Picnic Table Plans
Your old picnic table is on its last legs, literally. You’ve left it out in the weather one winter too many, and the only thing it’s going to be good for past this summer is as kindling when the cold weather sets in. You can’t find anything in the garden centers or furniture stores that, even during the sales, isn’t breaking your budget into multiple pieces. Here’s a thought! Why not download a set of picnic table plans and build exactly what you want, for a whole lot less than you expected to pay? Picnic Table Plans are freely available online, and let’s face it, we’re not exactly talking about building anything as complex as a budgie’s bungalow even.
By starting out with the right picnic table plan, you can set about sourcing exactly what you need in terms of timber, nuts, bolts, washers and tools. Chances are, even the most DIY-challenged of the species will most likely have all the tools required. They may be quietly collecting dust on the top shelf of the laundry room after your aborted effort to build a treehouse for the kids, but they’re there, nonetheless.
With most picnic table plans, the only tools generally required are a tape measure, T-square, pencil, hand or electric saw, hammer, some string and either a wrench, socket set or pliers to tighten the nuts. If you build from rough wood, you’ll also want access to a sander to smooth out surfaces before staining/treating, and to avoid splinters in highly uncomfortable areas.
The above is not to suggest that you can just slap a few pieces of scrap wood together and– voila!—you’ll have a table fit to seat all the neighbors at your next backyard barbecue. However, if you get the right picnic table plan and follow the instructions precisely (or as close as you can get), you should at least have a place to sit the mother-in-law without having to worry about the thing collapsing on her, or out from underneath her.
Some things to watch out for that you might not have thought of could also be included in your picnic table plans. For example, it’s been reported that single coat galvanized fasteners are not recommended to be used with some new, pressure-treated wood products.
Other fasteners, like ceramic coated, hot-dip galvanized, double dipped or stainless steel nuts and bolts may be recommended, depending on your environment. It’s also recommended that no aluminium come in direct contact with some pressure treated wood products. Before setting out to buy both the wood and the fasteners, check your picnic table plans for recommendations.
Now that you’re ready to get started, it’s time to decide just what kind of picnic table you want to build, and here’s where you might get a surprise. The minute you start looking , you’ll discover there are picnic table plans for a huge variety of table types, shapes and sizes, so you’re only going to be limited by things like the space in your back yard, and your confidence in your own ability to put this thing together without the missus laughing at your latest efforts at DIY.
To name but a few, you can download picnic table plans for kid’s picnic tables, round ones, square ones, hexagonal ones, rectangular ones or octagonal ones. They can be long or short, they can be portable or they can even be convertible, a bit like a garden transformer. It’s true! You can get a picnic table plan that shows you how to build something that looks like one picnic table, but actually converts into two benches with comfortable back rests.
We haven’t found one that turns into a mad robot yet, but there are picnic table plans for especially solid and stable indoor-outdoor tables and benches. Perhaps not as exciting as a robot, but infinitely more functional.
Many manufacturers mention pine and redwood as two excellent choices for building your garden showpiece. And while it’s true that redwood looks magnificent and is exceptionally hard wearing, if pine is treated correctly, and stained to protect it from the elements, it should offer years of reliable, good-looking service. The stains and wood preservatives out now mean you’ll be able to preserve your picnic table and have it looking like new, year after year.
Another great thing about downloading your own picnic table plans is that this is a project that can quite easily be completed in a single day. So once you get your plans, you can wait for a day that suits you before plunging ahead with your building project. Nearly all picnic table plans suggest that you cut all your wood to size first, and to save the best of the wood for the table top section.
You can also look after things like sanding (if required) and staining before the table is put together. This saves enormously on time and effort, compared to taking care of those tasks after the table is put together. However, most also specify that their plans are flexible. If you want to attach the seats to the table, they’ll show you how to do that. If you would rather just have benches, separate from the picnic table, that’s ok, too. If you’ve already got benches and just need a new table, they hey, no problem. It will take you less time to find the picnic table plan that suits your requirements than it will to decide what colour the table should be.
Of course, apart from the pride you’ll take from having constructed a solid piece of functional furniture (who’d have thought?!?), odds are you’ll be equally pleased with the amount of money that’s been saved by going the DYI route. Even allowing for good wood and the best of fasteners and wood stain/preservative, most people building their own picnic table find it costs about half what a similar model would have cost them at the furniture store.
Go on, give it a go! Download a set of picnic table plans today. Tomorrow, you can start to build your “empire,” one 2” x 4” at a time.
Image: taoty / FreeDigitalPhotos.net