How to build an Extendable Picnic Table

Table of Contents

• 1Description & About the measurements
• 2A pictorial summary
• 3A pictorial summary continued
• 4Part identification & The plan drawings 
• 5Shopping list and cutting list
• 6Instructions - Stacking and cutting the pieces
• 7Making the bench frame
• 8Fixing the seat boards and the legs
• 9Assembling the table frame
• 10Fixing the table top 
• 11Making the extensions
• 12Fitting the extensions
• 13Job finished!

Turn the table upside down and fix a couple of blocks of woodTimber, lumber. The hard fibrous lignified substance under the bark of trees (strengtheners) across the middle of the table on the underside. Glue and nail the strengtheners in place. They can be practically any stock size, whatever is left laying around.

The strengtheners will help prevent the top of the table from becoming uneven, i.e. keeping all of the table-top boards on the same planeA flat surface extending infinitely in all directions (e.g. horizontal or vertical plane). Any flat, two-dimensional surface..

Step 15: Finished table without extensions

Well that’s the table (without the extensions) and the two bench seats finished.

Sometimes a stand alone picnic table with separate seats is better that an all-in-one unit, as it allows far more options as to what can be done with it (seating, positioning, one-seat or two seat, etc.)

The table and benches came in handy for me on a following project, as three work benches. But that’s another story.