plans for picnic with seperate benches

[Mike Stanton]

I am looking for plans to make a picnic table with seperate benches. Help please. Mike

[Chris Messier]

There are a number of web sites that have links to free plans. Here you go:

http://members.cox.net/messman123/messman.htm
http://absolutelyfreeplans.com/
http://www.woodworkersworkshop.com/resources/index.php?cat=102
http://www.thewoodcrafter.net/projects.html
http://www.freeplans.com/
http://plans.the3house.com/

Hope that helps you out. If you don't find what you are looking contact me and I will help you out.

[Todd Burch]

Something like this? If you want, I can repost with dimensions. Todd

[Rob Russell]

I am looking for plans to make a picnic table with seperate benches. Help please. Mike

Mike,

I made a picnic table that's got free-standing benches about 15 years ago. I don't have plans for it (can take a pic if it halps), but will describe what I did.

I'll use Todd's drawing as a reference.

First, need to decide how big you want this picnic table and whether it has to be "portable", like around the yard if you need to mow around it. I wanted it wide enough so you could have plates and room for some "stuff" in the middle. Seems to me the table is 30" wide and 6' long.

The benches on mine are a little different than Todd's drawing. Rather than 2 stubby benches for the ends, I made the benches longer than the table. That way 3 people can comfortably sit at the table and the people on the ends have plenty of "cheek" room. The benches are 8' long. I used a single 2x12 (maybe 2x10?) for the bench rather than smaller boards. It means no crack to sit on and I thought it would look nicer. All of the "mounting stuff" - crosspiece to attach the top of the legs to and a stiffener (more on that in a sec) are lagged to the bottom of the seat. Nothing is through bolted. Looks better and no holes to accumulate stuff stuff in or let rain down to the hardware. The stiffener is a 2x4 on edge that runs the length of the seat from crosspiece to crosspiece. It's just lagged to the underside of the seat. It makes a huge difference in how stiff the middle of the bench is. 3 adults can sit on it and the middle of the bench doesn't sag.

The table is the same basic construction - everything is lagged from the bottom. I think that's 5 or 6 2x6's - will take a look later today when we go down to where the table is.

Todd's drawing shows what could be interpreted as half-lapped joints where the legs cross. I don't remember if I did that or not.

I also don't remember if there is any sort of stretcher between the legs on the table.

The table has twisted a bit, but that's from sitting on uneven ground for years.

I used P/T pine. The pitch still bleeds out after more than a decade of sitting in the sun. I'd think about wood choice and use something that's not going to leak pitch all over where you sit and eat.

HTH - Rob

[Todd Burch]

As Rob did, I designed mine from scratch when I made 2 tables and 4 benches (just the long ones) several years ago the day before Monther's day over 10 years ago. Finished them both that day and presented them the next. I was a hero and they are both still in service.

The one thing I did on those two tables wrong, and what I fixed on this design, is that the legs for the benches were in the same plane as the table legs. Subsequently, you could not push the benches up under the table without offsetting them to the table. On this design, I fixed that.