Blood, Sweat, and Sawdust

When you have a good friend who helps you a lot, you take care of them.  So, when my good friend asked if I could build him a Big Green Egg table, I said, “of course”.  Unfortunately, I could only offer my services at cost.  So, I put a little extra effort into making this table as nice as possible.

The Base

Instead of making this table out of construction lumber, I went with cedar.  I built the legs from rough 16/4 stock and the rails from 8/4 stock.  I also used draw-bored mortise and tenon joinery.  This makes the table stronger and more attractive than the average BGE table.

After milling up the rough lumber, I made quick work of the mortises in the legs.  I mortised the legs with a plunge router and my new mortise jig.  Then, I cut the tenons on the table saw with a dado stack.

With the joinery cut, I test fit all the joints and made any adjustments.  Then, I drilled the draw-bore holes in the legs and tenons.  For a complete write-up on the technique , check out my earlier post on draw-boring.  With that complete, it was time to glue up the base.

Next, I attached casters to make this table mobile.  Then, I added braces to the upper and lower rails.  The upper brace provides and anchor for the top slats after I cut the hole for the grill.   The lower brace strengthens the area where the grill sits.

All that’s left is the top, shelf, and delivery.  Check out part 2 of the cedar Big Green Egg Table build.