Outfeed Table - Day 1

I started working on the outfeed table today.  The basic design came from another Wood Whisperer video (which in turn came from a project from the New Yankee Workshop).  The idea is to build a simple table out of nothing but plywood.  The legs are made from two strips of plywood joined in an "L."  The table top is a single piece of plywood and the rest are just various supports.  I really liked the simple design especially since I wanted to get the majority done in a single weekend.

I made a few small variations with my design.  Instead of having the table top nest inside the legs as Marc did, I'm choosing to have it sit completely on top.  I like the idea of just a solid sheet on the top surface, less things wood could snag on.  The other thing I'm adding is a split fold down wing, more on that in a bit.

Dimensions of the table will be 60"x 42" not including the wing

Before I began cutting anything I set up a temporary outfeed table by stacking my small work bench on some cinder blocks.

A bit precariously perched

This illustrates an issue with the basic design of the outfeed table.  My table saw has a bracket used to attach the blade guard that sticks out about five inches from the back of table.  So the closest you can fit an outfeed table is five inches away.  That's a pretty big gap.

Blade guard bracket prevents the outfeed table from sitting flush

Blade guard installed

So my solution is to build a fold down wing with a cut-out for the blade guard.  Normally table extensions would fold out from the bottom, not down from the top.  However, because of the shape of the bracket, if the wing folded out from the bottom the cut-out would need to be about six inches wide.  A wing folding down from the top needs a cut-out of only about two inches wide.  The only time I would need to raise the wing would be for attaching and removing the blade guard.  I'm still working out exactly how I'm going to do this, finding the right hinge will be key.

Once I had the temporary outfeed table set up I got to work.  I was able to cut out the table top and build all four legs.  The table top was much too cumbersome to try to cut out with the table saw so I cut it on the ground using a circular saw.

Getting ready to cut out the table top

Big sheet of MDF used for a fence

While I was just planning on using glue and screws for the legs I ended up putting some dowel pins in too.  They made it much easier to line up the boards. I still used screws so that I didn't have to wait for the glue to dry before removing the clamps.

First leg all clamped up then screwed together

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get all of the remaining pieces cut out and to assemble the table frame.