This picnic table sat on our back deck for close to 5 years with no finish on it. Nothing to seal it up and keep it looking nice. Not to mention it wasn’t the smoothest of tables either. This is on of those forgotten projects that I kept telling myself I needed to do. Other projects came and went and this table just sat there looking like crap. A place to pile random stuff on. Finally last weekend I had had enough. It time to restore this picnic table and make it look nicer and smoother than it was the day I got it.
When I first purchased my Milwaukee compact router, I used a rounding bit to add a nice round edge to the table a d seats. Then the table just sat there… So I finally grabbed some 60 grit sandpaper and my Dewalt palm sander and went to town on this neglected table.
At first I tried to get all the dark areas sanded off but that was taking forever!! There was a thick layer of weathered wood I was trying to get through. Then Mama Splatts mentioned that I should leave some of those dark areas. Most of them were in the wood grains, so that would probably make it look really cool. It took forever to get the ridges down smooth and all the edges nice and smooth. Nobody wants a splinter in there butt when go to sit down. It took a good couple hours of sanding to get this table smooth. Then I rinsed all the saw dust with the hose. Wow, it looks pretty nice with it just being wet.
At 95F and sunny the table dried out really fast. So I decided to give it another good spray down to make sure I didn’t leave anything behind. 20 minutes later it was dry again and ready to add some Tung Oil to protect it and add a nice finish
I used an old sock that had holes in it to apply the Tung Oil. I laid down 3 heavy coats of Tung Oil. This table was soaking it up like a sponge. I really like the way the wood grains really POP
Here is another shot after it dried a bit and from a different angle. The wood looks totally different.
Now all that is left is to let the table finish absorbing all the Tung Oil before we start using it. I’m pretty happy how it turned out. It was once kind of an eye sore and now you almost feel obligated to sit on it.
There is another long awaited DIY project in the books. What’s next??? All I have to do is look outside and the project start piling up in my head. I think I’m going to go enjoy the pool before I start another project. Plus my shoulders were pretty tired after doing the table and hand washing 2 SUV’s.
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