DIY project: Oak beam garden furniture. Part 2. garden table

for tools and materials required please see my previous post

if you only plan to build a table, you'll need five 220x100x2400 new untreated oak sleepers and one 100x100x2400 green oak beam. You can replace 220 sleepers with with six 200x100x2400 sleepers so your table will have less chunky legs.

building table took a bit longer than the bench, but this was expected - more to plane, heavier items to move around. Four days should be more than enough to build an oak garden table from scratch. I can recommend following plan:

day 1: plane all sleepers and beams
day 2: cut to size, do half lap joints, prepare for assembly.
day 3: assemble the table upside-down, sand, oil
day 4: turn the table over, plane table top, sand, oil

days three and four are relatively easy.

if you plan to keep planed oak for a few days before you can move to stage 2, make sure you store it properly. allow gaps between all beams for ventilation.

so, now some pictures from my table building exercise:

once you cut beams to size (1.8m in this case), lay them on the floor:

 remember to put the blade down before every cut without turning saw on and verify that the cut will be exactly along the line:

Now you have all sleepers for the table top, cut beams that will hold sleepers together:

Cut legs to size and put every leg to a place where you expect it to be:

now mark beams for half lap joints. Make sure you do not mix legs as they might be slightly different:

Do 50mm cuts every 1cm:

Finish half lap joint with a chisel. Not the best half lap, but good enough for outdoor furniture:

fix the beam with clamps, pre-drill two holes per beam, and drive 150mm wood screws. I must say, smoke started to come out of my drill when I was doing that. I guess because it requires a lot of driving while drill have to produce a lot of power working in a very slow mode, therefore not being able to cool itself down:

That's what happens to your hands when you work with oak. Can't wash it off, but goes away after couple days:

Now it's a good time to round the beam a bit to save your guests from hurting their knees:

Again, using clamps, attach legs to the beam using 65mm timber screws:

Ok, table assembled:

While it's upside-down, use this opportunity to oil it with pure tung oil. Remember to sand it before you oil.

Now it's time to turn it over. The table weights around 240kg so be careful. It's possible to turn it over alone, but little help would be nice - putting blocks under the table as you lift it and to look after the process.

First, get yourself two good levers. Put something soft on the other side for legs to land on. you don't want it to bang:

 Lift it a bit and put some beam cut off's under the table top. That's when it's good to have an assistant. Then lift again, and put more in. I used two bags with old cloths (you see on of them on this picture) to put it under leg side and then under legs to soften landing:

Done!

Now you can plane and sand table top:

Once sanded, it's ready to be oiled:

 Same corner as on the picture above but now oiled:

This is it. Hard work, but nothing impossible. Will sand again and apply another coat of oil after one week.

Only one more bench to build and I'm done with this project.

Any questions - feel free to ask.