If you need a folding picnic table…

 

We need a medium-sized, folding picnic table on which to display our brochures, business cards and other material at the Turriff Show.

It needs to be fairly substantial and useable in the future as a picnic table.

I could go and buy a £14.99 Chinese-made, flimsy picnic table from Asda or Tesco but that would not be the Stonehead way.

Instead, I had a look through the pile of stuff I salvaged from the skip behind the village community centre a couple of months ago, pulling out some old card tables and a laminated table top (pictured with the Wee ‘Un).

Then I went to work.

We had three card tables, all of slightly varying sizes and different leg lengths to work with. One was quickly ruled out as one of the legs had snapped and been badly repaired, while its top was coming apart. The other two, though, had potential.

Both card tables needed a few small repairs to fix wonky parts, after which I laid them out on the underside of the laminated tabletop. I tried folding the legs in various positions, discovering that the most workable way of fastening them was to have the legs folding to one side, rather than to the ends or over one another.

I carefully positioned the card table so that the legs lined up, although it did mean that the tops don’t look square with the underside of the laminated table (those different sizes at work). Then it was a matter of drilling pilot holes, countersinking the holes, and screwing in multipurpose serrated screws (allowing for the two different materials—hardwood for the card tables, chipboard for the laminated top).

With the table screwed together, I measured the table legs, finding the shortest leg to be 38 inches long while none of the others shared the same lengths. I cut them all down to 38 inches, before rounding off the ends of the legs with a rasp and sandpaper. The Big Lad and I then turned the table over, before he tested it for height and strength—declaring it “perfect”. Drape a tablecloth over it and it should look very good under our gazebo at the show.

The finished table folds flat and fits into the back of the Land Rover, which makes it just about perfect for our needs. And the cost? £1.99 for a box of screws.