There’s a saying in electronic/maker/hacker circles. Sometimes, you just need enough junk before you can start doing cool stuff. You need a “critical mass” of stuff.  This trestle table came together because of a “critical mass” of junk.  The pressure treated base was scrap pieces from a variety of sources (work, my own projects, etc) and the top came from a neighbor’s remodel.  As any maker will tell you: if you don’t collect the stuff somewhere, you don’t get the idea to use it.  The process works and I got a cute little grilling table out of it.

A walk through of the build after the jump.

I began by shaping for identical legs/arms for the top and bottom of the table.  I shaped this particular part with only hand tools – it took about 20 min to complete.  I cut the rest using a jigsaw and averaged a little over 5 min a piece.

Next, I cut the legs to height and began marking lap joints.  This ain’t rocket science, as I like to say, but I am particularly happy with how the joints came out.   I’m still looking to improve the results but for now, I can handle the quality right now.   First the interior of that joint, then the finished joint.A few crossbeams completes the base.At which point, it’s time to add the top.  I used the cut off for a kitchen sink.  Maybe at some point in the future I’ll figure out how to shape stone.  At this point, I’m just keeping my hands away from the sharp edges.