Do wooden tables hold up

My wife bought me a wooden table for each of the two Eggs she bought me in consecutive years, and no, after a number of years, they were falling apart.  However, I didn't varnish them, etc., and if I had, they surely would have lasted longer.

For me, though, the stories I've read about HOUSE FIRES started from a kamado grill were enough to not want a wooden table anymore.  It just feels like talking about what kind of wolves you like best to herd your sheep, building a fire in a wooden table.  Nope, not again, not for me.  Metal, cinderblock, stone, something that won't burn.

The nest and a stainless prep table is great low maintenance lower cost item. More flexibility. For some reason cutting a round hole in a stainless table quadruples the cost. 

I'm definitely with @Theophan here regarding the fire concern with wood much more than the life-time performance.  You can certainly mitigate the issue but it is not to be discounted in the evaluations.  FWIW-

I have a cedar base with a concrete top.  I have to re-sand and re-coat with spar urethane annually.  But that takes about two hours.  No big deal.  The concrete top gets power washed occasionally and looks decent enough.  It can handle hot pots, and racks, and is fairly easy to clean.  

No one has hired me to recreate the table, so it's far from a masterpiece, but it does its job

Fire and wood... Not me. Or on a deck. Ask Centex or Little Stephon... Sh~t happens. Spend a little more and sleep soundly. Just mho

I used stained and polyurethaned pressure treated pine and a granite worktop. It is solid as a rock and held up well. 

I had a cedar table that was out in the harsh Indiana weather for 3 years and never had any issues.  I sanded it before I sold it a few weeks ago just to clean it up mainly but it never had a finish and still looked good aside from the meat juice.  working on another cedar table with a concrete top now.

Love my cedar table with a stainless top on it. 

There's a little charring around the circular cut-out from pizza cooks.  I plan on installing a radiant barrier.   Some glue join splitting also around the cut-out.  This is from thermal expansion. 

Overall, it looks fine.  I soaked the top with epoxy and everything received multiple coats of spar urethane.  May need refinishing in a few years.  It is under a covered deck, on the edge.  Gets wet with rain.  Gets Southern sun.  Do not cover with a tarp, just did that the first few months.

Every piece was completely finished before assembly.  Epoxy was used exclusively for glue joints.   PITA to make, but the payoff is longevity.

Hmmm... Nola seems not too concerned about the whole fire threat. Wooden table, pile of firewood and a gas bottle next to it, right up against the house.

my mini sits an an unfinished teak table, looks nice on the greyed out wood. as nola said, if you do it right the weather isnt a problem, they make boats out of wood. fire though is a problem, put it somewhere where a fire isnt a problem, you can make a fire with a stainless table. maybe a different level of safety, but theres still issues

nolaegghead said:

Kayak said:

Hmmm... Nola seems not too concerned about the whole fire threat. Wooden table, pile of firewood and a gas bottle next to it, right up against the house.

That's a pile of bricks, not firewood.

I'm not that concerned because I understand the risks and have full control over them.

i like the easy access to the hidden pig sticker under the egg

Made this out of our 20 year old recycled deck wood and that wood was dense. Cutting it was slow going. Finished two tables in 2015. Here is a photo after the staining and top was put on the largest May, 2015
The original table (2004) with the large egg is shoved against the building to keep it from collapsing before I moved the egg to the new table. 

Photo of the table from May of this year:
Not as shiny as the original picture shows but still holding up well. Will clean it and refinish next year when it is cooler in FL.  No worries about fire as the large sits on a table nest, the shelf is not solid, a broken plate sitter is in front of the bottom intake, the granite top is supported by wood far enough away from the egg, and I keep a hose ready in case something might go wrong. I usually move the egg away from the house when I egg. Eight casters allow for easy movement.

GrateEggspectations said:

Others have rightly raised safety concerns with respect to fire and wood. Personally, I never leave the Egg unattended. 

OK, I get that there are safety concerns; better safe than sorry. So I have modified my setup to lessen the chances of problems, especially on long overnight cooks. I took the granite cut out that was on my small work table and put it under the Large with table nest. 


I rotated the table 180 degrees to make access to the bottom of the egg easier for cleaning. 

This is now my normal cooking setup.

The granite extends over the edge of the bottom shelf. A broken plate sitter adds extra protection to possibly catch any sparks that might get past the draft door screen. The angle I took the shot at doesn't show that very well.


When I need / want to move the table for a clean burn, I add a 2" x10" piece of wood to help stabilize the egg and keep it from rocking while transporting the table and eggs.

Probably just makes me feel more secure when I move the table. Never move the table fast enough to ever test this since the table with eggs and other stuff is pretty slow to get moving.