a mark in the center and i know because these beams are four and a half inches apart if i measure from that center mark two and a quarter in each direction i get my four and a half and i transferred those to the face and because i know that my board is six and a half inches wide and the center of my entire layout here is right here i should be able to measure three and a quarter inches from this line to make it easy if i measure all the way from the outside so fixed edge i know that i'm at five and a half so i'll make a mark at five and a half on each one of these spots so that when my piece is laid back on and i follow the marks that i've made like so this distance is 25 and a quarter and this is as well so it means that this center section this first board is centered and lastly because we're thinking about putting an umbrella in i know that the umbrella is in the middle of these two so if i measure directly here and again the width of this board is six and a half so if i measure three and a quarter from here to here that is the location of an inch and a half forstner bit that to provide the hole that allows an umbrella to go from here through here and through the lower one there's a lot of stress on this board it's square is important to me and also potential stresses many umbrella so that one will have construction adhesive once these are set and the screws are in i'll put each board in line with these all the way to the end process takes a little while but the most important one is the first one now that the center board is in and screwed down it's time to plan for the next four so i'll do each one butted up against the previous one i've used a straight edge to mark the position of the screws and measure in from each edge about an inch and a quarter to put those screws so they look like they're lined up the only issue is the last board when you get to it remember that the edges are in a bit so the center of that board gets two screws on each one of the runners and only one on either end these will all be trimmed in a radius later once i finish that side now it's time to get the other boards on the opposite side and i'll do exactly the same thing on that side now that all the table top boards have been fastened it's time to put the radius on each one of these edges this has a nice little bow on the end it's measured four inches in from each edge so i've done that here and then finally in the center a half inch away there so we're using what's called a fairing stick much like we did before and i'm going to take a couple little nails and put them right at the joint here i'm going to set them back just about a quarter of an inch [Music] like so and by putting them against those nails and just pulling back this way the center of that half inch makes for the radius that we're doing all the way around so let me mark this first one this will be our cut line i'll mark all four sides the same way before cutting with a jigsaw once those are cut i can hand sand away any blade marks on the edge then i'll route a round over on the edge to soften the corner a little so it's finally time to make the bench seat tops now the radius is here done with a fairing strip the edges cut with a jigsaw and finally the round over operations are all done at the workbench after those are completed we square up these bench tops and attach them to the seat now what ties this whole bench together are the cleats and the beams and these seats when screwed to those pull that whole bench together making a rock solid connection so this is the layout for one of the four seat sections i've taken the two seat parts and put them together and made sure that they fit on these ends and then we'll start the marking and this is a little confusing the first mark comes back at two inches from either side and i put a pencil mark there and at this edge it's two and three quarters in from the ends and i'm going to connect those lines those dots with a line and you'll see them here in pencil and now the front of this has a gentle arch to it and this side has an inside arch to it and again we're going to use a fairing stick so i've driven two nails in here about an inch forward that line and it'll come right to the outside edge here so by putting the fairing stick on here and pulling it beyond that edge my line now starts here and goes to this end and does the same thing on the other so we'll put our line here and here the inside is this side is an inside curve and again with my nails in position this is two and a quarter inches here so i'm going to bend that so now i can see my two and a quarter mark here again holding that in place that's my mark there now having gotten all of those spots in these will all be cut with a jigsaw each corner of this is actually a two and a half inch radius so to do that we're kind of cheating here and taking a five inch sanding disc and if i just use it to touch the lines either side here i can literally lay out that radius like so and i'll do the same thing here and again just using that to touch the lines on both the side and the bottom same cut here i'm just repeating this on the opposite end and then lastly here they'll begin be cut with a jigsaw and when i'm done i'll use a 3 8 radius bit to route a nice soft edge here and do the same on the bottom side these then can be used for templates if you want to make your seats two three and four or you can mark each individual one like this and cut them one at a time so this is our completed two-part seat and i've kind of temporarily laid them out here so that you can see what i'm doing when we originally laid out the arches we put a center line and that's important so what i want to do is draw a center line across the face of this that will match the first half of that seat top so this beam extends a half inch further than these cleats and the offset from the back of these to the front is six and a half inches so i'll make a mark at six and a half inches on either side and then again because these sit back half an inch this mark is six inches on either side the center of this block is the center of this entire assembly so to put this piece on all i need to do is find my center line and then line that up with the center of this block and even with the mark at six inches here on both sides and six and a half here that gives me just enough overhang on the outside edge and now when i move this together i can extend these marks so that i know where i'm screwing with these now that i have these in position i'll be putting two screws through each section here and again i'm going to come in about an inch and a quarter or so from the inside edge and i'm going to come in about two inches from the outside edge because the end of that cleat and the ends of these beams are pretty close and i don't want to split them so come in about two inches here now i'll repeat the same process to install the other three seat tops after all the screws are set i'll take a sander and clean off all the registration pencil marks on both the seat tops and the table top congratulations you should be proud of yourself you completed a beautiful project this picnic table couldn't be nicer now it's time to find a nice sunny spot in the yard put up the umbrella and invite a few friends over to congratulate you on your workspan ship nice job [Music] foreign

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Keywords: WOOD, WOOD magazine, woodworking, how to, how to make, building, how to build, diy, picnic table, how to build a picnic table, easy picnic table, diy picnic table, crafts, wood shop, diy wood projects, wood projects, woodworking projects, summer, spring, outdoor picnic table, building a picnic table, 8 seat picnic table, project, home project, outdoors, patio, backyard, patio picnic table, backyard picnic table, picnic table project

Id: 1ZwtIyrv8zc

Length: 38min 5sec (2285 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 25 2022