New Cedar Egg Table

RajunCajun

Very  nice table.  Love the design.  Enjoy!

SmokinDAWG82

Beautiful, nice craftsmanship.

Grill Sargent

TRULY a work of art! ^:)^

mangasb

Well done sir.

Alton

Nice... A true work of art... Very talented

vidalia1

Great looking table...please put someting under the BGE and on top of the paver for air flow...the heat will scorch your wood right through the paver...lots of pics on the forum of this happening...

rbaldwin83

Great looking table

GK59

DH

Would you be willing to share those plans? Need a winter project. Searching for some wood this last week or so.

Dragonheart5

Does anybody happen to have the sketch up plans for this table?  Would love to see the frame and maybe build something similar for newly bought BGE.

vchelf

@deckchef - for us newbie woodworkers, what does 5/4 wood mean?  I've seen that term along with 4/4.  I'd appreciate some education on that.

GK59

4/4 = 1".  5/4 is 1-1/8" to a 1-1/4" depending on type of lumber.

Driving Hamster

Update: I have received multiple requests for the sketchUp files for the table and wanted to let everyone know that I am working on updating them (the files). I need to add reinforcement to the center bottom section as I have seen some minor separation there and want to get that address first. As an aside I am going to be sanding and refinishing the table next week. It's long over due! Also thinking about drilling a hole on the left to slide in an umbrella as I tend to BBQ in some nasty weather (snow storms, heavy rain, super storm Sandy, etc). I will also try and figure out a place to put the files instead of having to dig them off my hard drive constantly. Drop box maybe. Stay tuned.

jhl192

This is one of the finest I have seen!  Nice work.  You can't cook anything bad on that table!!  

RedSkip

Purrrty

NPHuskerFL

@Driving Hamster‌ nicely done! Really like the smooth curved skeletal look you designed. Nice clean look.

PoshPatios

The western red cedar will hold up real well for you. Its (in my opinion) one of the best woods to use for outdoor tables. A 20 minute recoat here and there will keep that beauty looking fresh. Good job!  

geoff7877

That table is amazing. Nice job man.

aljoseph

That's a real beauty. Congratulations on a superb looking table.

Driving Hamster

Ok so I just pulled the egg out of the table so I can do some maintenance on both the table and the egg. Plans are to 1). completely redo the table finish. 2). modify the table so I can slide an umbrella into it. 3). correct the design flaw that allowed some minor separation to occur below the paver (see pic below). Once I have the flaw corrected I will modify the SketchUp plans to reflect the new design. I know some of you guys have asked for them and I wanted to get this fixed first so no one else has this issue. Should be a simple modification. Also notice no scorch marks on the wood below where the concrete paver was :-). The egg was one the ceramic feet which is on the paver. In a moment of remembrance you can still see the two scorch marks on top of the table from when I had accidentally set it on fire right after I built it :-(. Refinished pics to follow once everything is done.

HDumptyEsq

Way stylish - I f^%$ing love that deck. Looks like an ocean liner. Nice work.

Drunkonmeat

What are you going to refinish with? I've been all over the place looking at woods and finishes and now feel Red Cedar will work best for me. The thought of sanding and striping poly or varnish have me looking at oil based deck stains. Read here for more info

Drunkonmeat

Don't know why link didn't post?

 http://www.deckstainhelp.com/

http://www.deckstainhelp.com/

radamo

Truly nice work.  Enjoy!!!

Driving Hamster

All the stainless steel hardware was removed and the table sanded.  Looks good again.  I added the upper and lower holes for the umbrella on the left side, pushed towards the rear support post a bit.  I have a 9 ft umbrella going in there so I put the holes 4'7" from the right side of the table (I have the right side of the table nearly up against the house).

I have been doing some research on finishing western red cedar (WRC) and there is a lot of debate on it. General consensus seems to be that no matter what you put on it that you should expect to be refinishing it in 2-4 years due to greying of the wood. I have used the Penofin brand before on some outdoor storage chests that I made (Spanish cedar) and liked it so I will see if I can find some locally in a clear finish.  I know that the higher VOC finishes were banned for sale in some states not too long ago.

I found a 4x4 WRC post left over from the original build and made some blocks that matched the angles of where the sides meet the center section. I glued them in and then drove in stainless steel screws from both sides to really lock it in place (pic below).  6 blocks total, all on the lower tier as the top tier did not deflect at all.  With some clamp pressure I was able to reduce but not completely eliminate the separation that occurred in the lower tier. With these blocks in it is now just a cosmetic issue. Several hours later I climbed up into the table and gave it a little hop and no more deflection occurred (I am about 200lbs). I also had to reglue a few of the lower decking boards that came loose with the sanding.

Now need to get the finish on and reattach the hardware.  I will also be adding a new towel since the old one disintegrated.  A new table cover is going on since that too was killed by the winter.  The egg itself is getting a new gasket as well as a new door and screen on the bottom since they old one was pretty beat up.  Going to shine up the Smokeware vent hood as well while I am at it.

Driving Hamster

Here is some info I found on the Sawmillcreek.org forum from a guy named Rich Englehardt who used to work in the paint and sealer industry. I found it informative. I thought I would repost it here as it might it help someone else in their exterior finish saga.   He was addressing using WRC for a low traffic boat dock and what finish would work best.

 * UV is addressed three ways:

 - UV absorber

 - UV reflector 

 - Ignored 

A UV absorber is pigment added to the material in order to absorb the UV rays. Titanium White is the most effective. If that sound like white paint, that's exactly what it is. As you go down the "reflective scale", different pigments or combinations of pigments - as well as the amount of pigment - will give a varying degree of UV protection. Stains - which compared to paints - will have less pigment added and be more transparent. 

A UV reflector is usually a solid material (very finely ground) added to clear coatings, such as the clear you bought or spar/marine varnish, that breaks up the UV rays inside the coating so they don't directly hit the wood. Most are "bounced around" inside the coating. Since the UV rays are destructive in nature, they quickly take their toll on the clear coating itself and it breaks down rather quickly. UV can be ignored. Some exterior coatings will concentrate on preservation of the actual wood itself and ignore the "bleaching effect" of UV rays. They allow the wood to be protected from water and other environmental elements and turn color as the UV rays "bleach out" the color. Clear shellac, NC lacquer and clear acrylic take this approach. They offer no protection from UV - however - the coating itself, since it allows all UV rays to pass through, isn't affected by UV rays either. 

Actually - every answer above is 100% true. UV protection comes from materials (compounds) added to clear coats to reflect or absorb UV rays - or to do both. The amount and quality of the compounds added determine for how long they will last as well as how the material will appear. A typical lower cost clear, such as Thompson's Water Seal, offers no UV protection, but, will protect the wood against the other elements. It also will weather off quickly (6 months to a year) if it's a direct exposure. In an indirect exposure, such as a deck or porch with a roof, it can last 3 years. A mid level spar/marine varnish - such as Helmsman - will offer a great deal of UV protection, but, it does this by sacrificing itself to the effects of the UV rays. This greatly decreases it's lifespan on direct exposures. 

On indirect exposures, it's lifespan isn't too bad - however - it will have somewhat of a dull brown/amber color. A high quality spar/marine varnish, such as Epiphanes, uses a higher quality additive that's more expensive & that's reflected (no pun intended) in the higher price of the material. UV rays themselves, being very short length, are also filtered out naturally by the curvature of the Earth and also by water in the atmosphere in the way of clouds. Wood in Seattle for instance, will have less of the direct exposure to UV than wood in Arizona. Lastly - the effect of UV on wood is very shallow - usually. The wood itself offers excellent UV absorption. Cherry that's darkened can usually be sanded lightly to "restore" it and cedar which has grayed can usually be "restored" by either sanding or power washing. Again though,,,,this depends on where and for how long the wood has been exposed. On my cedar deck, on the South side of the house, here in NE Ohio, I could "restore" the color of mine by pressure washing it every 7 years or so. I "got away" with putting a coat of Thompson's Water Seal on it every 3 years or so. The PT wood on my mother in law's covered front West facing front porch and treated with Thompson's, starts to gray at about 2 years. I power wash it and give it another coat every other year. For a dock, in Wisconsin, that bears the full brunt of the Sun, a semi transparent oil stain will offer the best balance of price/lifespan & ease of maintaining it. 

The penalty you'll pay there is that the ST stain isn't clear and will add some color of it's own. That penalty is offset by the ease of restoring it. Just pressure wash it and recoat it with the same material as needed. My "best guess" would be every other year. Maybe every third year depending on the quality of the ST stain. Solid stains are more paint than stain. I'd avoid using that @ all. A marine or spar varnish will last a few years. However...in order to restore the finish, you have to remove the old finish every so often. Since it protects by forming a film over the wood, any break in that film will result in a lot of failure of both UV protection and the coating itself. A small peeling spot in the film can turn into a major sanding/removal project. Plus, a spar/marine varnish, depending on the product, is a high gloss & sometimes slippery when wet type of finish. Not a great idea for a dock. There are some newer materials ( & variations on older materials) on the market which I'm not familiar with - marine oils. All wood has some natural oil that protects it from the elements. Some woods - such as Teak - have a lot and others have very little. Supposedly these products either replace or substitute for the natural oils that are either lost or have weathered off. Sorry to have to write a novel here, but, I hope it helps clear up some things. 

There is a fourth way UV is addressed. UV rays can be filtered out. Filtering UV is usually only done with optical devices though. I'm not aware of any clear coatings out there that do actual UV filtering. However - it's been a good twenty years since I left the field of paints/coatings, so, I'm not exactly current.... Someone may have come up with a way to do it.

Driving Hamster

Table rehab is done. Came out not perfect but better than ok in my opinion.  Everything feels solid again. 

The egg itself got a new nomex gasket, a High-q stainless steel plate for the bottom of the firebox, new front door/screen for the bottom and a good shining of the Smokeware stainless steel chimney cap. Managed to cut myself on the Smokeware cap while cleaning the underside of it's top edge. No project is ever truly complete without some sort of blood shed. 

While I would of liked to have the umbrella hole about 8 inches more to the right I put it where it is because that is the spot where I can open the umbrella (without lifting it) and still have it barely clear the chimney. If I move the table back against the house it would still miss hitting the siding along the right side of the table.  It is also far enough away from the egg that I could leave it closed and not worry about it catching fire while the egg is hot.  This table has seen enough external fires already.

The new reinforcing blocks on the bottom frame seem to be doing the trick to counter the sag I was experiencing.

Probably most importantly I finally put the spare cover I had lying around on it to protect it from the UV rays.

Drunkonmeat

Looks great, finish came back well. Did you find/use the Penofin. You got @4 years out of the Thomson's?

Driving Hamster

I was trying to get Penofin but the guy at Sherwin Williams was giving me a run around. Out of pure laziness I put some Thompson's on it again because I had only a certain amount of time that day. I am going to try and keep it covered as much as possible. The finish lasted probably 2.5 years last time.

Tracesegg

Awesome table!

Tracesegg

Does anyone have a copy of plans for this table?