average dining room table height
voiceover: the woodwhispereris sponsored by powermatic, the gold standard since 1921, and by clear vue cyclones. clear the air and breathe easy. (boppy music) marc:recently, my wife,nicole, made it pretty clear that she wanted an outdoor table. she said something like nicole:build me a table, all right? god!
marc:or maybe nicole:build me a table,and if not for me, then for your son. marc:well, it could have been nicole:build me a table, (beep)! marc:well, it was something like that. either way, i ran out to the shop and i busted out one of these. a not so rustic, rustic outdoor table.
voiceover:made from decay-resistant western red cedar, this beefy table features breadboard ends, unique design details, and 2 sturdy benches. this piece would look good in anyone's backyard or a kitchen. marc:this table willtake a couple of weekends to build, but it's wellworth your time investment.
a table like this willlast you a very long time, and will serve you and your family well. let's build it. voiceover:the entire project is made from 8 quarter stock,but you can substitute construction-grade lumber if you want to save a few bucks. i'm going to start by laying out and prepping the stock for the legs.
i use the chop saw tobreak the boards down. table leg stock is on the left, bench leg stock in on the right. the pieces are then roughly ripped in half at the bandsaw. each piece is then jointed on one face, and then planed to thickness. each leg is comprised of 2 pieces, so we'll need to glue them together.
since this is an outdoor table, i'm using waterproof glue, titebond iii. you see that little glue roller? that's actually called a brayer, and it's usually used for spreading ink. you can buy one at amazon.com. i'm clamping 2 legs at a time here. the boards are still oversized, so i'm not too worried about alignment
or the rough edges. after the glue-ups, youshould have 4 long table legs and 8 small bench legs. i scrape away the dried glue, and then clean up one of therough edges at the jointer. back at the planer, i'll bring each leg to final dimension; 3.5 inchessquare for the table legs, and 3 inches square for the bench legs. each leg is then cut tolength at the miter saw.
now we're going to start cutting our apron and stretcher stock. cutting these parts is thesame process as before; rough cutting at the bandsaw and making the pieces flat and square with the jointer and planer. each piece is then rippedto the appropriate width at the table saw. with a stop in place,cutting similar parts
to the same length is a piece of cake. marc:now let's talk a little bit about the joinery for this project. when nicole asked me to make this table, she made it pretty clear that she wanted it done yesterday, so speed was definitely an issue. in most cases, when it comes to joinery, speed also brings withit a decrease in quality.
there are a coupleexceptions in woodworking. one of those is the festool domino, specifically what we're going to use is the festool domino xl. the xl, of course, does larger scale mortise and tenon joins, perfect for a big table like this. this is something where i don't feel like i'm necessarily sacrificing build quality,
but i'm getting atremendous gain in speed, as you'll see pretty soon. alternatives to this,because of course a domino's not in everybody's budget,a great alternative are the classic dowels. if you have a simpledoweling jig you can get pretty good quality, strong joins using fairly substantial dowels. that's something to think about.
pocket screws is always an option. i'm not a huge fan of pocket screws for big structural joinery, but it certainly could be something you would want to look into. of course, there's theclassic motise and tenon join. way back in episode 10,i showed you how to build with motise and tenon joins, various different options for that,
and a lot of the projectswe've done over the years have included mortise and tenon joins. perfect option if you've got the time and the setup to do it. either way, lots ofoptions for how you join these pieces together. keep in mind, though,if you are going to use classic mortise and tenon joinery, make your rail pieces a little bit longer.
you need to account for those tenons. i'd say maybe 3 to 4inches longer will give you the extra amount ofmaterial you need here. we're going to start with some layout and we will plow all these mortises and this thing's going tocome together really fast. each stretcher will receive2 motises for 12 mm dominos. layout is quite simplesince you can either use the center lines for reference, or simply
depend on the retractablestops to help locate the tool's position. for consistency, eachpiece is clearly labeled so i know which end isup and which face is out. just like that, i've got a mortise. mortise number 2 is just as fast. as you can see, the pre-madetenons fit perfectly. the legs also require mortises, and i'll use a story stick to help me
lay out the mortise locations. this tool does not comecheap, but you can see why many think it'sworth the asking price. now let's cut some curves. the table has a curve on the lower rails as well as the long stretchers. the benches also have a small curve on the lower rails. the small curve is laid out using a scrap
strip of wood with thework-piece held between 2 [dogs]. the bulk is cut away at the bandsaw. the oscilating spindle sanderdoes the rest of the job bringing the curve backto the pencil line. don't have an oscillating spindle sander? try a shop-made flexiblesanding strip instead. the first piece can now serve as a perfect template for the remaining pieces. for the curve on the table rails,
use a long piece of thin scrap stock or something like this,a lee valley drawing bow. even though the pieces are longer, the cutting and smoothingprocess is the same. now we need to measureand cut the half-laps for the long stretchers. with the table dry assembled, and a stretcher centered across the rails, i mark the exact locationsof the rail on each side.
with the dado stackmounted in the table saw, i cut the half-lap in the stretcher. using a spacer and the fence gives me perfect repeatability. a quick test fit showsthat we're in good shape. now the bottom rails needthe complimentary half-laps. these are also cut at the table saw using a very similar setup. with the half-laps cut, we can now
cut the final longcurve in the stretchers. for this, i use a scrappiece of hardboard. even if the curve isn't perfect,it's so long and shallow that the eye will never notice. cutting and smoothingis the same as before, only this curve is long enough to use the random orbit sanderfor that final smoothing. the ends of the railsreceive a final decorative treatment, featuringa slight upward curve.
all parts have been sanded to 220 grit and receive an 1/8 inch roundover. now it's time for some assembly. to make my life easier,i'm gluing the tenons into the mortises inthe legs ahead of time. i then tape some scrap pieces of wood to the outside of the legs to protect the relatively soft woodfrom the clamp heads. i start by attaching thelong rails to the legs
making 2 subassemblies. once those are dry, i dropin the top side rails. i then bring in the stretcherand side rail assembly, which is held togetherwith some quick clamps. now, for the other side assembly. that's 12 perfectly sizedmortise and tenon joins that need to come together. keep your fingers crossed. nice.
a few clamps will closethe remaining gaps. in preparation for attaching the top, i'm making some slots forthe shop-made screw blocks. the screw blocks start offas a strip of scrap wood. i cut a rabbet into each end. at the miter saw, i cut the ends off, releasing the screw blocks. each block is thenpre-drilled and countersunk. we'll put these aside for now.
compared to the table, assembling the benches is a cakewalk. i start with the side sub-assemblies, and then i connect them together with the long rails.