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Making a table, on a balcony.

6K views 10 replies 3 participants last post by  shaunmza 
#1 ·
Getting started, the plan and the wood.



I enjoy making stuff.

I think it is the creative process of having something in your mind, then taking action and bit by bit, seeing it come to life.

As a teenager I shied away from wood, as it was to me a very unforgiving medium, if you don't cut very straight it's there for you to see, every time you look at it.
Steel on the other hand, was more forgiving, as I could weld up holes. I used a bead of welding to cover up my inability to cut in and straight more than once!

A few years ago I found wood again, watching videos on YouTube, about people making all sorts of things from old pallets. Wood, for free! I was hooked ;)

My first haul was loaded into the boot / trunk of our car at the time, the long suffering Ford Ikon



But I digress, it was then that I learnt a greater appreciation for wood, even the low quality stuff that other people throw away!

Why make a table?

In short because I can!

Seriously though, I used to tinker outside a lot when we lived in South Africa, it calmed me and allowed me to create something real, physical, that I could see, touch, smell…

Living in an apartment here in Portugal I feel stifled, we had to buy all our furniture. NEW!
So we bought the minimum we needed. Hoping to meet our future needs with used items.

Unfortunately no such luck, the used stuff for sale is no cheaper than new goods from IKEA.

My wife let me know a few weeks back, that we should look at getting our eldest a table, where he can do his homework / drawing.

BUY … ANOTHER … TABLE?!? No. Something had to be done!

I would make it!
But where, no garage, no workshop…

We do have a balcony, awww yeah!!

A plan was hatched, measurements taken, it would fit! It's gong to be a squeeze, but I can definitely build the table in the space we have on the balcony.

The plan



Generally I just grab tools and wood and start cutting, gluing and hammering.

Seeing as I had few tool and no wood, only time, I decided to try and draw my idea.

It's going to be a very simple table, rustic looking, with a shelf at the top as well (this was my wife's idea)

I decided to buy lengths of wood, rectangular section for the legs and base of the table and planks for the table top.
I would cut the planks down to length, then glue them together, to for a single piece for the top.

Welcome to the workshop!

The space I have to work in is, limited. But it is outside, meaning I can swing longish lengths around without hitting too much, if I am careful.



This is the wood I purchased, I would have loved to repurpose pallets or anything else, but transport is an issue as I only have a small car. That being said, I could but this wood BECAUSE I own a car
 
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#2 ·
Nice work Shaun,

I know of Oporto home of Port If I lived there no work would be done but a lot of fun would be had!

Back to the table what is the timber you are using?

I see you would like to use Pallet timber, I guess I should let you see the curved door I made from pallet timber.

 

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#3 ·
That door looks amazing!

Yeah I collected a fair amount of pallet wood when I lived in South Africa, only to get rid of it all when we moved here to Portugal :(

I think it is a mixture of wood, as it has no markings, and nothing was specified on the price in the store. In fact it may even have said its a random mix of wood types.

I basically got the cheapest wood I could. Took some time picking out the least warped lengths.

There is more to Porto than the wine! Having said that, there are many many places where you can do wine tasting and have a tour. It's a really beautiful place.
 
#4 ·
End of day 1, planks cut to length.

I ended up having to go back and buy another length of the the planks and the wood for the legs.



No workbench, so we make do with what we have! 2 stools support the wood as I measure, mark and get ready to saw.



Rough idea of how it will look, I bought the cheapest of the cheap planks, and will be using a hand plane to knock down the edges a bit until they match up.



Another photo, because I can!

This was in day 1, my back was shouting at me like crazy! With no bench, much of the measuring and work is done bending over.
 
#6 ·
Gluing the top, with some makeshift clamps

One of the ways I justified making a table to my wife was that I could make it cheaper! Or is that how I convinced myself… meh, whatever.

Now I can count, knowing full well that I would have to buy tools JUST to be able to cut the wood, it's obvious that if I took all the money spent on tools, that it is going to be a verrry expensive table!

So let's ignore money spent on tools! Problem solved

Or so you would think, thing is I am quite tight fisted and hate spending money when I think there is an alternate solution.

Hold me tight
That brings me to one of the things you can never have too much of…
Clamps!

I did not have any, at all. In my wisdom I decided to glue up my own table top, so I needed clamps. Luckily I found some super low price 150mm clamps at the hardware store. Hmmm I am thinking I should go and get some more, you can never have too many!

Those clamps would help me hold the boards relatively level while the glue dried, but I still needed to clamp the board together across the breadth of the boards.

The dimensions (roughly) of the table top 850mm wide by 600mm deep. The longest clamps I found were 600mm, so I could probably make them work in a pinch, but at nearly €30 a clamp I was floored. There is simply NO way I am paying that much for something, that I still need to hack about with!

A `couple` of `rods`
My brain started working, as I recovered from the shock of thinking a plan hatched!

Inside every hardware store, the stand in wait, tucked away, out of direct sight, readying themselves for the day they will prove useful…

Threaded rods!

I have mis-used and abused these a few times, they are some of the handiest things I have come across, 'coupled' with coupling nuts, they are awesome and you can exert a fair amount of force without fear os tripping a nut's threads.



Here they are in action, I cut some blocks and drilled 10mm holes through for the rods. At 1 meter in length I had plenty thread left to play with.
Best of all the threaded rods were less than € 1 each! Including nut's and washers I got a away with paying less than €10.



A classic example of using what is at hand, the next table I make will be even easier! But I do need more clamps.
These worked, but I do think the finish would have been much better with more clamping force.



It worked! This picture is from two days later, I glued and clamped the pieces on a Saturday, then took it all off on the following Monday.
It all stuck together, and felt nice and solid.

It's all about that base

Drunk on my victory, I pushed on and started work on the part that will form the base of the table.

I am hoping to avoid having ant screw heads visible on the table, so had to make a plan with holding the parts together while the glue dried.



Playing with the threaded rod again, I realised that my makeshift clamps could be pressed into use yet again. I did a trial run without glue, measuring diagonally from one corner o another, checking if the frame stayed square as I tightened the nuts.



Fortunately it did, slue was applied, and the rods and wooden blocks were hurriedly applied to the frame and tightened up.
A few quick checks that it all looked fairly square and I put the frame aside to dry.

The wait for the glue to dry begun again.

What's missing from this post is images of the process I followed to plane the edges of the board to fit. That's because I never took any!

The last thing missing, is a show of appreciation to my understanding (and long suffering!) wife, who has given me support on this and many other hair brained schemes. I once changed a motorcycles valves in out living room, with no garage, we had a bike parked next to the TV for a week or so as I sorted out parts!
 
#7 ·
Cutting the table top to size



Progress is being made! Here you see the results of an afternoons work, the table top has been fixed to the base I made, then planed with a hand plane, and cut down to the size I wanted, plus, I cut notches out for the rear legs of the table.

Let's take a look how ended here.



No photo's of me attaching the top to the base, or using the hand plane to knock down edges, sorry about that.
At this point I have attached the top to the base, roughly planed the top and am getting ready to cut the board to width. Thankfully I have a nice large ruler, which I clamped to the board to prevent it from moving.



Instead of drawing a line with a pencil, I use a knife, to scribe a line into the wood. This wood is very soft so it scribes easily. To get a nice straight line, scribe very softly at first, then progressively harder as you go.

This allows the knife to cut a groove bit by bit. It helps so that you do not wander with the knife point and damage the wood.



At this point I had cut one side down to size, I cut it as wide as I could, so the last board was untouched. I cleaned up the edge by running the hand plane over the side.

Scribing a line also reduces the tear out from sawing, I sawed on the outside of the line so that any tear out would be limited to the waste piece.



At this point I was really excited to see how it would look, so I grabbed the clamps, and mocked up the table.
The top piece is going to have more depth, and for a built in rack, for books etc.

So, as I tend to do, a lot of work was not photographed. I spent a lot of time planing down the boards as my gluing up procedure was not the best.
Regardless, I was very happy at this point with the progress I had made.
 
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