Big table for backporch

[Palmetto]

My wife has been bugging me to build a big table for our covered backporch for quite sometime. I finally gave up, and we sat down and came up with a design she was happy with. 12'-0" long, big post legs, & a distressed/rustic look. As with all of our wood projects, I build it, & she finishes it.

Pic 1
(4) 2x10's layed out, trimmed for length, & clamped for square. In the past I have used my plate jointer & glued the boards together. But this build is not supposed to be pretty & smooth. So I decided to just use strong backs on the underside to tie the boards together, and get them as flat as I possibly could on my work table.

The sides will be cased with 2x4's to get the width we wanted, and to make it look thicker. The width of the table will end up at 41" wide.

[Palmetto]

Pic 2
This picture shows how flat I was able to get it.

[Palmetto]

Pic 3
One of the leg sets complete! Leg sets are made out of cedar.
Legs are 6x6 verts, 4x4 horiz, and 2x4 braces.
I got all the pieces cut out, spaced, & clamped together prior to fastening. Then I drilled all the way thru the 6x6, and 3" into the 4x4. Then I disassembled. I then took a piece of 1/2" SS allthread that I had laying around (I actually had (4) 10" long pieces from a from another job), and glued them into the 4x4 ends with gorilla glue. I pocket-holed the 2x4's, and re-assembled everything for gluing & screwing!

[Palmetto]

Pic 4
I did just about all of the work with the table upside down. Most everything is pocket holed, except the posts. It's a PIA sometimes, but makes a strong connection without showing screw heads on the opposite side.

I made a pipe brace instead of using wood, and I think it turned out awesome. You can also see the 1/2" all thread w/nut sticking out the sides of the posts. Once the glue had dried 24hrs, I snugged up the nuts, and secured the posts to the table.

Pic 5
build is complete, and ready for finishing.

[Palmetto]

Pic6
Distressed, branded, & starting to stain

[BURTONboy]

That turned out nicely. Good job!

[cbail13]

Looks great!

[WildThings]

WOW can you two run by my house and throw together one for me? Great Job!

[MagicBlade]

Good looking table, great job.

[175gr7.62]

What color stain is that?

[Palmetto]

What color stain is that?

Early American

[Rick]

great work...I like the pipe brace, adds to the build

[DFA]

Very nice table

[Flex]

I am wanting to build basically this exact thing. How do you distress it before staining?

I can handle the construction, but do not know much about stain/ paint/ etc.

[Quackerbox]

Nicely done and I may add your pics to my "maybe one day file" of stuff to build. I like the pipe brace on the bottom

I am wanting to build basically this exact thing. How do you distress it before staining?

I can handle the construction, but do not know much about stain/ paint/ etc.

Whoop the **** out of it. Ive used chain, edge of a hammer and a 2x4 with nails screws and fence staples naiedl into it.