Oak and ply patio table

[Turnr77]

How resilient would 20mm oak laid on 18mm wbp or marine ply be used as an outside patio table? Either laid as a solid top or as planks with drainage gaps between? I have some 20mm t&g floor boards to use up.
Cheers
Nick

 

[MikeG.]

Not sure why you'd want to involve the ply. 20mm oak is OK for a small table top by itself. You'd have the complication of the interface between the stable ply and the oak (subject to movement), and you'd have aesthetic issues to deal with. Why not just build it of oak?

 

[Turnr77]

The oak pieces are offcuts longest pieces are 95cm many shorter (50cm or slightly less) and table to be 2.5 mtrs so jointed end to end in 20mm not really going to work. So my thoughts were to fix to ply.

Wouls love to use longer lengths but cost is too much an I have these pieces already

 

[Turnr77]

So my thought was, cut lengths of ply narrower than the oak, glue, or screw with elongated holes from underneath, the oak to the ply ( allowing for movement) so from the top the ply would not be visible, the planks then fitted to the sub frame of the table. Seal well with Letonkinois yacht varnish.

Otherwise for now I'll use the oak for something else may fall back on stained & sealed scaffold planks.

 

[MikeG.]

Hmmm. Not sure. I really don't think it is worth the effort . Basically you've got the wrong materials. You could put a lot of work into this project, and it could look very sad indeed in a year or two.

Would it be possible to make 2 or 3 smaller tables, and push them all together if you needed?

 

[Turnr77]

Thanks for your thoughts Mike, may just leave the oak for other projects. Sadly a few weaks ago there were some much larger 65mm thick oak offcuts on Gumtree locally very cheap being sold by the length. Saw it Friday evening, worked up a design and how much I'd need. Went to get contact details Saturday morning and found ad had expired. Gumtree would not give me the details citing data protection! Keep hoping he'll relist.

 

[Inspector]

If you have enough oak, planing the faces and then gluing them together like an edge grain countertop. Once you have "boards" wide enough to surface and thickness you remove all the tongue and grooves and then glue the pieces together to make the top. You only need to align a few joints then and you end up with a very solid top. It is a lot of work and it is hard on the blades but if you have the wood.....you decide.

Pete

 

[AndyT]

If you can get hold of some pieces as long as the table (you may need to buy them!) you could make an open framework with three or more long rails, depending on the width you want. Then fix your short offcuts at right angles to these, butting ends together on a middle rail if needed. It could all be quite open to allow drainage/movement, like a lot of garden furniture.

 

[Beau]

It could probably be done if you used Epoxy. As Mike says you would normally have all sorts of problems with differential movement between the wood and the ply. If you glued it all together with epoxy and then sealed it with epoxy it would be unaffected by humidity. The epoxy wouldn't be cheap though.

 

[ColeyS1]

Sounds like you need to make a t & g ledge and brace door, then have some trestle type arrangement as the legs. Having the shorter lengths get supported by longer lengths next to it (stagger the joints) will make for a stronger table. You'll need a lot of bearers to catch the ends of the boards,but it could look quite good. Your biggest concern might be water setting on the exposed tongues.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[AndyT]

Just reread your original post and noticed that the offcuts are T&G flooring. For an outside table it might be best to plane off the T&G and rip the boards into 50 - 75mm strips, set apart with 6 - 10mm gaps.

 

[Turnr77]

Thanks all,

Need to get the pieces out and see if it's viable. Thinking maybe best used elswhere and wait for some better suited material.

Nick