In today's video, we're going to be showing you
how to build the ultimate picnic table.
Not only is it weather proof,
but it also has a built-in cooler, cup holders, and condiment trays.
[Captions by Judy V. at Y Translator] [Music]
[Music]
Here's the supplies we're going to need to get started on this picnic table.
We've got five boards of composite deck material.
This is sort of like MDF, if it were made out of plastic.
It's textured to look like wood,
is extremely durable,
and is pretty much completely weatherproof.
Each of the boards I have is 8 feet long,
and they are the same width as a 2x6 board
after it's been planed down.
I've got five 2x4's that are 8 feet long,
and I have two 1x4's that are 8 feet long.
We have some regular 2 and 1/2 inch screws,
some 1 and 1/2 inch screws,
and some 2 and 1/2 inch deck screws,
which are specifically designed to work with this composite material.
I also have a scrap piece of board that's one quarter of an inch thick,
and that will be used for spacing out our other boards.
To help with the structural integrity of this build,
we've also got some 3 and 1/2 inch bolts,
and the washers and nuts that fit onto those.
Here's the basic idea.
The general design is a straightforward picnic table,
but we're making some improvements.
The tabletop and benches will be made from weatherproof decking boards.
Added supports under the table will hold a plastic tub
that acts as a drink cooler,
and we'll add closable cup holders,
and two small removable baskets to hold condiments.
Let's start by cutting all of the major pieces
that we're going to need for this bench.
First up is our composite board,
and we need nine pieces that are 4 feet long.
These boards are almost exactly 8 feet long,
but they have enough extra that we'll probably do a little bit of trimming.
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There are several pieces that we need to cut out of our 2x4's.
The first is the legs,
and for that, we need four pieces that are 29 inches long.
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For the support pieces that run parallel to the ground,
and hold up the benches,
we'll need to cut two pieces that are 51 and 1/2 inches long.
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We need two pieces that are 28 inches long,
and those will hold together the top surface of our table.
Finally, we need one piece that will run crosswise,
and that will act as a lateral support.
That needs to be 37 inches long.
[Music]
With all of our pieces cut,
we now need to start getting ready to assemble.
The first pieces were going to need
are five of the composite boards,
and our two 28 inch 2x4's.
These two 28 inch pieces will work as supports
for the five slats that are the very top of the table.
To avoid cutting and scraping knees while sitting down at the table,
we want to modify the two side supports
by cutting some 45 degree angles into the ends of them.
After adding the cuts, our two supports will end up
almost trapezoid shaped.
Although I'm not going to try and make the cut come all the way
to the exact corner.
To add a little bit of strength to it,
we're going to have our cut end right about here,
leaving maybe a third, quarter of an inch,
about a centimeter at the bottom.
So we'll have a cut, something like that.
[Music]
We're going to be attaching the five composite planks
into these 2x4's using screws going down from the top.
So we now need to line them up,
just in the right spot
on top of these beams,
and spaced out just the right amount.
We want this support to be 4 inches in from the end of our board.
Our scrap of 1/4 inch board is going to be cut up,
and we're gonna use that as spacers,
to make sure that the slats are evenly spread out across our table.
[Music]
We'll start by securing one board on this end,
and then making sure everything is pressed together,
spaced out just right.
Secure the other board on the other end,
and then secure two of them in the middle.
For the moment, we'll leave the very center board unsecured.
[Music]
Alright.
[Music]
With the four Corners attached,
we're now going to move to the second boards in.
For the moment, we're not going to attach our center board
because we still need to alter it a little bit,
as we build the cooler that goes into this table.
Although we don't want to screw the center board down yet,
we do want to pre-drill the screw holes.
[Music]
The reason we didn't screw down the center board
is because we're going to be putting a cooler into this picnic table.
We need to cut a slot into this top center board
that will allow us to access the cooler down below.
What we're using for our cooler is this plastic planters trough
that I got at Home Depot for about 8 bucks.
This planter box is 25 and 3/4 of an inch long,
and approximately 5 and 3/4 of an inch wide.
This size of planter box works very well
because it's with is almost identical
to the space between two of these boards if one is removed.
We now want to cut the length of board
out of the center of this one that matches the length of our planter.
Some quick math shows that we should come in
11 and 1/8 of an inch from either side.
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With our center board cut, we can now replace the spacers,
and use a couple of screws to hold the end pieces where they belong.
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These end pieces are pretty sturdy just as they are,
but they are going to get a little bit of additional reinforcements from below.
We need to add some supports on the bottom
that will hold the center top board in place,
as well as holding our trough right where we want it for our drinks.
We'll set up two pieces of our 1x4 board,
one on each end.
That's what's going to support our center board
when it's covering the cooler.
We'll take a piece that's just the right length,
and make it overlap the gap by about 1/2 of an inch.
Let's cut two pieces of our 1x4 board
that are 12 and 7/8 of an inch long.
[Music]
We're using that length because we should be able
to fit two additional pieces of our board right on the edges,
and have it all lined up with the hole.
At this point, we don't want to use our decks screws
because if we did,
they would just stab the top of our table.
That's a terrible table.
Tables shouldn't stab you.
These 1 and 1/2 inch screws should be the perfect length.
[Music]
Our cooler will be able to slide into place.
So, the two sides will have supports, as well as the back.
To do that, we need three pieces that are 24 and 1/4 inches long,
and four pieces that are 5 and 1/2 inches long.
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While it may not be totally necessary,
just to give ourselves some cleaner edges,
let's trim off the excess from these 1x4's.
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We're using 2 and 1/2 inch screws, which should be long enough
to reach all the way through these three boards,
and just barely into the composite board below.
To be sure this bottom piece is well secured to the surface of our table,
we'll use a few of the short screws on here before we attach the other two pieces.
[Music]
Our cooler trough can now easily slide in and out of place,
and is held on quite stably on three sides.
The top of our table is constructed.
We have a removable center panel that allows us access down into the cooler,
which slides in and out of place for easy draining and washing.
So now, it's time to turn this table top into a full table.
The next step is to add some legs.
Four of them in fact.
I find that's a good number for picnic tables.
So, it's time to grab the four 29 inch pieces of 2x4.
These four legs will go on at an angle
attached to the cross pieces that run the width of our table.
Right now though, they don't sit very flush up against anything,
so we want to cut all of the ends at 30 degrees.
When we cut these cross pieces,
we made them both pointing up in the same direction,
giving us a sort of trapezoid shape.
With the legs, we'll switch it up,
and all of the angles will go the same direction,
giving us more of a parallelogram.
This time, we are going to aim for the very corner
rather than going up about a centimeter.
These legs will be installed
so that the outside corner of one angle
lines up with the end of the flat portion of the board.
To attach each leg, we'll use one screw to start,
and then two carriage bolts to really hold it in place.
The screw is really just so we have an easy way of holding
the leg right where we want it as we drill the holes for the bolts.
To keep the leg in place as we pre-drill and screw in our screw,
it can help to grab one of the pieces that we just cut off the end.
[Music]
Our picnic table now has legs,
which I think most people would agree is an important part of a picnic table.
One quick note, if you build a picnic table that's going to be outside,
somewhere it's going to get wet,
or especially if it's going to sit on grass or dirt,
you'll want to make the legs out of treated lumber,
not the regular 2x4's that you see me using here.
Treated lumber has chemicals embedded inside it,
that help prevent rot, and bugs, and fungus,
which is going to be important if the legs are going to be
sitting on wet ground.
We now need to add some supports that are going to hold the seats up.
Those will run along the legs,
and stick out the sides.
That's the two 51 and 1/2 inch pieces we cut from our 2x4's.
We'll want to measure so that's 9 inches from the bottom of the feet,
to the bottom of this board.
And of course, we need to make sure it's level
all the way across.
This is what the benches are going to be attached to,
so if they're at a weird angle,
someone's going to be falling off the back of the table,
and someone's going to be falling in to the table.
That's no good.
It's not starting at zero, which is why it's not ending it 9,
it's going from 1 to 10.
Similarly to the cross pieces that are holding up the top of the table,
we want to take off the corners,
making this into a sort of trapezoid shape.
Once again, this isn't structurally necessary,
it just makes it less likely for you to like,
scrap a knee or leg while getting onto the bench.
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We do need to make sure that this cross piece is evenly centered.
We don't want to have three planks on one side,
and one on the other.
We're going to line this up the best we can,
we'll clamp that in place,
pre-drill, and add one screw,
and then we'll use a level to make sure the support is balanced
just the way we need it.
Just like in the cross pieces of the top,
we'll use two bolts to connect the leg to the support beam.
[Music]
With those cross beams attached,
we have one remaining piece of our 2x4,
and that's the 37 inch piece,
and what we're going to do with that is span the gap
between the two supports we just installed,
and add some screws to make it so
our bench doesn't shake back and forth very much.
[Music]
Okay guys, time to learn from my mistakes.
I said before that we needed to have 9 inches
from the feet of the table up to this bar,
and then I proceeded to attach this beam on the wrong side
of the 9 inch mark.
Meaning that this whole setup was one 2x4 width too low,
too close to the ground.
Leaving it like that would cause a lot of problems,
so I had to undo the screws, and bolts,
and lower it back down into place.
With that sorted out, let's flip our table over,
and add the benches.
[Music]
That is an assembled picnic table.
It's got a top.
It's got benches,
and it's honestly really sturdy.
Now, this picnic table is a mid-sized picnic table,
which means if you are over 6 feet like I am,
it may be a little short,
you know, my knees don't fit underneath it super well.
This isn't really meant for full size adults,
which I like to pretend that I am sometimes.
But, we do have a few more little things that we need
to add on to it still.
So, let's take it off of the workbench,
put it down at ground level,
and see what we can do.
Now, we know that we have a cooler in the middle of our table,
but at the moment, it's a little tricky to get to.
There we go.
Let's drill a hole big enough that we can reach through the board,
and lift this out.
[Music]
With that hole drilled in the center,
it's a lot easier to access the cooler,
and put the lid back on right where you want it.
I want another small addition,
that will work as a sort of condiment or accessories holder.
I want these little trays to be able to stay right
at the edge of the table,
so we can put you know ketchup, mustard, or whatever we want in them.
They should also be removable so that when we're not using them,
you can just take them off,
and drop them down into the cooler for storage.
Our goal with the trays is going to be to drive two screws
into the sides of the board,
so that just the head is sticking out.
We then want to be able to put the trays on,
and drop them down,
which means we need to make a small hole,
and a small slot that will fit over the neck of a screw.
These plastic containers are actually sold as desk organizing containers.
I grabbed them at Walmart for about 4 bucks each.
This screw bit is just barely larger than the head of this screw,
so, if we put a hole into the [inaudible] with this,
it should fit over nicely.
[Music]
Excellent.
To make the slot that will drop down onto the neck of the screw,
let's hit this screw with a blowtorch,
and then just melt our slot right into the plastic.
That way we'll know it will fit just right.
[Music]
Now, we can mark on the table where we want the screw to be attached.
[Music]
Our condiment containers are working well.
They're easy to put on and take off,
and they store nicely inside our cooler.
But there's still one more little element that I want to add onto that,
and that is cup holders.
I have these 2 and 1/2 inch grommets
that are designed for cable management through a desk.
But I also think they could make some pretty slick cup holders
if we just drill into the table,
and apply these things.
[Music]
If you aren't interested in using the composite decking material
that I built these surfaces out of,
you can do the whole thing out of wood.
A 2x6 board will be the same width,
and just a little bit thicker than these boards.
This same design should scale up nicely
if you prefer the 6 foot long full-size picnic table,
rather than the mid-size table that this one is.
[Music]
This is a good sturdy picnic table design,
and because the benches and the tabletop
are completely weatherproof,
it should last for quite a while.
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