Need picnic table plans

[jmowreader]

Normally I just design anything I'm going to build, but this is different: I'm going to sell these.

The deal: Last year we got 30 picnic table kits. Thirty. All year. Anyone want to guess how long it takes to sell thirty picnic tables? (Let's put it this way: I got them the Thursday before Memorial Day and didn't have any left on Saturday afternoon.)

So I was talking to my store manager about the difficulty of getting picnic table kits, and he asked me the strangest thing: "Why don't you make some and sell 'em yourself? I've seen your carpentry, and I know where you'd buy your lumber so it would be good for both of us."

Now I need some picnic table plans for inspiration. Yes, I know how to use Google, but if you have a picnic table plan you like, could you give me a link?

[Dirty Hippie]

1. Just curious

Where did you sell them? In a store? at a Flea Market?

[jmowreader]

7. I work at Home Depot...that's where we sold 'em

I ordered 500 picnic tables for last year. Someone at Atlanta Store Support Center (in any other company this would be called "national headquarters") didn't realize that meant 500 picnic tables for one store and not for the whole district.

Actual call to Atlanta SSC:

Me: "Where are my 500 picnic tables? All I got was 30."
SSC: "We sent 500 picnic tables to the Charlotte Distribution Center for your district. They allocated them to each store."
Me: "The district?"
SSC: "We figured no store would ever need 500 of them, so we assumed it was an order for your district. Why a store was sending in the order for the whole district we don't know."
Me: "No, they were all for me. I have a waiting list here with 400 names on it, and a hundred extra tables won't be that hard to move."
SSC: "I'm so sorry. I never would have expected that! I have some even worse news for you: the mill can't make you any more. They're booked solid all year."

The woman who knew I need a shitload of picnic tables left to raise her kid...I'm getting 50 of them this year! What excitement!

[oneighty]

2. I really really

appreciate your entrepreneur mentality and ambition.

Sitting here looking out at piles of wind blown snow and near zero (F) tempertures this question comes to me.

You gonna install hot air or steam or hot water or electric HEAT in those picnic tables?

Hee! Hee!

180

[jmowreader]

8. No need in the Carolinas

You mean you didn't grill Christmas dinner in 2003 outside over charcoal? I did.

[oneighty]

14. South Carolina

I spent many years there. McClellanville-Charleston-Myrtle Beach-Mount Pleasant-Pawleys Is.

By the way; There are quite a number of people around here making completely assembled picnic tables for sale. They all seem to stay busy!

180

[wysimdnwyg]

3. Nothing specific, but...

I would look in three places.

1. www.newyankee.com (This one will charge you for the plan)
2. www.woodworkersjournal.com
3. www.diytv.com (Found http://www.diynet.com/diy/ww_materials_products/article/0,2049,DIY_14442_2270138,00.html">this one.)

[radwriter0555]

4. Done:

http://www.bconnex.net/~zirgo/picnic.html

[jmowreader]

9. That's good, but I think I'd modify it

Spartanburg Forest Products' 2x6 stock is nicer than their 2x4 stock, so I'm going to use that.

[radwriter0555]

10. LOL would you make me a set with a detached bench, as a kit, so

I can put it together myself? Ship it to me?

THEN design me a chaise lounge kind of bench?

Please?

Just design it all so I can put it together myself as a kit...?

Redwood would be nice, or teak, or cedar. Make me an offer I can't refuse.

I need a 6 foot table please.

NOT kidding.

[jmowreader]

16. Redwood, teak and cedar? Nay!

SFP, who sells us the wood I'll be buying, produces one kind of wood: southern yellow pine treated with ACQ-D wood preservative.

[radwriter0555]

17. Then I Could paint it?

ya think?

[GOPisEvil]

19. Or stain it.

Prime it first if you paint. :-)

[Liberal Christian]

15. I can't draw it but . . .

I prefer a picnic table to which the benches are NOT attached. They accomodate a wider variety of body types that way.

[lpbk2713]

5. I made one from these plans about a month ago.

http://www.handymanwire.com/articles/picnic.html

It cost me about $55 in material. I used mostly 2" PT lumber and polyurethaned it with two coats to give it a little longer life.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. Since those sold so well...

I'd just copy the one in the kit, and maybe come up with just a couple of samples of something else that might take off.

Personally, I like the octagons. Easier to see everyone else at the table and the umbrella works better.

Round ones are OK, too.

[ironflange]

11. I like octagons too

When I built my deck, I included a raised octagonal area where the glass-topped table and umbrella sit. Beautiful place to sit. Unfortunately, it's snowed under right now, but it's just a couple of months to go now.

[Beaker]

12. My dad has a plan for making a picnic table out of a single sheet

of plywood. it's got notches so that it all snaps together and apart.
it's a little small, but our family of 4 all fit at it and used it a lot.

on edit:
here's a link to a site with plans...I love google.

http://familyfun.go.com/Resources/picnictable.pdf

on double edit:

a couple of pictures-
(btw, no nails nd you can put it in the trunk of your car...most cars)

[BeFree]

13. The world's best design

But it'll cost Home Depot some serious coin to pry it out of my computer.

[put out]

18. The neatest one I saw

came in two halves. Each half looked like a park bench. Then, you could flip the seat back forward over the bench (the seat backs were on a kind of hinge), push the two halves together (the back of the seat back is now the table surface) and presto! picnic table.

Probably not clear, but it was cool.