How To: Make a Tabletop with 2x4s

This DIY has a bit of a backstory: In my basement workshop—as a byproduct of about a half dozen previous projects—I’d managed to accumulate a small mountain of scrap wood. Though the pieces varied in size, most were 2×4 boards. For weeks, I pondered the question of how to use them. There wasn’t enough material to build anything substantial, but at the same time, this was much more wood than I would feel comfortable chucking or committing to kindling. I suddenly seized on the idea of turning those leftover boards into a rustic tabletop, but then I let the project momentum slow to a creep, and in the blink of an eye another few weeks had gone zooming by. Things finally came to a head one day when I was scanning the local giveaway listings. There, I discovered that one of my neighbors was trying to get rid of an old metal garden table. Upon seeing the pictures, I knew immediately that this would be a great table to top with the scrap wood surface I’d been planning to make with all those 2x4s!

Now, the project starts to get really interesting. While I knew that I would use pocket-hole joinery (my latest obsession) to assemble the tabletop, I couldn’t decide how to finish the wood. There were three different cans of麦克风凝胶污渍在我的架子上，在三种不同的颜色，樱桃木和蜂蜜枫树。在我脑海中，我可以对每个人做出可靠的论点。虽然它有助于了解桌子最终会去哪里，但这是我无法回答的另一个问题。然后它打了我：而不是选择一个污点，为什么不使用它们？毕竟，我正在从碎片上建造桌面，所以它会有一个自制的，无论如何都是自制的，无论如何。最后，使用多个污渍将强调桌子将实现的仿古效果。完善！从那里开始，让我的路上前往项目计划，其余的变得容易。阅读，看看我是如何建造桌面的，然后染色并密封它米克斯。

材料和工具Available on Amazon

- 2×4木材
- 圆锯
- 棕榈砂锅
-Tack cloth or rags
- 矿物精神
-米克斯® Gel Stain
- 塑胶手套
- 泡沫刷
-Pocket-hole jig and screws
-Quick clamps
- 带夹子
-米克斯® Helmsman® Spar Urethane aerosol

STEP 1

在做任何其他事情之前，我测量了金属花园表，以弄清楚桌面需要的尺寸。考虑到这些维度，我去寻找废料。在我的收藏中的某个地方，我能够找到2×4个板的正确组合，以覆盖测量的表面积。(Note: If you’ve got a large, motley assortment of wood, you might find it painstaking to cull the pile and piece together suitable boards. To make quicker work of the process, I suggest cutting a template out of cardboard and using it to test different arrangements.) For my part, starting with five 2×4 boards, all roughly the same length, I had to make just a handful of cuts with the circular saw to end up with exactly the right amount of material. In the above photo, those dozen smaller pieces may seem haphazardly strewn about, but when combined, they fit together perfectly to form a tabletop of the desired shape and size.

STEP 2

If you don’t intend to finish the wood, you can probably safely skip this step. But for me, it was crucial to sand each board, not only to ensure a level tabletop, but also to give the stain a surface to which it could easily adhere. Of course, no matter how much sanding you do, some woods (2x4s included) are not milled for finish work and may never get totally smooth. But that was fine with me, as I figured that any imperfections that remained in the end would work to underline the rustic quality of the piece. It was in that same spirit that, in the process of sanding the boards (with fine-grit paper, always in the same direction), I opted not to sand down a few of the chatter marks left by the sawmill. I knew the stain would take to the wood a bit differently in those spots than elsewhere, lending the tabletop a further layer of charm—or so I hoped. Once I was done sanding, after thoroughly cleaning each board with a moist tack cloth, I let enough time pass for the wood to dry out completely.

STEP 3

我一直期待这部分申请麦克风凝胶污渍。首先，我在剩余的委员会上测试了污渍，以确认我的怀疑，使用，三个污渍将完全相互补充。当测试证实了我的怀疑时，我继续搅拌每个污渍，直到它开发出一种乳脂状，平滑的一致性 - 没有像你可能用过的水液体。较厚的配方，麦克风凝胶污渍专门设计用于用户友好且易于申请。用泡沫刷或抹布，Gel Stain以受控的方式继续，你不必担心滴水;让它坐在木材上大约三分钟，用抹布擦去多余的时间。一旦我在交替的颜色，樱桃木和蜂蜜枫木中完成了所有木头的染色，就让大约八小时的干燥时间。虽然没有严格必要，但我决定通过使用第一个技术的技术来使第二件涂层涂抹一点。

步骤4

With the stain dry, I began to build the tabletop. Others might have chosen to build first and stain second. But I felt that, given the combination of colors being used, I was most likely to achieve satisfying results—or less likely to mess up—if I stained the boards before I joined them together. The picture above shows the unfinished undersides of the boards after I had almost finished fastening each one to its neighbors. First, I marked off where the pocket holes would be located. For each regular board, I planned to put in at least two pocket holes. I needed to put additional holes in the boards at the two long edges, because those boards would need to be secured not only to those in the adjoining row, but also to each other. Finally, after creating the pocket holes, I assembled the tabletop one row at a time, driving in the screws that magically brought the disparate pieces together into a cohesive surface.

第5步

转向坚固的桌面，我感到震惊了。显然，最后使用所有三个污渍来说不是一个错误。尽管如此，但在完成工作之前，我需要申请封口机 -Minwax Helmsman Spar聚氨酯—to protect the wood from moisture, UV rays, and the wear and tear of day-to-day life. This was my first time experimenting with a spray-application sealer, and I loved it. Obviously, it’s important to have proper ventilation in your work area, and you’ve got to shake the can vigorously before spraying, but so long as you remember the basics, spraying couldn’t be more straightforward. Holding the舵手斯福特氨基乙胺可以从表面大约一英尺,喷在三星es of even strokes, always in the same direction, until you’ve completed the first coat. Let the sealer dry for about four hours before applying any additional coats, and for best results, sand the entire surface before each application of a new layer.

到目前为止,我已经完全集中在了ward-facing portion of the tabletop, the side that would be most visible. But as I drew nearer to the finish line, I started to doubt my earlier decision not to finish the bottom side too. So I went back and did the extra work, and though this additional step might have been unnecessary, I like to think it helped make the table fit better into its home for the summer, my front porch. All that was left now was to attach the top to the metal table. As easy as it was to finish the tabletop with Minwax, it was no mean feat to devise a way of securing the top to the base. Ultimately, the answer to my problem came in an unlikely form. On a typical day, electrical cable hardware would never have entered my mind, but as the result of a funny twist of fate—the same sort of coincidence that led me to undertake this project in the first place—these simple snap-and-click fasteners enabled me to attach the top to the base and call it day. Now, with this project under my belt, I’m starting to eye those 2x6s still lingering in my scrap pile!

这篇帖子由Minwax带给您。它的事实和意见是Bobvila.com的事实和意见。