Recycled Cedar into a Small Outdoor Table

steve morris

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i spotted this table design a few years back in american woodworker, plans are on their website

lots of jigs and router trammel works!!

the cedar is really nice stuff, it came from a cottage i renovated a couple of years ago. the cottage was built 70 or so years ago and framed entirely in 2 by 3 cedar. the growth rings are really tight,, so that all four faces appear 1/4 sawn. all the pieces for top so far are actually 1/4 sawn


here is the outer ring glued up, 12 segments with splines
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the pie shaped centre section added
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just one of the router setups, this one cuts the outer ends of the centre section pieces
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i'll get some pics, of the various setups, but detailed info is in the AW plans. i'll find the link to them

next step is space the centre section pieces out, glue them in, then cut a hole for the "hub"

im building the table 1/2 sized from the plans, the origanal was a "sit to eat" type, i wanted small side tables

sorry for the lousy pics, i cant find the base piece that fastens the camera to the tripod

here's the link to the plans, note my top is 1/2 the size

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/pr...st-patio-table
 
im actually planning on building four of them, get the bugs worked out and the jigs made up on this one
then i'll do three at once
 
i'll get some pics of the various jigs and setups today.
i stated with nominal 2 by 3 cedar, actually 1 3/4 by 2 3/4, so a little larger than typical construction stuff these days. picked through the pile to find all nice close grained stuff(easy pickins!). i cutup blanks for all the pieces(long enough for at least two pieces so i wasnt jointing and planing shorts).

dressed them all to 7/8 with bandsaw(the old crescent), jointer and planer then cut all the circle segment parts to approx. length and same with the pie shaped pieces

simple stuff so far!

the pie shaped pieces were all tapered on both sides, first at 7.5 degrees then the second side at 15. this kept the nice straight grain in a radial pattern in the final tabletop.

i did all the tapering using the tablesaw and my crosscut sled with a small fence added. here's the sled with the fence set for 15 degrees for the centre section parts

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and the finished table. pretty fussy getting all those pie shaped pieces evenly spaced

made the legs by laminating 6 pieces of cedar over a form

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