Basic Framing Project
Building This Simple Table OffersBasic Lessons In Working With 2x4's
(And You'll Get A Nice Little Table In The End!)
Recently I've been shopping for a table or desk to use in my art studio. Stopping at all the thrift and resale shops, as
well as looking at some new stuff (ugh! it's all cheap pressboard now) was getting exhausting. Then I realized: "Hey,
silly, why not make the kind of table you need?"
Bingo! Hence was born the idea of recording my table building project for the benefit of Small House
Building readers. I figured that many of the principals in building a solid little table are the same as some of those skills
that are needed for a stud frame wall.
You may not think that building a simple piece of furniture, like this table, would do you any good in learning some basic
framing skills. Think again. Knowing how to keep things square and make accurate measurements and cuts are a good foundation in
building a stud-frame wall.
If you're looking for a basic framing project then starting with a piece of furniture like this is really THE best way (well,
apart from apprenticing with a framing subcontractor) to expose you to working with 2x4's and other lumber.
This is the table outlined in this project. A nice, serviceable, work table that you can use for anything from a workbench, to
a potting bench, to a table for your art studio, to a rustic kitchen island.
Also, working with some power tools on a smaller scale will help to give you confidence in working with them later. Admittedly,
power tools can be very intimidating if you haven't had any exposure to them. They definitely deserve much respect. Flesh
and bone are no match for whirring, sharp, steel blades! So, it goes with out saying: Wear protective eye and
ear wear!!! The tiniest sliver can cause a huge amount of damage in the eye.
But, with a project like this, you'll start to feel a bit more confident with those tools. You'll also start to get a feel for
working with basic lumber... how it feels, how it cuts, how to hold it firmly to prevent kick-backs (and what it feels like when the
blade starts to grab the wood and you need to let go fast).
Am I being too alarmist here? This is just a little table building project. Well, only experience will tell you later. Ok,
let's get on with it...
Here are the pieces involved. The only piece not shown here is the table top (but, it shows up in the next picture). I'm not
going to give you an exact recipe for lengths, widths, etc., because everyone's specifications will be a little different. There are
a couple 1"x6"s, a couple 1"x4"s, and a couple 2"x4"s that I already sawed in half for the 4 legs.
I went to the "scraps" section of my local lumber yard and found these pieces for anywhere from 1.29 to 2.89. I was trying to keep
this project as frugal as possible, and with the 2'x4'x.75" top it all came to about $23. But, if you have access to some friend's
workshop, or a construction dumpster, you could conceivably spend nothing. Unfortunately, I didn't have anything left over from my
house building (because I moved) so I didn't have that option.
I decided to go with a stock 2-foot by 4-foot by 3/4-inch piece of particle board. Buying a 4'x8' sheet of anything just wasn't
feasible. Not only are large sheets unwieldy to handle, but (in my opinion) dangerous to cut if you're by yourself. It was well worth
it in this case to pay a little more per square foot and not have the hassle of cutting a large sheet. I also decided that particle
board was better than plywood because I was going to use the surface for drawing and painting and wanted as smoothe of a surface as
possible.
So, in the above picture you'll see the beginning of a "box" of 1"x4"s to be affixed to the underside of the table. I've estimated
how much margin I wanted around the box... nothing formal. But, the length of the boards has to be measured precisely to get a square
box in the end. The end boards must match in length, and the side boards must match in length. They're just standing in place right now
and not nailed or screwed anywhere.
Stay tuned... page in progress...
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