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Step 4Table Top
We decided to do a table top with slats. You can make any kind of table top, though! An alternate approach that might be easier would be to use tongue and groove boards or plywood.
The table top is surrounded with 1x4 inch boards, with a middle piece of the same size wood. The slats are made with 1x2 inch boards.
The ends are 29 5/8 inches long to match a plastic folding table, and the boards down the sides are 65 inches long to make the total table length 6 feet after the 3.5 inch ends are added on. The middle board is 22 5/8 inches long.
We used a pocket screw jig (hey, you have to buy at least one tool for each project! :-)) to connect the pieces and some Gorilla Glue (waterproof) to hold them. The trick with pocket screws is that the pieces have to be clamped down very tight when you drive the screws. The other way to go would be biscuit joinery, but from the very quick survey we did on the web, the pocket screws seemed to be preferred. The pocket screw jig was also less expensive than the biscuit joiner.
For the inside pieces, cutting them to the exact length was hard. We ended up cutting them just slightly too long, and sanding them down as needed. Laying them out evenly is also a bit tricky. We scrounged around the garage and found some 1/4 inch nuts that were just the right width to use as spacers when we stood them on end - we actually had 4 different widths in those nuts, so we tried a few out until we got lucky with the right width. We did look at washers, and found that they are all different widths - at least the cheap ones are.
If you don't care about the precise width of the table, you could hold off on one side, lay them out with a standard spacer, then just add the final side when you are done. That would probably be much easier. You could also use tongue and groove or something to avoid the problem altogether.
We used one pocket screw per inner piece - it just didn't seem like the 1.5 inch board width allowed for two. While we screwed them in, we used a few different clamping techniques. The big "C" clamp worked well, and for the second side we clamped a board above and below to hold the ends in the center of the table. This worked OK, but not perfectly, and the belt sander leveled the table off nicely.
Note: We used 1.25 inch drywall screws for the inner board pocket screws. It's probably better to use special pocket screws since the drywall screws have an angled head and tend to split the pocket and go in a hair too deep. We didn't have them since the home store only sold the jig, not the screws, but you can order them online, or maybe shop at better store. :-) Not having the screws in the way would be another argument for using biscuit joinery.
After the glue was dry, we used a belt sander to smooth out the top.
The table top is surrounded with 1x4 inch boards, with a middle piece of the same size wood. The slats are made with 1x2 inch boards.
The ends are 29 5/8 inches long to match a plastic folding table, and the boards down the sides are 65 inches long to make the total table length 6 feet after the 3.5 inch ends are added on. The middle board is 22 5/8 inches long.
We used a pocket screw jig (hey, you have to buy at least one tool for each project! :-)) to connect the pieces and some Gorilla Glue (waterproof) to hold them. The trick with pocket screws is that the pieces have to be clamped down very tight when you drive the screws. The other way to go would be biscuit joinery, but from the very quick survey we did on the web, the pocket screws seemed to be preferred. The pocket screw jig was also less expensive than the biscuit joiner.
For the inside pieces, cutting them to the exact length was hard. We ended up cutting them just slightly too long, and sanding them down as needed. Laying them out evenly is also a bit tricky. We scrounged around the garage and found some 1/4 inch nuts that were just the right width to use as spacers when we stood them on end - we actually had 4 different widths in those nuts, so we tried a few out until we got lucky with the right width. We did look at washers, and found that they are all different widths - at least the cheap ones are.
If you don't care about the precise width of the table, you could hold off on one side, lay them out with a standard spacer, then just add the final side when you are done. That would probably be much easier. You could also use tongue and groove or something to avoid the problem altogether.
We used one pocket screw per inner piece - it just didn't seem like the 1.5 inch board width allowed for two. While we screwed them in, we used a few different clamping techniques. The big "C" clamp worked well, and for the second side we clamped a board above and below to hold the ends in the center of the table. This worked OK, but not perfectly, and the belt sander leveled the table off nicely.
Note: We used 1.25 inch drywall screws for the inner board pocket screws. It's probably better to use special pocket screws since the drywall screws have an angled head and tend to split the pocket and go in a hair too deep. We didn't have them since the home store only sold the jig, not the screws, but you can order them online, or maybe shop at better store. :-) Not having the screws in the way would be another argument for using biscuit joinery.
After the glue was dry, we used a belt sander to smooth out the top.
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