Well, after several posts about the table top and legs for the outdoor coffee table, it is finally time for the final assembly. There are just a few things to complete before pulling everything together. The most important part is to connect the top slats to the legs via a pin through each mortise and tenon joint. Holes were drilled through the leg mortises and the table top tenons that are aligned with one another. Oak pins go into those holes to hold the legs tightly to the table top slats. Last step in the final assembly is to stain everything. Starting the final connection between table top and legs! In my previous table build, there was a slight gap between the breadboard (end) and the table slats. I made a lot of effort to eliminate those gaps through a couple of measures. First and foremost, I was very precise…

The outdoor coffee table to match our outdoor sectional is nearing completion! I posted about making the table top and all of the tenons for the mortise and tenon joints last week. I'll cover how the matching mortises were made in the table legs, as well as the assembly of each leg.  Before cutting the mortises in the table legs for the joint, I made all of the cuts for the legs. Based on the design, each leg has 45º miter joints for each corner. I used a miter saw and stop block for consistency across all 8 pieces for the legs (4 per leg). One thing I didn’t do for this build is cut each matching piece on both sides of the saw. This method means that if your saw is slightly off, one side will have a 44º angle and the other should have a matching 46º angle.…

This week’s post is all about building the table top for my outdoor coffee table. The design calls for seven slats of 1”x4” cedar, spaced about ¾” apart from one another. Each slat will be attached to the legs via mortise and tenon joints. Similar to what I did for the dining table, the coffee table will use a breadboard concept. However, there are a couple of differences in this build. The legs themselves are the breadboards for the coffee table. This means I’ll need to route the mortises directly into the top 2”x4” of each leg. The other difference is that the top slats have space between them. This means that wood movement isn’t as large of a concern as the dining table. Because the sides of each slat are not constrained against one another, they can expand side to side freely. Practically, this means that I can pin…