Mostly Recycled Project: Giant Work Table

I'm always walking the fine line between having a functional shop with a variety of materials and supplies on hand, and having progress-impeding clutter. This work table was an attempt to simultaneously address my piles o' supplies and our need for a large craft table in my wife's art studio, but to do so while buying as few supplies as possible.

The work surface was the basis of this project. For that part, I happened to have a large hollow core door. It was my garage workbench at our old house, and before that, my wife had it as her work table. Long before that, it was an actual door in my wife's childhood home. Anyway, she gave up her work table when we had kids and she had to vacate her studio to make room, but when we moved a few months ago--and she got a studio of her own again--she wanted it back. I had beaten it up pretty good in the garage, and had to resurface it. I chose Masonite (also called hardboard) and had to buy that new. 

The actual first thing I did was plan. I talked her into a trestle-style table base with a shelf on the bottom for storage. That combines good foot/leg room under the table with good strength and stability. Next (and, after I'd started, unfortunately), I decided I needed to practice making mortise and tenon joints, so I chose that as my joinery method (backed up by screws and bolts in certain places). Finally, I gathered up all wood I had around and planned the size and dimensions of the legs, bracing, and shelves around that.

I designed it so it could be broken down and moved easily in 6 pieces--4 legs, the trestle base, and the top.  I chose "lap" joints--where material is cut from each of the boards being joined--to attach the legs, and these were secured with 1/4" furniture bolts and T-nuts (unused from a previous project; 12 in all). With the lap joints, the weight of the table is borne on the wood structure rather than the bolts/hardware. This strategy minimizes hardware (and expense).

End view.

I covered the "door" with Masonite, a hard, smooth, durable work surface. The Masonite was glued down with Liquid Nails "Project" adhesive and held in place around the edges with 18-gauge nails (I have a pneumatic nailer which makes these kinds of projects a lot less tedious and a lot more fun). I had to buy the Masonite and the Liquid Nails new, but that was limited to a total cost of about $15.

Here is the finished product installed in my wife's studio.

Top/corner view, showing the hardboard covering on the top. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Thanks for reading!