Making outdoor furniture

I’m thinking a standard picnic table, and possibly (more ambitiously) some kind of custom sized shed for the kids’ garden toy junk.

I’m encouraged by the job I did making a gate for the fence, but having just used cheap rough sawn timber from the orange place, one of the timbers has warped.

Is there some specific timber I should buy to help prevent my picnic table from warping out of shape?

Any other general tips?

I used local grown larch, cut to order from my local saw mill. It has a high resin content, so ideal for outdoor use, no need to treat it, it’ll grey nicely in time. Probably worth covering over winter. I’ll post my efforts up in a bit.

Timber warps as it dries out, it’s a fact of life. That’s why you need to buy timber that has been stacked and dried properly, as a good timber merchant will. Ideally it will then be planed flat just before joining. Use air dried for outdoor use. Where a bouts are you? Talk to English woodlands timber if near west Sussex.

[/url]Adirondack chair prototype by martinddd[/url], on Flickr[/img]

[/url]IMAG1832 by martinddd[/url], on Flickr[/img]

[/url]IMAG1841 by martinddd[/url], on Flickr[/img]

[/url]IMAG1862 by martinddd[/url], on Flickr[/img]

[/url]IMAG1912 by martinddd[/url], on Flickr[/img]

[/url]Coffee table for outside deck / seating area. by martinddd[/url], on Flickr[/img]

[/url]2016-04-10_10-55-40 by martinddd[/url], on Flickr[/img]

I used tung oil when i made them, i don’t think i’d bother to again. I used 1″ & 1.5″ timber, for a picnic bench i’d probably use 2″ for some parts.

Nice work, qwerty. May I ask the reason why the decking frame has 2″ holes drilled through it?

Nice chairs qwerty.

May I ask the reason why the decking frame has 2″ holes drilled through it?

Yea course. It sitting direct on the ground, so i thought some holes might aid airflow through all the “compartments” & slow the rotting process (the joists were pressure treated with nasty stuff by the saw mill). The gaps in the boards probably do this though. I did think of it as a little haven for critters like mice etc, but then thought of rats so meshed the external ones as it got covered. No idea if it makes any difference, but seemed a good idea at the time!

Ok so the choice of timber is less important than the choice of merchant…?

Why would you not bother with tung oil?

I used the plan on the site below which uses 2 inch thick timber. It’s solid as a rock and isn’t going to warp although it is at least a two man lift. I would also advise sourcing a good timber merchant over B&Q if only to avoid their extortionate prices (this cost about £110 but that’s including a couple of boxes of monster screws).

http://www.mybackyardplans.com/picnictableplans.php

Warping also depends on how the timber is milled. More warping will occur if the rind run parallel to the width of the boar rather than perpendicular. Quarter saw board is milled so that is minimises warping, but is much more expensive. I would just try to get wood that has been well dried and pick out the timber myself to get the best bits, paying attention to the grain direction. Wood does move though, it is an organic product. Laminations make a more stable product if you want to take that route.

Molgrips – I’d say the choice of timber is paramount, a good sawmill/timberyard can cut to any size for you. The tung oil takes time (4 coats) and REALLY shows off the grain (as you can see in my pics), but I kinda like the natural greying of the larch.

Timbur of stw is in this trade and may be along with some professional advice.

I did deal with a sawmill when we tried to get local wood for our house flooring. They were having problems with their tongue and groove flooring machine, til they eventually realised it was properly buggered and had to tell me to shop elsewhere. Shame, I’d have loved local Ash. They were easy enough to deal with though.

Thing is, I don’t want high end stuff, just rough, ready and solid, but I do want it to remain roughly the shape it starts off with.

Western Red Cedar is also a good external timber and smells lovely. Got a few spare boards that I intend to fix to a table frame for the garden.

We don’t mill ourselves, but do get a fair amount milled for our own use (10-20 tons/year). We don’t get stuff quarter cut as we don’t make indoor furniture. We do floorboards from time to time, but they are cut as blanks to be re sawn and profiled once ready. Most of the stuff we make is gates, boardwalk, fencing, benches and occasional set of barn doors. Majority of stuff is 2″ and we don’t see any issues. Barn doors are 3/4″ or 1″ thick, but well attached to bracing and ultimately they are barn doors, so we aren’t paying too much attention to dead flat levels, just the ability to keep stuff where we left it.

Short answer: thick stuff doesn’t curl so easily and if in doubt, more bigger nails.

Just rough n ready? How about using old scaff’ boards? Old ones need to be chucked for H&s reasons so can be had for free, new ones are only about 8 quid or so.

For something like a picnic table, maybe use something like 2×4 treated timber (the planed stuff) from Travis Perkins etc for the base/framework, and then get some fancy stuff such as mentioned above for the seat and table surfaces?

Depends what you want and how much you can spend. I definitely wouldn’t buy any timber from B&Q etc though. Horrible fast grown jointed rubbish in general.

Absolutely as cheap as possible, whilst minimising possibility of warping – that’s the only criteria. Niceness not really a factor.

Have you got a wood recycling place nearby? The wood should’ve done all the warping is going to and its cheap and sustainable. Usually a limited choice but for me that’s half the fun; making a design that fits the materials available.

I like to build stuff with recycled pallets. They can be had for free if you know where to look, but require some extra time for disaseembly and de-nailing. If you pick good ones, it’ll be sustainably sorced and heat treated. It’s only cheap softwood, but plenty good enough for building garden furniture from.

I like the scaffolding board idea, though!

Pallets are free but I wouldn’t use them for anything structural. These are nailed to 18mm chipboard which is mounted on the walls

20160123_164655 by WCA![/url], on Flickr

But lots and lots of nails to pull out
20160124_100114 by WCA![/url], on Flickr

Can stain up nicely
20160220_124058 by WCA![/url], on Flickr