Pine Slab Table

This was a quick build but a really fun project and it turned out great. I needed a table for my front porch. We found some 3" thick pine slabs at my mother-in-law's house hanging out under a tarp and threw 3 of them in the back of the truck the last time we were down there, I knew eventually I would figure out the best use for them.

Slabs in the shed

These come rough cut, so the first thing I have to do is shape them appropriately. This starts with basically finding a square inside of the live edge piece, and cutting the ends. Then plane and sand everything smooth, I chose to start with the bottom of the slab. I bought some 18" hairpin legs on Amazon, and attached them after finishing the bottom & sides. It took a lot of handwork on the sides with a spokeshave & flexible sanding pads. Kind of hard to keep the live edge look but still get everything smooth (safe to touch, no splinters) and sealed.

Bottom after the power planer and sander

Bottom and sides getting some finish

I am confused by the pine slab

Poly is going on

Legs are attached

 I use a power hand planer on these slabs, they are about 13" across in the longest point and heavy as hell. I didn't want to try and push them through the big 12.5" Delta planer that I use for dimensional lumber. Getting a smooth, flat, surface is harder with this planer but it leaves the workpiece stable. After planing the bottom smooth, I hit the belt sander with 80 and 120 grit, then 180 grit on the random orbit sander. For the sides, the spokeshave and hand planer got everything pretty smooth, but I still hit them with some 150 and 180 grit sandpaper on top of a sanding sponge. Then everything got hit with the 220 grit sanding sponge. I put 5 coats of wipe-on polyurethane on the bottom & sides, sanding with 320 grit paper in between the first two coats, and 0000 steel wool in between the rest. This is for the bottom, which wont' normally be seen so it was ok if I got sloppy. Then I attached the legs.

Ready to work the top

Pretty flat

The top got the same treatment. Power planer, then 80 & 120 grit belts on the sander, 180 grit in the random orbit sander, 220 sponge, then 8 coats of poly on the top with 320 & 400 grit sandpaper and 0000 steel wool in between. Funny thing about poly, it drips down the sides when you pour it on the top. So the sides got closer to 15 coats all day long. They came out really smooth.

Finished and installed

This turned out really nice

I really like the way this table turned out, and I'm looking forward to working the other two slabs. My niece and sister-in-law have already requested the other two. I think the 18" legs on this one make it more suitable for a bench, I should try 12" - 16" legs on the next one.