Outdoor Picnic Tables

I got an order for some outdoor picnic tables for a local bar in town (thanks Josh!) to get the front patio refurbished and more inviting. As usual, I was sad to see them all go- I should have made an extra and kept it around!

Here they are in my backyard, just outside the shop door. Looks like a pretty nice spot to take 5, right?

 What the stack of lumber looked like after a trip to the lumba yawd. All that kiln-dryed potential, ready to be made into something cool.

 I did all the assembly and layout right on the trailer. Made it pretty nice not to be bending over the whole time. I started top side down, but eventually flipped it all over when I realized how long the screws would have to be to put it together this way.

 The first picnic table, end of day one. Coming together nicely. Just needs a few more cuts and about 35 more screws, and assembly will be done.

 Table one done! Now that I got the kinks worked out, the next two should just fly by. Actually, the finishing touches took just as long or longer to do than assembly. I sanded all the edges, rounded all the sharp corners, and knocked off all the factory marks with a random orbit sander.

Here they are fresh off the trailer at their new home. Umbrellas should be there any day to complete the look.

Finish was still a bit sticky, but that wore off by the end of the day, as the finish cured in the sun pretty rapidly. I used 3 coats of stain sprayed on, with 3 coats of spar urethane thinned down about 5% with mineral spirits, so it would flow through the spray gun better.

Here you are! Just found this neat map on my blogger homepage. This is the demographic map of where all you people are viewing my blog from. Pretty cool!