PROJECT: Folding Table (The Build)

Last time, I showed you the design for my folding table, now it's time to build it. This little project could probably be built in a day, especially in the summer time when you have more daylight hours! As it stands, it's taken about two days; yesterday was spent cutting out all the components, sanding them, and routing some of the rebates required. Today was spent routing out what we didn't finish yesterday, cutting out some extra strengtheners, drilling the holes and chiseling out the rebates for the bolt heads, doing a dry run, and finally gluing the crossbeams, the ends, and the triangular supports in place. Like I said, in these winter months, it's surprising how quickly you lose daylight (especially when you're not a morning person)!

Before we start though, there are a few bits of "housekeeping" to get through. Firstly, I've updated the cutting plan with the additional triangular supports:

Secondly, it's probably wise that I do a run-down of the tools and materials that I used for the build:

Materials

  • 2x    Three-quarter length sheets of 12mm plywood (606x1829mm)
  • 4x    M10 bolts, washers, and nuts (bolts should be 40mm long) - I bought a pack of 6 from Wickes
  • Sandpaper (any grade will do, I used relatively rough sandpaper as this cheap ply will splinter quite badly)
  • A small handful of 30mm panel pins
  • Wood glue (or just use PVA as I did)
If you want a neater finish, it may be worth investing in marine ply, but be warned that the cost will probably double!

Tools

Some may be able to be substituted as noted, else you might have to find alternate construction techniques, borrow tools from a friend, or even try working with a different material. For example, if you don't have a router, you may wish to swap the plywood for pine board, and glue and screw all non-moving joints instead.
  • Hand saw &/or tenon saw
  • Skilsaw (circular saw) (with a baseplate that can be adjusted to 15 degrees)
  • Router (with a 6mm straight bit, and also a larger bit; say 18mm)
  • An adjustable spanner (to change the router chucks)
  • A square
  • An adjustable square (for marking out the 15 degree cuts, or use a protractor)
  • Clamps (at least 3, but more is always better!)
  • A pencil
  • A tape measure
  • A disc sander (or you can sand it by hand)
  • A pillar drill (or you can use a normal drill, just use guide blocks so that you drill perfectly vertically) with a 10mm bit
  • A compass
  • A hammer
  • A mallet and chisel (a chisel 6mm wide is ideal)
  • Some sort of workbench or trestles to work on
  • A wood plane

The Build


Above: The first step is of course to start marking out the components. I didn't have the luxury of my cutting plan at the time, so I wrote everything down in a table. Note that this was before I planned on having those small additional triangular supports!


Above: Each component was cut out one by one. It probably goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway; you don't want to mark everything out in one go, cut it out with a circular saw, and then realise you haven't allowed for the amount of material lost via the blade! Note the in-built guide on the Skilsaw. For wider components, you'll need to use a long spirit level clamped down to the board to act as a guide. Don't forget to do a very quick test cut on the edge to make sure the blade/guide is in the right place!


Above: A lot of the components on this desk have 15 degree angled cuts. For this, we had an adjustable square to help us mark these awkward angles out.


Above: I can't saw wood straight for the life of me, but thankfully my Dad can! If it was me, I'd probably set up a guide and use a Skilsaw instead, even for these short cuts; it takes longer to set up, but I know it'll be accurate, and it's also less physical effort!


Above: As well as a 15 degree angle on one end, the legs (all 8 of them) have the other end curved. As the legs are 80mm wide, that obviously means a 40mm radius circle. To cut this out, most of it is taken off with a tenon saw, and the profile is then curved with a disc sander.


Above: We'll come back to the legs later, now it's time to rebate the tabletop and the 4 crossbeams. Here's the tabletop having one of it's inner crossbeams' rebate cut out. This is a 6mm straight cutting bit. A word of caution; make sure you don't try and do the full depth in one go! We did 4 passes to rebate the full 6mm rebate. Note the grey lever that locks the routers' height, and the in-built guide keeping it all parallel with the board edge.


Above: I haven't bothered showing a photo of every component being cut out, but here's a montage showing all the components; there are 25 in total:
  • 8x legs (will later be glued into 4 pairs)
  • 8x triangular end braces (will also later be glued into 4 pairs)
  • 2x inner crossbeams
  • 2x outer crossbeams
  • 2x angled ends
  • 1x leg brace (for the outer pair of legs)
  • 1x leg brace (for the inner pair of legs)
  • 1x tabletop


Above: With all the components cut out, let's turn our attention back to the legs (that sounded better in my head). As we'll be using M10 bolts to attach the legs, we'll obviously need a 10mm diameter hole. For this, I'm going to use a pillar drill because I want to ensure the holes are perfectly vertical. So long as you're being careful, there's no need to drill a pilot hole. Don't forget that you'll need corresponding holes in the 4 crossbeams, too! Oh, and once you'd drilled the hole in one leg, just put the next leg under the first, align it up, and drill through the original hole etc.


Above: Now, we probably should've done the rebates for the bolt heads with a larger size drill bit before drilling the 10mm holes, but we didn't. That meant getting creative, so out came the chisel and mallet! It's not a difficult process; draw around the bolt head, hit the chisel (whilst in a vertical position) to indent the ply a few mm, and then knock out the material from the side of the hole. Not the best photos I know, but I think you get the idea. Like routing, don't try and do it all in one go; thin layers at a time will work better. Also, remember that you'll only need to do this with 4 of the leg pieces, and that you'll need 2 of each "hand".


Above: Now it's just a case of gluing each pair together. Keeping the bolts in will help you align them. I glued one pair at a time, and kept them under pressure with the clamps whilst I glued the next pair up, then added that pair to the pair already cramped up. Eventually you'll have all 4 pairs clamped together in one tall tower. Always keep checking that everything is aligned.


Above: A similar process is carried out for the 4 pairs of triangular support blocks.


Above: Whilst those are gluing, I went ahead and cut out the hole in the tabletop that will be used to hang the table up on the pegboard wall. I'll be using a larger diameter straight bit (the size isn't important, as you'll see) in the router, so I'll also need to swap the chuck out for a larger one. Note the black button that is used to hold the shank in place whilst changing the chuck. On the right photo, you'll see that I'm marking out where the hole will be; using a compass to mark the rounded ends.


Above: Just like before, the area for cutting is close enough to the board edge to use the in-built guide. The hole needed is very wide (28mm), so not only did it take 4 passes to get through the 12mm ply, but each half of the hole was done separately. Despite the cheap ply, the centre photo shows that the precision of the router allows you to create really thin strips! We don't need this middle strip though, so the guide was taken off, and the circular ends were simply plunged free-hand (right photo).


Above: With the machining finished, we can finally start to assemble the table. This is where a dry-run is absolutely crucial. We need to be sure that the tongues on the crossbars sit into the rebates underneath the tabletop perfectly! As the blurry photo on the right explains, a plane was used to take a little bit off the edges of the tongues to help it sit better.


Above: After the dry run, we can go ahead and glue the four crossbeams on. The right photo shows that we're using a square to ensure the sides are vertical. Note the gap with the glue showing, unfortunately the ply we used was a bit warped, but we did manage to get it a bit tighter by using multiple clamps. We obviously didn't dry-run this side as thoroughly as we thought; it just goes to show how important it is to test it properly before committing!


Above: The opposite side went in much better, and to help ensure the crossbeams were indeed vertical, we glued the two angled end boards and also the 4 pairs of triangular supports on as well. Hammering in 30mm panel pins ensures a tight hold, and offers that extra bit of support. Each triangular support also had a pin hammered into the top (well, the bottom, technically; as it's all upside-down!).


Above: And here's the full thing (minus the legs) clamped up, pinned, and glued. This is left for 12 hours at least for the glue to fully cure. You can see that the troublesome left side has a lot more clamps to try and fix the bowed tabletop! Note the offcuts of ply used to spread the clamps' range over to both sets of crossbeams.

Above: Having been left overnight to cure, it was time to attach the legs. Unfortunately, we didn't check what we were doing when we originally drilled the holes in the outer crossbeams, so we had to redrill them. The inner crossbeams/legs were fine though, thankfully!

Above: No problem, we just clamped the legs to the outside (after having drawn a reference line), and drilled a new hole using the leg hole as a guide. With the two holes redrilled, it was just a case of attaching the legs with the M10 bolts.

Above: And now for the final step, adding the leg crossbraces. This will keep the bottom of the legs at the right distance apart, and will also provide rigidity and stability when the table is in use. To attach these, we simply used a combination of wood glue and more 30mm panel pins. By adding blocks of equal thickness under the pair of legs we're adding the crossbrace to, they are lifted up away from the other pair; making our lives that little bit easier!

And with that, the table is more or less complete. A bit of sanding, and maybe some paint and sealant of some kind will be beneficial, but that's all aesthetic additions for later. For the sake of completeness, here are some photos of the finished table:


Above: The finished folding table is plenty sturdy enough, and could even be used as a workbench whilst cutting heavy boards, or working on small model engineering projects. There is only a small amount of wobble, and I suspect most of that is due to the feet not being quite even when I glued the legs together; a bit of sanding should fix that. It's not too heavy considering that it is made of 25 bits of 12mm plywood, and can be handled by one person easily. All in all, a very useful addition to the studio!

Above: Finally, here's a montage showing the table being folded away. In hindsight, having the outer legs hinged on the handle end would've been better for stowing it away as I wouldn't have to rotate it 180 degrees to get the handle at the top. That said, it's not a huge deal, and the table is easy enough to manouevre.

I really hope you found the design and construction of this folding table useful, and you are more than welcome to use my cutting plan to make your own. If you require any further information or clarification, please do comment below and I'll get back to you.

I always welcome constructive criticism, so let me know if there's something you would change, or a useful addition you can think of for the design. Feedback is always appreciated!

'Till next time, stay safe, and happy building!
Jamie.


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