What's up guys, I'm Brad Rodriguez from Fix This Build That and today
I'm going to show you how to make a modern outdoor table. It's got some crazy welded base legs
I had John Malecki help me out on that and I also had Mike Montgomery help me out on the top
It was a really cool design stay tuned. I'll show you exactly how I did it
they say when in Rome do as the Romans and
Since John and I were visiting Mike from Modern Builds and Ben from Homemade Modern
I figured I had to build something ultra sleek and modern
I started layout by transferring the measurements of the leg design to
a piece of sheet metal that we used as a welding table
I'm using three quarter inch bar stock for the legs and I used a stick of it to get the thickness of the pieces and
Find my angles
With the layout done I cut one of the legs to length from a piece of bar stock using a cold saw
It has a 15 degree bevel on the top and the bottom for display and I use that piece to mark and cut the other
Outside leg as well.
I cut a small piece for the top and I marked it and cut it to size
Using the layout that I'd drawn on the metal sheet
And before welding I prepped the pieces where they would join together by grinding bevels on the ends.
I used some setup magnets to hold things in place and attack
Well the pieces together now use a MIG welder with shielding gas in my shop
But I here at maker ranch they had a different setup
It's the Lincoln Electric Weld Pak 140 and it has the settings for different material and wire size on the inside of the box
And since we were welding bar stock, we basically use the hottest setting recommended for the wire size of 0.035 that we were using
I'll have a link to the Weld Pak 140 and you can check it out below
It's a great entry-level machine and it runs off 110 volts.
I started tacking the parts together and I quickly realized
that welding bar stock is very different than the tube steel
Which I've been working on my other two welding projects
I had to spend more time to really let the weld puddle form and penetrate the bar
After welding up the small assembly I ground the welds flat on one side and
then brought in another bar for the full length cross
Bar using my layout lines and the top is a tame angle, but that bottom angle is really severe.
I cut the easier of the two angles first on the cold saw
Then John jumped in and gave me a hand cutting the harsh bottom angle with an angle grinder
And we made two of these cross bars
I clamped the first crossbar down and then I tacked it in place and ran full weld beads across each joint
The second crossbar is a little tricky since it needs to be cut in half
I raised up the assembly and I position the bar underneath and marked it for the cuts
Both angles are the same
So I set it up on the cold saw and I quickly made the cuts
The fit was decent and I tacked the pieces in place then ran full welds on both sides
I did have a little mismatch at the miter on the bottom
But the nice thing about metal is I could just fill the gap in
with that filler metal and grind everything clean afterwards.
Oh, and after using the four and a half inch grinder
I changed over to the 7 inch grinder and that thing is a beast
If you weld sloppy like me, then do yourself a favor and get a big grinder
It works twice as fast and really hogs off the metal.
I cut some two and a half inch flat bar - sighs - well to the top of each leg for attaching the table
Then I laid out holes along the flat bar to attach each of the boards. I'll be using as the top
I also wanted an outward splay on the legs to give it some added dimension.
I tacked the leg to the flat bar. Then I filled in the gap in several places with a full bead for a strong joint
To match the angle of the second leg with the one that we just welded up
We just stacked them against each other and I evolved the angle. I tacked them into place
Then I went to work welding the legs together while the guys talked about
their own projects that they made while we were out there
And make sure you check out the links below in the description -
Mike's sweet white epoxy cookie table and John's slab flattening sled
With the legs welded up I needed to connect them with the long stretchers
We set the legs in place and screwed them down to some two by fours to hold them upright
Then Mike and I laid out a bar for the first stretcher and we mark the angles for the cuts.
I cut the bar to length on the cold saw and then attacked him welded the stretcher in place now
This is only my third welding project if you're unsure about getting into welding
I say just go for it. It's gonna work
Probably not but it's gonna work man
We laid it in the second stretcher and Mark the angles to cut the pieces in half
the angles on this are even harsher than the leg cuts were
so cutting them with the grinder and a cut off wheel is what worked best
We took the parts back to the base and I used a mic clamp to hold one in while I tacked the other in place
I found it easier to tack on the tight fitting small joints here first
Just like the legs then I went back and tacked and welded
The long liner joint is inherently gonna be a little sloppier on the next one.
I buttoned it up by welding all the joints but I didn't do any of the welding
on the inside the long stretches where they met
Mainly because I really just couldn't get in there
But even if I did I wouldn't be able to grind it down and make it look good.
I did grind everything else flat though, and the base was shaping up nicely
At the top I used some tropical hardwood decking boards that Ben had left over from another project
I cut the boards to length on the miter saw using three different species
called ghurabaa cumaru and tiger wood
These are really dense hardwoods and are great for outdoor projects and kind of hard to say
The ports are almost 6 inches wide not one of the strips to be a little bit thinner and lighter to match the base
So rip them down on the table saw to two and a half inches wide each
I'm working out there in the Joshua Tree desert is hot and windy, but man the scenery is nice
After the boards were ripped to length
I put a chamfer around the top edges of all the boards using a 45 degree chamfer bit in the cordless router
The board still seemed a little thick at this point at almost a full inch
So I took the mower to the planer and knock them down to 3/4 of an inch thick to match the legs
And while Mike and I were running the boards through the planer John welded up some steel for me
we decided to wrap it at the top with a 3/4 inch angle iron frame and
John cut the miters on the cold saw and then welded them up
alternating corners to keep the frame from warping
He also added a flat bar crossmember to hold the boards in place once we put the top in
With the board's plane to size. I called over Mike for his design.
These boards had a ton of contrast
So if they weren't laid out, right it could look a little crazy
Yeah, dude I like that it love it easy
I applied a penetrating oil to all the boards and it really gave them some awesome color
Then I moved on to finishing the base here. I just used some self etching primer
I followed up with a few coats of matte black paint
To assemble the top we laid the metal frame on some soft horses and then put one board in at a time and
Pre-drilled and screwed them to the center flat bar.
I worked my way across the table from underneath until all the boards were in
Now one thing I missed on the design here is I should have had two cross members on either in
offset by about 6 inches
Since I didn't do this I had to drill into the angle iron frame to attach the boards to the end
It wasn't a huge deal. But the panhead screws are just a little more visible on the edge this way
I attached the boards with 5/8 of inch screws and used a putty knife
to establish a small gap between each board for water drainage when It's outside
After that we flip the top back over and put it onto the base
I attached the top to each leg through the holes that I drilled earlier to finish it off
The angles on this table are just awesome
I love how it takes on different shapes when it's viewed from the front at an angle and then from the ends and
That metal frame of the chamfered hard wood top adds some great warmth to it.
It's a super modern table because hey , When in Rome...
If you love this video, I think you're gonna love that one too. Go check it out
I got another one queued up there for you. If you're not subscribed to the channel already
I'd love to have you as part of the team and until next time guys get out there and build something awesome