Introduction: Plumb a Garden Table With Running Water!

By www.facebook.com/lonnie.sikes
About: Retired, doing art work now. Great. Have the time and the money to spend doing what I want to do.

I wanted a table to use as a cleaning station for my concrete projects, but that would double in usage for other things: Cleaning vegetables from the garden, filling water containers, cleaning garden tools, potting plants, etc. Since it is an outside table, I could use recycled fence boards for most of the parts, and for the top I used two old 1 x 12inch pine boards I found. All I had to purchase was the faucet, the aerator, the hose splitter and a few pvc pieces.

Step 1: Gather Materials and Tools to Use

I like the concept of reusing or recycling materials, so it was an easy choice to get my boards from my stash of used fence boards. I've used 50 year old cedar boards, and even though they are greyed on the outside, when cut, they look like they just came from the mill! The usual wood working tools are used, table saw, drills, cut off saw, screwdrivers, etc. It's nice to have lots of power tools, but they are not required to make simple wood working projects.

For the plumbing, I purchased a new faucet and aerator. For the pvc, I had most of that on hand, but did need to buy two hose bibb to pvc pipe pieces, and the hose splitter so that the table could be hooked up to my water source, but also allow me to use a hose for the garden and other plants I have.

Step 2: Cut Boards to Size

I wanted my table to be about 28 inches high. A little lower than standard bench height because I wanted to be able to use a basin on top to clean tools and vegetables in. So first step was to rip some fence boards to 2.5 inches. I cut enough boards so that I had 9 pieces for the legs. Legs are made by screwing 3 pieces together and leaving a 2.5 in gap at the top of each leg (in the center) to accomodate the two cross pieces shown. Two pieces are cut to serve as supports for the lower shelf. The shelf is made of fence boards cut to fit the space in between the legs.

Step 3: Start Assembly

1, Make legs: 3 pieces each, 2.5 x 28in. except center piece of leg which is 2.5 inches shorter, or 25.5 inches.
2. Insert 5.5in. x 18in. cross members at end of table, on the top of the legs.
3. Attach long top members, 2.5 x 35.5in., to top of the legs...these support the table top itself.
4. Screw on bottom cross members (2.5 x 18) to support bottom shelf.
5. Cut fence boards for bottom shelf. (37.5in.) One board may be ripped to insure fitting correctly. My board was 3inches wide.
6. Cut one piece of 2 x 4 to fit across bottom shelf members, in the center of the shelf. Attach to bottom of boards to help support loads placed on the shelf.
7. For the top, I used two pieces of 1 x 12 pine that I had obtained at a garage sale. Any piece of plywood, or even the fence boards themselves could be used. The length of these two pieces is 40 inches.

Step 4: Layout and Assemble the Plumbing Parts

Looking at the picture depicting this step, you can see that this can be varied to fit your situation, and I just rigged it up to fit my table. I drilled holes in two pieces of pine of 3/4inches.   This allows the 1/2 inch PVC to fit almost perfectly into the holes, and provide a way to attach the faucet assembly to the work bench.  Using the necessary pvc cement (blue), the parts are assembeled, the faucet attached at the working end, and a hose is cut to length and attached to the other end.  This hose can be varied, of course, and I can see when I might want to run a 50 foot hose to the table and use the table at the other end of the house where the shop is located. So it is very flexible in it's use.

Step 5: Make Good Use of the Table!

This has been an ideal solution to several nagging problems.  Filling the water jugs to be used when I don't want to drag the hose all over creation....this is a 2 or 3 time daily ritual, as plants dry out and it's better to use the jug of water. I was always having to bend over to do this, and that is not good.  I do a lot of cement work making planters, stepping stones, etc., and again, this saves the back breaking positions I would have to assume to wash and clean my tools.  And, it can be used for potting plants of course, so that is an additional benefit.