Additional Feet for Picnic Tables

These are the additional feet that I made for my flat pack plywood picnic tables: https://www.instructables.com/id/Flat-pack-for-storage-Plywood-Picnic-Table/

We had all six of our flat pack plywood picnic tables set out on a playing field at one of the summer shows that Cargo Cycles attended. Our stand was close to the main entertainment arena, and next to a fast food catering van, and as you can imagine our tables were popular with members of the public who were not interested in the Cargo Cycles stand or our products. Although the field was dry it had rained a couple of days before the show, and so the Going was good to soft."

This was bought to our attention when 4 large ladies complete with their take away food decided that one of our tables was a good place to sit and enjoy their meal while watching one of the shows in the main arena. Now these were substantial ladies; think 20 stones/280lbs/127 kgs a piece making a combined total of around 80 stones/11200lbs/500 kgs and the table sank a good 4 or 5 inches into the soil. After these ladies had finished eating their take aways and had enjoyed the entertainment, Sammy; who works for me fell over laughing at my attempts to pull the table legs from the soil. So I decided to make some large area feet and fit them to the tables to prevent this problem arising again. This decision turned out to be a wise one, as when Lois & I hosted a party at our house during the beginning of Autumn in damp conditions, none of the table legs with their new feet sank into the ground, and no damage was done to the lawn.

Up at the workshop I had plenty of 18 mm thick plywood off-cuts, and the simplest and quickest method of making these additional feet was to use the 6 inch diameter holesaw,  pillar drill, nailer/stapler, pistol drill, orbital sander, and polyurethane wood glue. The feet are each fixed to to the table with a 70mm X 10mm bolt, two x 10mm flat washers, and a 10mm wing nut.

Step 1:

Making the feet:

Step 2: Putting All the Pieces Together

You will need to cut a 20mm wide strip from some more 18 mm thick plywood, the length of each foot. the strips are 20mm wide to allow some clearence for the table leg to slip into the feet when assembling them.

Step 3: And Finally: