Easily Build a Table… Fast and Cheap!.
get our knuckle yeah then I got hurt uncle knackers here guess what we've got ourselves a little bit of a problem all this equipment only a little desk so there's only one solution build a bigger desk let's do it whoops that wasn't meant to happen I didn't break anything [Music] okay like I said before we just have too much equipment on this little desk and this little desk is actually our dining table which I've built about five years ago I did a video on it you might wanna check it out and I made it out of the scraps from an old truck yard that was being torn down it's still going like an absolute demon I love it I don't know throw the old burlap over here we'll get the printer and a modem tucked away on top of filing cabinet so as you can see all this stuff is too much to be able to work efficiently on one desk now this room is actually my wife's home office so before I went out and built some big heavy industrial rustic-looking thing she gave me a little bit of a brief and in that brief she said Shane Shane listen and listen good I want something that's going to be nice and light because sometimes this desk will need to be moved out that door because we might want to convert it into a guest bedroom from time to time hence the light weight and also she said I wanted to go from wall to wall so there's no wriggle room and the heavier it is the harder to be to get out that door and the second thing she said was that she wanted something retro or blending in with something a bit Scandinavian is there such a blend interesting but I'm up for it let's do it now I've done a bit of research and I think this is what I will build we have the metal hairpin legs which is the retro component and the blond timber for the tabletop makes it look very Scandinavian so all up I think it looks absolutely fantastic now in Australia if you were to buy a table of that style that Scandinavian retro blendy thingy type style and at a length that I want which is two point three meters long but 890 millimeters wide I've done my research the prices start from around $1,200 right up to 2400 smackeroonies now that is a truckload of cash and I think if you build it yourself you can do it for a lot cheaper than that in Australia I've worked out to be around $400 and if you're from the states you can probably have that cost to you up in Australia for building products we get absolutely ripped off it's just not fair anyway enough of my complaining let's get this stuff together and see how guys should be good oh that is a good copper mmm delicious now before I start this video I've got a little confession to make I didn't actually do a video of the table build I know I know don't panic don't panic don't get your knickers in a twist the reason I didn't have time but I did take plenty of photos along the way documenting each step by step of the process and a fact of the matter is is that this table build was probably one of the easiest things that I've ever put together an end result was absolutely fantastic so that further ado let's kick off with step one all right step number one which is probably one of the most critical steps of the whole job and that is tender selection I've gone for pine for two reasons reason number one reason number one is that pine is light as in light weight which was one of the criteria in brief and number two it's also light in color which gives it that Scandinavian look but the problem is or the issue is is that whenever you go to one of those big chain hardware stores the timber selection is atrocious as a general rule of thumb even though I went for premium grade pine I had to go through a truckload of timber to get what I wanted eventually I did and I think it turned out quite well looks good oh yeah it's also cheaper and hardwood so there's three reasons why I selected pine having said that though there are some drawbacks to using pine and that is it's not as strong as hardwood it's not as hard as hardwood but it is cheaper done now as far as the cutting list goes I'm doing everything in metric if you need to convert any figures into imperial I'll leave a converter in the description box below so make sure you check that one out and every board on this job is 2.4 meters in length 4 tabletop itself consists of two layers the very top layer consists of five boards two of those boards are two 35 millimeter by 19 millimeter and 301 so no three and three are 140 millimeter by 19 millimeter now the second layer which is there for a bit of strength and also to add the perception of depth or consult with my figures I have three lengths at 65 millimeters by 19 millimeters in one length at 89 millimeters by 19 millimeters but I'll leave all those measurements in the description box below where it might be a bit easier to digest step 2 now step 2 is probably the trickiest step of the whole job and even that is absolute piece of cake seriously anybody can do this stuff step 2 is where we're joining all those boards together to make the tabletop and we're using a biscuit joiner to do that job now the biscuit joiner is this tool which you can see now and I'll show you how to use that tool as we go through the video now the first thing you need to do is to lay all of your top boards out now mine are an order of 140 to 35 140 to 35 and a 140 and the reason for that is just to have a bit of contrast once the boards are laid out on both edge boards mark long in increments of 300 millimeters which is roughly a foot along the entire length of the board on both sides and then grab your level or a straightedge and join those lines up across your tabletop once you've done that it's a really good idea to make sure that you've marked or numbered the ends of your boards so when you put them back together again you put them back in the right order RINO now that all the boards have been marked it's time to cut the grooves which looks like this into the boards using your biscuit cutter so ever you see a line that you've marked on your tabletop get your biscuit cutter and cut one of those grooves once you've done all that grab some glue run it along the entire edge of that board and also put some inside the groove that you've made with your biscuit cutter then grab your biscuit which looks like this place it into that groove and then simply line the boards up pencil line to pencil line and then grab your clamps and clamp the whole tabletop together now to ensure that the tabletop doesn't cut during the clamping process it's a good idea to wait it down until that glue dries now all that seems a little bit tricky don't worry about it because only last week I filmed a video on how to do exactly what I have explained step-by-step and in much greater detail so I'll leave a link which will be over there somewhere potentially just click on that and that will take you through the whole process check it out so as you can see it's now 24 hours later the glue has dried and the tabletop is now in one piece 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