I picked up my large Egg on Craigslist and it came with a table already made. Unfortunately, it was made of 1x4 untreated pine, so I figured it would not last long exposed to the elements on my deck. I'm a weekend woodworker, so naturally I had to undertake the project of building a table. Hopefully some of you will enjoy following my progress.
I headed off to the local lumber yard to pick up some rough sawn cypress.
Jointing all of these boards to assure I had a flat surface generated a lot of saw dust!
The planer generated an even larger pile of sawdust!
But when I was done I had some nice looking cypress.
I glued together the nicest looking boards for the table top, then ran them through the sander to make sure everything was smooth and flat.
Three boards laminated together make up the legs. I've been using Titebond III waterproof glue so it should be OK outside.
I decided to dress up the basic table with some gentle curves. Here's the jig for cutting a curve at the ends of the table top.
After curving both ends of the table top, I used a table edge bit to put a finished edge all around.
Now it was time to cut the opening for the large Egg to fit through. I made several passes with the circle cutting jig, cutting a little deeper each time.
Eventually, it cut all the way through and I had a perfect 21 inch diameter hole.
I planned to recess an 18x18 inch tile in the top so it set just barely above the wood surface. I had to hog out the recess with a router to get a flat bottom for the tile to rest in.
Many many passes of the router later, the place for the tile was done.
And with that, the table top was done.
So that is where I am so far. I have lots of work left to do and with football season coming up, open weekends could get hard to find. But I'll try to update this thread as I make more progress.