Simple Outdoor Dining Table

Hi Jody,

I did not screw from the top, my handyman suggested against that and I'm glad he did. I screwed in from the bottom. I did not buy a Kreg jig either. All the kreg does is helps you angle your drill precisely. I chopped a couple of little blocks and built my own jig. Just something to hold the angle consistent - but halfway thru it- I had the angle down pat and didnt need it. The Kreg is expensive, if you can afford it - go for it - it will make it easier. If you're crafty and handy you can work around it.

If I were to do it again I'd figure out how to do all that with the table upside down, perhaps building a brace of some sort - equally spacing out the top boards is challenging - i used some spacers - but after a few boards the fraction of an inch differences add up - so in the end I made lots of eyeball adjustments - but it all came out great.

So... some other things... when I was building this, I had it out on my back patio, with the plans and everything all laid out. I had a handyman at my house a few days doing other work. He offered to help me if I needed it on the patio (he was more interested in fun carpentry than hanging drywall). Anyhow - he told me one day that he was looking at the plans and disagreed with some things. For one, he suggested some corner braces, he pointed out that there was nothing to prevent twisting. So I very simply cut a couple of scrap pieces into small triangles and screwed them on the inside corners - it helped alot. The other thing I would do differently, is add a second board to each leg. The boards used for the legs are pretty thick - so there isnt much flex to the boards themselves, but since they are all fixed in one direction - another board perpendicular, (hard to describe) so the legs look like an L shaped piece of molding standing on its end.

Feel free to contact me with other questions.

Here is my finished table: http://i45.tinypic.com/1z4frf8.jpg

You only need 17 tabletop boards. These are about 3' each so you get 4 out of each 12' board. That means 4 of the boards will be cut into tabletop pieces and only one tabletop piece will come from the last 12' board. So you use the last 8' board to get one side apron and end apron and the 9' left over from the 5th 12' board to get the other side and end apron.

You can simply add a cross member (2" x 4") in between the legs at the ends of the table. For added support run another cross member the length of the table between the aforementioned supports. These could all be attached using bolts as well which would allow you to remove them for storage.

They are fastened down through the table top into the crosswise supports and apron. I assume they are countersunk. The screws would be visible, or you could use wood filler.

Visible brass screws look good in outdoor furniture.

Use a Kreg Jig for better stability and to hide those screws!

A 1x4 is typically 3/4" thick. So, once you get the screw (put in straight down/square) through the table top board you'll have another 1 1/4" that will secure the board into the support/apron.

If you aren't using a Kreg Jig, you'd be screwing from the top of the table down and not from the underside. I think that's where you might be confused, too.