Upcycled Picnic Table

First we will cut out the picnic table's new flush plywood tabletop. Measure the dimensions of your existing tabletop (typically a combination of several wooden planks) and mark them onto 3/4" plywood. As a reference our tabletop was 28" x 60" and was composed of five planks. Mount the US500 Carbide Wood Cutting Wheel onto your Ultra-Saw tool. Clamp the plywood and cut along the marks.

Determine how deep you would like your beverage tub to recess into the finished picnic table and measure the dimensions of the tub at that height. Mark these dimensions onto the center area of your 3/4" plywood tabletop. For reference, we decided to let our beverage tub recess to its center point which was 10" x 13-1/2". Clamp the plywood and cut along the marks with your Ultra-Saw tool and the US500, being careful to avoid over-cutting the edges. Use your MM30 tool with attached MM480 Wood Flush Cut Blade to finish off the edge cuts with precision. Run the MM30 at a medium to high speed when making the cuts.

Remove the center plank(s) from your picnic table so that when the new tabletop is placed on top of the residual perimeter planks, the beverage tub will be able to conveniently drop into place. We used a hammer to remove the three center planks from our picnic table. Cut off any stuck nails with your MM30 tool running at a high speed and the MM485 Carbide Flush Cutting Blade attached.

Finish your new tabletop replacement as desired. We decided to paint ours red, white, and blue and add stars for a patriotic theme. For more complex designs it may be helpful to paint in several coats and use masking tape to protect completed areas of your design from new coats of paint.

Align and fit your completed tabletop onto the remaining perimeter planks which will act as the supporting base of your new tabletop. If choosing to affix the tabletop to the base perimeter planks we recommend using a drill and 1-1/2" deck screws. However some may choose not to affix the tabletop as its weight is often sufficient enough to hold it into place. Fill your beverage tub with ice and drinks as desired and set it into its designated resting place created in Step 2. Relax and enjoy.