Introduction: Robust Plywood Outfeed & Assembly Table

About: I'm a DIYer and creator likes to build, capture, and share my creations.

I made my first big purchase for the shop - a SawStop. Safety has become paramount for me as a hobbyist maker, so in addition to the purchase, I knew it was time to build a big assembly out feed table! Below is the full video build where I talk about why I built my table the way I did and how I went about it. Materials and tools are below as well! Hope you Enjoy!

Step 1: Understanding Your Needs

Thank you to Purebond for helping support this project! Purebond is a no-added formaldehyde product sourced and manufactured in North America and is the highest quality plywood material I have ever worked with.

Check out their website here for more information: http://purebondplywood.com/

MATERIALS

TOOLS

VIDEO/EDITING EQUIPMENT

Step 2: Design + SketchUp Model

Here is a link to the SketchUp file of the table for purchase, which is a better and more refined example of what you see in my sketched drawing. You can see how I have it broken out into components that eventually lead to the full build. Good luck!

Step 3: Breaking Down Materials

My design called for 3 sheets of plywood. Some were to remain quite large, others would be broken down via a circular saw, table saw, and miter saw. In pics 2-3, I am breaking down the (super detail and awesome hand drawn) cut list featured in Pic 1.

NOTE - This was built in 2018. After learning SketchUp in their free version a year later, I've since gone and properly modelled this for anyone who wants to download it and built it from that.

Step 4: Building Your Legs

My legs were composed of two pieces of plywood - one 3" wide, butt jointed against another piece 3.375" wide. I'm ripping them down in Pic 1, and then "gang" cutting them in pic 2 - I believe they were cut to just under 32" which would give me a final height of my table just under 34" (~height of my table saw).

In Pics 3-5, I drilled pocket holes every 8-10 inches or so, apply glue, and then use pocket hole screws to combine the two pieces together. Pic 6 shows all four legs built identically.

Step 5: Assembling the Framework

Framing this table to combine legs was relatively straight forward. Each leg was connected by a stretcher running from leg to leg, on the top and bottom, so that I'd have two shelves.

Pics 1-3 show me using glue and pocket hole screws to combine a set of legs together at the top and bottom (then repeating for the other set of legs), resulting in two sets of legs in Pic 4.

I ripped and cut a few additional strips with 45° miters on the end in Pic 5, then used glue and pocket hole screws in Pics 6-7 to attach them at the corners to add sheering strength. Lastly, in Pic 8, I attached 4 x stretchers at the bottom that would eventually bring the two sides together. You'll see what I mean in the next step.

Step 6: Pulling Together + Shelves

Pics 1-2 show me taking the two sides and combining together again using glue and pocket hole screws with the four stretchers I attached in the previous step. Pic 3 shows the result of this - I added more miters to the corners to fully strengthen the bottom piece. I used glue and finish nails in Pics 3-5 to hold down the shelf - this shelf was cut at the beginning of the build when I was breaking down my big sheets.

Then, in Pics 6-7, I repeated the entire process for the top that I had just done for the bottom, adding horizontal stretchers, as well as miter'd corners for shearing strength.

Step 7: Outfeed / Assembly Table Top Process

Next up was to finish the top. From my cut list, you can see that I planned it out so that left over, I'd have a piece that was 4' x 5' (final top), and two pieces that were 2' x 4' and 3' x 4'. The second two pieces were going to serve the purpose of a permanent bottom shelf, with the larger overall piece serving as a top shelf that could take wear and tear and be replaced if needed.

In pics 1-2, I am moving the table into place and moving the two smaller sheets into place. I then clamped one piece down (Pic 3), and removed the other piece to add glue (Pic 4). This way, everything stayed where I needed it. In Pic 5, I put the piece into place, use brad nails to hold it down (Pic 6), and then off camera, repeated that process for the other smaller piece. Then, I had a complete top.

Pic 7 then shows me moving in the single large sheet on top of that and adding finish nails (Pic 8) to keep it in place. Again, this was so I could go back and remove / replace if I ever wanted as well as add weight and strength to the top.

Step 8: Cutting Miters

Because this was going to be an out feed table, i wanted to add miters to the side touching the table saw so that I could pass jigs and other miter tracks through the table saw and onto it if needed. I made sure the table saw was square to the table (Pic 1), and then used the miter gauge that the table saw came with to figure out where to cut my dados (not shown).

I used my plunge router to find the right depth (pic 2), and then took 2-3 passes with a 1" dado bit in Pic 3 for each miter slot, resulting in two nicely cut miters in the table top (pic 4).

Step 9: All Done!

After finishing the miters, the table was done (for now). I have so many plans in mind for this down the road - additional storage, drawers, hardwood boarders, more hangers to add essentials (you can see things already being hung), adding casters for mobility.

I error'd on the side of simplicity for this build knowing that I would want to use it and see it in my space and then figure out what would be the best ways to build on it as I progress in my hobby.

If you want to know any materials, tools, or have any general questions answered, you can check out the second step or contact me via my website, thecuttingbored.com and I would be happy to do answer them.

As always, thank you for reading! I would be so grateful if you could please subscribe to my Youtube Channel for future projects.

I put out videos every few weeks.
Cheers! Zach