Garden Table Build Process
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Posted 6th May 2025
A comment from someone on the MIG-welding forum made me go back and re-visit the design plan. One of my earlier layout ideas had a simple cross in the middle with all the remaining slats at 45°. At the time I wasn't sold on the look of it, but after getting that comment I thought it was worth another look now that the central cross is a bit more interesting with the two bars in each axis.
First of all though, I thought I'd draw out the existing design including all the dovetails all the way around. I've offset the angled ones slightly (following a comment on the woodhaven forum) as it does indeed seem to make it look better if they're not perfectly centred. Here's the current design top and bottom view:
The alternative layout is a bit more complex to make (especially to make everything look balanced) but I think I quite like the style of it (even if it does result in some rather weird shapes in the dovetail cut-outs). Top and bottom views:
The gaps between the angled slats would be slightly bigger (26 mm) than the gaps between the cross bars, but that's probably not the end of the world. The gaps between the cross-bars shown as vertical in those images (20 mm) are already slightly bigger than the one between the horizontal cross-bar (18 mm), so another gap thickness in a different position probably doesn't matter too much (I hope).
I'd welcome any thoughts, although of course the design authority (my other half) will have the final say!
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