Ok.. story behind the table goes a little something like this. In the middle of November of 2014, my wife gave me the lovely surprise news that we would have an indeterminate amount of people for Christmas. The best answer I could get was between 10 and 20! Either way, we couldn't really seat 10 inside our dining room let alone 20. We investigated some large outdoor table settings but it just wasn't practical. Cost wise for something attractive was close to or above five figures (Hell No) or we could purchase a couple of outdoor tables and join them end to end.
My darling wife came up with the idea of me building the table which got a resounding HELL NO from me. But after a barrage of picture messages from her (we were in the same room mind you) of all these different tables, it became clear that I was going to be building a table. I couldn't find plans that would work well enough and the ones that did were all in Imperial and complexity of having to transfer the plans to Metric and upscale the design felt a little too daunting and easy to make a mistake worth a lot of money. So I had this design in my head. I wanted something that was a cross between a medieval banquet table and a trestle table.
Hitch up the trailer, head to Bunnings and returned with these bit of wood. 13x 5.1M lengths of 25x150mm treated pine.
I was really thankful in the case that each piece measured exactly 25x150mm. I also spent a lot of time trying to find the straightest boards with the least amount of character (read as huge arse knots)
Arranged the boards in the manner seen below and commenced to dress the ends and put my cross bearers in place. After dressing, the final length of the table is 4.8 metres.
At this point I came to the conclusion that I underestimated the amount of screws and glue required... back to bunnings. Also at this point I realized... oh ****, I'm actually doing this and god damn it had better work. I also remember at this point... I've never built a table before. Is building a massive table easier than a smaller dining table? Leveling it out was much easier than I expected.
The idea I had was to make it all from size of wood and so far, that planned had worked well. Even when sandwiching the boards together to make beams.
Night time had started to fall... and I continued to work. My nearest neighbours are 200 meters away and have a tendency to make as much noise with power tools as I do, so I didn't feel bad. Those of you who know me personally will recognize my blue Contigo travel cup... the same one I was using four years ago and the same one I'm using today. It gets used about 3-4 times a day and is still sealing perfectly and keeping my coffee hot every where I go. I literally go everywhere with that cup. it's like a babies dummy to me. Anyway, back to the table.. boards are being sandwiched and stays are going into place.
One of three finished legs. I've also struck a massive problem about now. How the hell am I going to flip this thing over?!?!?!
The completed table ready for flipping, sanding and staining. Now how the hell am I going to do that? A few people offered to come around and help after work the next day... but that was too far away for me.
I did it. I flipped the ####er by myself. Using a series of pulleys tied up in the overheads of the patio, I was able to hoist it off the table it was built on, remove the under table and I lowered it down, I laid it on it's side... Once there, I was able to pull a Hercules and lift it upright. (I spent the next day off work with a crook back... no lesson learnt.)
When I hobbled out the next day, I found my wife had done pretty much most of the cleaning up and even put a couple of candelabras on the table. She was happy... and we know the saying, happy wife, happy life. So I returned to bed satisfied.
A couple of days later I sanded the table top back and started to stain/polish the top. Yeah... I shellaced treated pine and I don't regret it... except for the continual reapplication lol
The finished top... After I let the Shellac dry for a couple of days, I then took to the top with my random orbital polisher and some AutoGlym car polish lol
Xmas Day 2014... thats me at the very end of the table...
We had a total of 13 for lunch, so that meant a lot of elbow room for everyone and a max of about 24 throughout the day.
Id like to add for the record that I hit the roof when I came out to find that damn table cloth on it.
Since then, we have had so many family occasions around that table to the point where it has actually brought so many of us together and had some amazing nights with family and friends. All without the table cloth!
Hope I didn't bore you all to death with it... but I am proud of that table and you can give me all the **** you want for showing it off! I don't care! hehehe... and yeah, there are a LOT of things I would do differently next time. But hopefully... I don't have to have a next time.
Final note.. I returned from Bunnings at 11am and went to bed about midnight with the table construction completed... just requiring sanding and staining.
Second final note.. I have seen photos of this throne and I intend to build one similar for myself this year before Christmas.
