The Project:
Woodworker's Fighting Cancer Kid's Table and Chair Set
The Drink:
Shirley Temple (Kiddie Cocktail)
The Pairing:
It's a kid's project. Best NA drink? Kiddie Cocktail. Hands down.
Project
This was a project made for Woodworker's fighting cancer build - a charity that has woodworkers build a somewhat simple project, share a picture, and have some money donated in their name to a cancer charity chosen each year by The Wood Whisperer, wood working extraordinaire and teacher.
This plan was worked out to be able to build a table and 2 chairs out of one sheet of ¾" plywood. Since usually there'll be friends over using the table, 2 seats wasn't enough. With an extra sheet of plywood, I was able to get 4 more chairs, making 8 total with 2 tables. Pretty neat!
The table's pretty easy - it's just a butt-jointed box with a cover. Square. No problems there — the table saw is your friend. The legs are a different story as they're curved. But they've thought of that and gave you templates to cut them out with! I created a template from the paper template on ¼" hardboard. Spay-adhesive helped stick the paper template to the hardboard before I cut it out on the bandsaw keeping close to the line. I refined the template on the oscilating spindle/belt sander and finished it up with hand rasps and sand paper. Need those curves looking amazing, right?
Since the chairs were all curved, too, I had to make another hardboard template. Getting those cut out involved travin the template, some bandsawing, and some jigsawing before going to the router table with a template bit to match the template. Just be super-duper extra careful to use that router in the correct direction. When you don't, it wants to rip the plywood apart or, even worse, throw the wood out of your hands!
All the chairs were assembled using metal screwin connector bolts and those little things that screw into the wood and then have threads on the inside to capture a bolt. Pretty neat, huh? And those chairs can hold a lot of weight. I often use it as a step stool - no breaks yet!
Even though there was a lot of time on the router with the pattern bit, the project was still fun and went quickly. I even had time at the end to add my neice's name to one of the chairs with a stencil kit. More router work, hooray!
Toss on a coat of color paint to keep the kids happy, and you've got yourself a play table they're sure to enjoy for years to come (until they outgrow it.)
Check out Woodworkers Fighting Cancer for other plans and yearly projects. Typically they run starting in October.
