Picnic Table Project Overview

This picnic table is a great project too because it solves a problem that you see in all wood picnic tables

And that's that they're not always as strong as you'd want them to be, but even when they are, you have the rot problem

That wood, all that wood in contact with the ground. It's not unusual for picnic tables to, not really, wooden picnic tables to not last all that long because of that rot problem

This design completely solves that problem. It's made of 2 inch by 2 inch square tubing

It's a big and impressive project, but it's actually pretty easy to make too

It's not complicated at all. And of course, it's got wood on the top for eating on, so it's nice and comfortable

And it's a simple project. 2 by 2 square tubing is easy to find

So let's look at a few details on the plans to get you going in the right direction

This project really comes down to the ability to cut 90 degree ends and to weld 90 degree joints

There's a lot of 90s here, as you can see. It's not complicated, but that's really where the precision of this project comes in

What you couldn't see in the photograph before were these angle iron pieces

This is the table support. It holds the boards. This is the seat support

It holds the seat boards. And in both cases, these parts need holes drilled for a lag bolt that will go in and hold the boards

This is a perfect situation for using step bits in a drill press

You can drill these holes by hand with a handheld drill, but it's quite a bit more work

mostly because a handheld drill can't develop the kind of pressure that a drill press can

Now, if you were observant, you may have noted that the end of the bottom piece here is covered in the picnic table in the photo

And here in the plans, it's shown open because the joint of the seat upright sits on top of the bottom piece

So left to its own devices, this would be open. You can leave that open if you want

Or for a neater look, you can also cut a piece of plate steel and weld it on the end, capping the end

My only warning would be if you are going to cap it, that you want to make sure that the joint is completely waterproof

because this bottom piece is going to be sitting on the ground. And if there's a hole there, a little hole in the weld, in the wet season, it can fill up with water

And if you live in a cold climate like I do, that water freezes and it will expand and it can actually crack the steel

There's nothing that can stop the expansion of freezing water, not even steel

So if you are going to cap it, do a good job. Make a nice weld bead and keep that water out completely

In the instructions coming up for this project, you're going to learn about a technique that's very useful in lots of applications

And it's a method for getting square assemblies when those assemblies are large

I mean, you can use a reference square to say, make sure this is 90 degrees and this is connected at 90

You can use a square. But the larger the item you're attempting to square up, the less effective squares are

because a little bit of deviation on the square will end up being quite a large error in the finished project

So what I recommend, and this is something that you're going to use again and again in your welding work

and that's to use a level in order to create square assemblies

And the way you do that is, in this case, by making the bottom level and shimming it up as necessary in case your floor is not level

And then if you put that same carpenter's level on this upright and you make sure that it's plumb

so straight up and down according to the bubble in the level, then you're going to have a square assembly

You can also use the corners and edges, the factory corners and edges of plywood

Most plywood, certainly in North America, have remarkably square corners. And so that's a large and useful reference edge for you to follow

So that's another approach. But using the level is very, very powerful

Once you have this assembly put together and you have the upright, then you can continue to use the level

You put the level on and you check that the table support is horizontal before you weld it together

And it's surprising how accurately you can bring things together in a square way, large assemblies like this

using a level to determine what's horizontal and vertical, and then work from there