Table
I am not a woodworker, or a carpenter, or a cabinetmaker. However, I did work in a sceneshop in college. I can use powertools.
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Fire Table
Not super period, but works. There are a lot of angle brackets holding it together.
Fire table in use at Otter's Welcome Home 2022. Photo by Yona Carmichael
There are four cement pavers under the sand. I am going to look into getting some fire bricks instead. I'm also going to use flashing around the edges. I have caught the edges on fire by not paying attention. The box is singed, but not structurally damaged. At Malagentia Test Kitchen, I had a 2-3 gallon cast iron cauldron hanging from the support full of pottage.
Note: If you use a glued board as the base, screw or nail in the end of every board. After ~2 years and multiple 8+ hour days of cooking, the glue failed and some of the boards started to drop out. I performed this fix at Pennsic and the table worked fine for another 8+ hour day cooking. I'm assuming it will keep working for me.
A Frame Table
This is based on a 4' glued board. It's nice being longer, but you have to spend more on the 12' dowel and cut it down.
A Frame Table at Malagentia Test Kitchen 2022.
Trestle Tables
Table space is always at a premium. I wanted actual trestle tables. Easy to put up and take down. Some place where folks can eat, but they can be put away when not needed.
The unstained tables.
These are pretty terrible. The table top is made from a stock set of glued boards from Home Depot. I'm not super happy with the size and spread of the A-frame side of the legs. I may try to re-work them.
The pieces, freshly stained, drying in the sun.
They are strong enough to eat off of, but don't use them for a project, and I wouldn't trust them with a rowdy drinking song where you're banging on the table.
Tables set up under my day shade at GNEW 2022. (In the back, much more visible when you enlarge the photo.)
I wouldn't want to use them for heavy duty chopping or bread kneading, but for holding veggies and light mixing, they were fine.
Reconfigured for eating on Saturday night at GNEW 2022.
Five of us ate dinner from the table, and it worked well. However, everyone hit their knee on a table leg at some point.
I built 6 support bars for the tables. Four work with the single width, so I can have two separate tables. Two work with the tables doubled, so I can make a single table when I want.
I think these will work fantasically as period trestle tables were meant to be used. The people eating get to sit on the side with the single legs, that are non-intrusive. Servants serve from the other side.
If you decide to make your own, watch the wood grain on the trapezoid piece at the top of the A-frame legs. Make sure the grain is vertical. If the grain is horizontal, it will snap along the grain line. Ask me how I know this.
I just used 22.5 degree angles, because that was a preset on my chopsaw. I think that is too wide for the A-frame legs.
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