Big Green Table

[thegrouse]

Since I have completed my shed and still have a chop saw I have considered building a big green egg table. I had a cypress table that was stained but it only lasted 5 years out in the elements before completely rotting. I was considering building one out of cedar and staining it. This table will be sitting out in the elements year round and will not be covered. Is there any wood that will hold up to this or would I be better off finding a metal table? I think I can build the table but I don't want to spend the money if I will be throwing it away in 5 years.

[BTLowry]

Cypress rotted in 5 years?

Hmmmm, thought it was one of the best to use outdoors, highly rot resistant

[thegrouse]

I bought it on eBay. The seller still sells them and claims them to be solid cypress. I bought it thinking cypress would do well being outside in the South Texas weather.

[TMC50]

According to the People of Japan, no joke saw it on FB, if you burn the wood, it will last 100 years.... I would be cautious of burning treated lumber though.

We are going to be building a table here in the quick future so I'll be following along. I am like you and hate throwing money down the drawn on things like that

[offthemap]

I bought a stainless steel table with caster wheels off ebay for around 150 bucks, then reinforced the middle shelf that's adjustable in height, measured and cut out an oval in the top (I have the Primo XL), put some "trim-lok" rubber around the rough edge of the cut out, and then set my grill down in it.

It's worked pretty well for the past year.

[offthemap]

Completed pics

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[thegrouse]

That looks great. I just checked Ebay. Is that the table with the galvanized adjustable shelf? How did you brace the top? What did you use to cut the stainless?

[offthemap]

That looks great. I just checked Ebay. Is that the table with the galvanized adjustable shelf? How did you brace the top? What did you use to cut the stainless?

Yes, galvanize adjustable shelf.

I didn't brace the top but I did brace the shelf with 1 piece of 6" c-channel steel welded under the width of the shelf.

Cut it with a plasma cutter and finished it grinder.

If I had it to do over again I would've painted the shelf before I set the grill. Also, I would've added a cross brace to the shelf and placed the grill down on paver stones to distribute the weight across the shelf better instead of using the little porcelain covered feet that come with the grill. My issue is that water pools up on the shelf under the grill and I have to get my leaf blower to get it out of there.

[thegrouse]

Thanks. I just sold my welder so I may be out of luck on that. The materials are going to run me about $150 to do in cedar. I like the metal idea better unless I can salvage some old douglas fir off of one of my neighbor's remodels.

[offthemap]

Thanks. I just sold my welder so I may be out of luck on that. The materials are going to run me about $150 to do in cedar. I like the metal idea better unless I can salvage some old douglas fir off of one of my neighbor's remodels.

I hear ya. I don't have a mig or stick welder either but I have some buddies that do and on occasion they'll work for the small price of 4 beers/hour!

I think with materials and everything I came out to around $125.

Before I decided to weld the braces in I thought about using hardwood boards for support and attach them by drilling into the wood through the lip of the shelf on both sides. No idea if it will work but it's worth a shot.

Couple more tips:

Don't slide your grill around on the stainless table top. The bottom of my Primo is not porcelain covered and scratched the mess out of the nice shiny new surface (see my pics).

Get 4" casters with brakes. You'll need them at some point.

There's no need to brace the table top (at least not for me there isn't). If you want to add support, try to figure out a way to do it without welding the braces in. The heat of the bead left black spots where it was tacked in and my only option now would be to paint them over and defeat the purpose of buying a stainless table.

While you have the table apart build some sort of track system under the middle shelf to slide in a waterproof / rubbermaid plastic box. The box is used as dry storage for your lump coal, leather gloves, starter cubes, etc. This keeps it off the ground, mobile with the grill if it's on casters, and gives you easy access to the coal. There are a lot of DIY / How-to threads for this on the web.

[ldoyle]

[QUOTE=offthemap;1337 The heat of the bead left black spots where it was tacked in

Some scotch brite and some elbow grease will probably clean up those spots , at least make them less visible

[offthemap]

[quote=ldoyle;13379362][QUOTE=offthemap;1337 The heat of the bead left black spots where it was tacked in

Some scotch brite and some elbow grease will probably clean up those spots , at least make them less visible[/quote]

Worth a try! Thanks!

[Johnny Dangerr]

My cedar unit.

[thegrouse]

That looks great. Is it kept out in the elements? How many years has it looked like that?

[Johnny Dangerr]

That looks great. Is it kept out in the elements? How many years has it looked like that?

It is under a eve and covered with a BGE cover for the table and egg.
It made it 18 months and I need to re do it..............