Making big worktables for Studio Bricolage

( at the bottom of this page there are two attachments: one is a PDFof the whole diy document, and the other is CAD file for the table in dwg format)

Studio Bricolage moved into a small but useable space in the corner of Leonardo's Basement. It was a decision to keep the kid's workplace separate from the adult's. We needed strong, large tables to pound on and after looking around thought it would be better to build than buy. So we came up wi th a few specs that we absolutely needed:

• A 4 x 8 foot table top. Hey, that's the size of a sheet of plywood; how convenient!

• 42 inches tall. Perfect height for both standing and sitting at.

• Casters for moving around.
• Disassemblable... We hopefully will be finding new digs and don't want to cut these in half to get out the door.
• Interesting design.

So I went home and start scratching up some designs. One construction technique that I had seen on many work tables was to send monster lag screws into the legs through the table's apron or top. That's easy and cheap but not very resistant to the constant wiggling of the table. The lag screw eventually gets loose and some dingbat (like me) gets out the socket wrench and torques it too hard. The threads strip out of the legs and the joint is toast. You are screwed to get it tight again and repairing the joint is a king-size pain. So I thought about moving the ”muscle”of the joint outside of the legs and substituting a machine thread for the wood screw thread. Intriguing idea and as it turned out, works great.

You can see the plans for it in AutoCAD format or in PDF format. The drawing shows one table but we made a recipe for four tables. The construction really isn't too hard. It can be done in five steps:

1. Making the legs
2. Making the stretchers
3. Joining the legs and stretchers and adding casters
4. Joining top to bottom
5. Trimming the edge

Let's get to it

Buy 15 8 foot 2x4s for each table. It's important to pick through and get the straightest ones you can. Also no cracks, wane (the bark), twists or bends. You'll be fighting these defects all the way. It's worth the time to cull the best. If you have the choice, go to a contractor's lumberyard but rummaging through the stacks at a big box store (Home Depot or Lowes) can work. I know, most of the lumber these days look like hockey sticks! The saying "garbage in, garbage out" rings true this time.

First things first- if your 2x4s have them, remove the blasted stickers and staples from the ends. Get rid of them! You'll be using the ends as a reference -- a gauge will be fit over the ends -- and the annoying things will get in the way.

(On to the next page --->)