I'm looking for ideas on a custom (funky, you decide what that means!) red cedar patio table to seat 6. I've googled and although there are standard tables I'm looking for something "different". My brain is just having and infarct and I need some direction. What have you seen that caught your eye? I was trying to locate a 48-52" red cedar burl slab but very alloosive....therefore I think it's going to be out of dimensional lumber....thanks
take into account the space it will be going into. make a top shape that makes sense in that space and fit in legs or pedestal as your tools will allow.
Almost any design that can be printed in 2 dims can form the outline of a table top. Scan a pic of a boat hull (person, building, vehicle, animal -- whatever) turn it into a b/w outline drawing, enlarge (or scale) it and saw around the outside of it. Then burn the essential details in. Voila! one of a kind art. If you make a human / animal profile, shape the legs to match.
Bill
OK, Here are a couple of Ideas. Don't make an outdoor table make several. Four 40"x40" tables each wtih their own legs that can also be attached together would make for a very flexible table arrangements. You could have one long table. A big square table or four individual tables. Moving the tables would also be a lot easier than one great big table.
Don't use cedar. Use IPE. It is a beautiful wood and lasts forever outside.
Make the table tops a 3 x 3 grid of 11" square holes. Route a 1/2" x
3/8" grove in each of the square holes to hold ceramic tile or natural stone tile flush with the surface of the wood. Just lay the tile in and don't secure it so you can change it on a whim or remove it for moving the tables. I saw an aluminium table with an open grid like this at home depot. They had some cheap ceramic tile in it but I thing some granite would look really sharp!I have been tossing around these ideas in my head for my deck and I have yet to figure out how I want to do the legs. A single metal pedistal leg. A metal leg on each corner. Or use a lock miter and glue 4 pieces of IPE together to form four tapered legs. I like the idea of IPE legs at each corner. I was thinking of using a 1" female pipe coupeling welded to a plate on each corner then glue a 1" pipe inside the length of the leg but 2" down from the top of the leg so the legs could be screwed on with the IPE portion of the leg tight against the bottom side of the table.
Somewhere out there there is a folding table design that is super clever. It is an old missiom stickly era thing with a brilliant mechanisim. I couldn't find it on google but did find one that folds into a bench.
Dip.
Thu, Mar 15, 2007, 2:16pm (EDT+4) snipped-for-privacy@null.shaw.ca (mcgyver) doth burbleth: I've googled and although there are standard tables I'm looking for something "different".
Let's see, you want a red cedar table. You want something different. OK, make it out of oak. A red cedar table out of oak would be different. Wouldn't it?
What do you MEAN by different? Most of us don't read minds. You can always make a round table, even cut the center out and an an entry way, so someone can distribute food without reacing over the shoulders of people. Oe juar make two narrow tables, facing each other, but apart by about 18 or so inches, so someone can walk between and distribute food or whatever. Use your imagination, it's your table.
JOAT Custom philosophizing done. No job too small; must be indoor work, with no heavy lifting.
JT, boy...thanks for that!!! You sure did give me some good stuff to think about there....:-( Ya, I can make a "cedar" table... jeesh I think most on this site can.... but i don't want to make just any table... I want something "unique", (inlays, curved base, what have you) and my creative mind is drawing a blank, thought I might stir some comments on what others may have thought about doing, or some picture of one they saw ect. Thanks for the vote of confidence though......
Would you put red cedar stain on it?
Sat, Mar 17, 2007, 11:19pm (EDT+4) snipped-for-privacy@null.shaw.ca (mcgyver) doth clarify: . I want something "unique", (inlays, curved base, what have you) and my creative mind is drawing a blank,
You shoulda said.
If it was me, I'd probably start by googling images, of tables. With a pad of paper and pencil handy. I'd save anything that caught m eye, anything. Then I'd go thru, print out things that really interested me, discard the rest, then sketch a table I liked. Came up with a coffee table design I like very much that way, curved legs and all. No prob.
If it was me, wanting a patio table, I'd probbly just make a nice large round top, maybe with about 4 chekerboards set in around the edge, maybe a couple of backgammon boards too. If I wanted to get fancy, I'd go ape on the base - center leg, with maybe 8 feet, something like that
- maybe carve chicken feet. Maybe just get a big stump for the foot, and chainsaw a Tiki out of it or sumpthin'. No prob.
JOAT Custom philosophizing done. No job too small; must be indoor work, with no heavy lifting.
Why cedar? It's soft, does not hold finishes well, does not weather particularly well horizontally, will give people slivers, and is "snaggy" on most clothing.
Hi, old growth cedar is readily available here in the northwest, will be covered with a umbrella most if not all of the time. thanks
Sun, Mar 18, 2007, 10:47pm (EDT+4) snipped-for-privacy@null.shaw.ca (mcgyver) doth sayeth: . wanted to find a one of a kind custom shop that did this kind of work. But if you copy a work already done your's wouldn't be unique. Ask your wife, you'll probably be happier in the end.
Unique \U*nique"\, a. [F. unique; cf. It. unico; from L. unicus, from unus one. See {One}.] Being without a like or equal; unmatched; unequaled; unparalleled; single in kind
JOAT Custom philosophizing done. No job too small; must be indoor work, with no heavy lifting.
Sun, Mar 18, 2007, 1:38am (EDT+4) snipped-for-privacy@snet.net (Edwin=A0Pawlowski) doth query: Would you put red cedar stain on it?
It wouldn't be a red cedar table otherwise, would it? I think it should be painted with striped paint - I haven bought any lately tho, so I don't know where he could buy some.
JOAT Custom philosophizing done. No job too small; must be indoor work, with no heavy lifting.
OK, this is my last effort. Up to you now.
Bill
In one of my wifes garden magazines there was a woodworker who built a patio table using part of an unfinished hull of an old boat as the base. It was neat, but definitely something that required a big deck to view properly.
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