Add seating to your yard with a versatile picnic table

Coming to an end
Sand or file any rough edges and corners that need smoothing. I chose to finish my project with two coats of Solignum transparent deck and siding stain. Because it’s a film-forming finish, you should get in the habit of washing, sanding and reapplying the stain every other season.

Set up your table and benches in the warm sun or cool shade to help you and your family enjoy the summer ahead.

Building strong joints
Any outdoor project that uses simple surface-to-surface joinery needs both screws and glue for maximum strength. When applied just right, the addition of outdoor glue delivers a rock-solid assembly, with no squeeze-out. Glue also prevents rain, snow and critters from working their way into the joint, causing premature failure. And a strong joint will also reduce side-to-side rocking of the entire project, so it will hold together longer.

The problem with combining glue and screws on this kind of joint is that you’ll get a lot of slipping and sliding between two freshly glued pieces of wood. But there is a foolproof technique to eliminate any such trouble.

Begin by assembling your parts without glue in reasonable sections with clamps. One clamp per joint should be enough to hold the parts in place while you predrill.

For the bench or table sides, I drilled three countersunk holes about 3/8" deep per joint from inside the legs into the aprons and braces.

Next, drive in some #8 x 2 1/2" corrosion-resistant deck screws as you normally would. Do not use any glue at this point.

Check the assembly to be sure everything is coming together properly. Using an awl or a pencil, mark lines along the edges of the joined parts. These will help you to apply the glue in the right spots.

Back out the screws, but leave the points sticking out about 1/8". This will make it easy to get the parts to line up again, and will hold the board in place as your drive in your screws again later.

Disassemble the parts, then add the glue. (I used Titebond III glue, one of several weatherproof formulations available.) Apply the glue within the lines you drew earlier. The trick is to apply the glue evenly and only where it’s needed. Not enough glue makes for a weak joint. Too much causes squeeze-out that you’ll need to clean up later. And cleanup is much harder than simply developing an accurate feel for putting on just the right amount of glue.

Align your boards using the predrilled holes and the screws you left sticking out just slightly. Refasten the whole assembly together again.

Make some tapered plugs using scrap wood and your drillpress. Remove them from their board with a screwdriver, apply glue to each screw hole, then spread the glue around with a scrap dowel.

Tap the plugs in place, then pare them down with a chisel. Sand the plugs flush with a belt sander before you assemble the next section.