So we've been planning the outdoor kitchen for a while, and as part of that we want a barrel oven (eventually) and a place for convenient washing up. Thus, the idea of a sink table was born - a semi-mobile piece of outdoor furniture to make washing up a breeze. At least, more of a breeze than it is now with 5 people stuffed into my parents tiny motor home with one mini-sink.
We bought a sink from the tip ($10) - we wanted one with two sinks and two drainage boards, to make large batches of washing up easy.
With some bits of timber we had already (also from the tip, around $15) Kyle made a frame for the sink to sit in.
Once we had the frame, and the sink was screwed on (with screws from the tip - $0.50) Kyle started on legs. First he checked that he had them all the right length, so the table would be level and not wobble (apparently harder than it sounds).
Because we want the table to be very sturdy, Kyle did mortice and tenon joints for the cross pieces at the base.
Once they were attached to the sink frame, he put another bar across the base as well. Notice the cut off corners - to avoid getting hurt by bashing your legs on the corner that would have stuck out.
Slats across the base will give it extra stability, and also provide a nice shelf that we can put some small plastic tubs in. This will be where we store cutlery and crockery between uses.
As a request from me, the ends of the big boards at the front and back of the sink frame were left on, and on one side Kyle added a little basket of slats that we can put bottles of detergent and so on in, and the other end there's extra space for plates to be put. There are also a few pieces of dowel across, as tea towel rails.
The front and back boards were painted, as they're most likely to get water on them. Then the whole thing got 3 or 4 coats of polyurethane.
Finally, the very bottom of the legs were capped with a bit of galvanised steel we had lying around to make them last longer. Kyle did up a template in cardboard first, and you can see that the corners are folded instead of cut so that water can't get in through an open corner.
I think the final thing is quite impressive, especially considering that the only part of it that isn't recycled from rubbish was the paint. Even the screws, nails and brackets were from the tip.
Once we have the outdoor kitchen structure finished this will find a semi-permanent home there, with piping underneath to take draining water away to a grey water mulch pit.
The whole thing cost maybe $30 to build, and perhaps $20 worth of paint to make it last longer (we didn't use a whole tin, which we'd bought for something else originally anyway, so hard to tell exactly how much). It took Kyle around 5 days worth of work to build and paint up, stretched into sessions a few hours long over the course of about a month.
We bought a sink from the tip ($10) - we wanted one with two sinks and two drainage boards, to make large batches of washing up easy.
With some bits of timber we had already (also from the tip, around $15) Kyle made a frame for the sink to sit in.
You can see the very technical numbering system that kept it all in the right place:
Once we had the frame, and the sink was screwed on (with screws from the tip - $0.50) Kyle started on legs. First he checked that he had them all the right length, so the table would be level and not wobble (apparently harder than it sounds).
Because we want the table to be very sturdy, Kyle did mortice and tenon joints for the cross pieces at the base.
Once they were attached to the sink frame, he put another bar across the base as well. Notice the cut off corners - to avoid getting hurt by bashing your legs on the corner that would have stuck out.
Slats across the base will give it extra stability, and also provide a nice shelf that we can put some small plastic tubs in. This will be where we store cutlery and crockery between uses.
As a request from me, the ends of the big boards at the front and back of the sink frame were left on, and on one side Kyle added a little basket of slats that we can put bottles of detergent and so on in, and the other end there's extra space for plates to be put. There are also a few pieces of dowel across, as tea towel rails.
The front and back boards were painted, as they're most likely to get water on them. Then the whole thing got 3 or 4 coats of polyurethane.
Finally, the very bottom of the legs were capped with a bit of galvanised steel we had lying around to make them last longer. Kyle did up a template in cardboard first, and you can see that the corners are folded instead of cut so that water can't get in through an open corner.
I think the final thing is quite impressive, especially considering that the only part of it that isn't recycled from rubbish was the paint. Even the screws, nails and brackets were from the tip.
Once we have the outdoor kitchen structure finished this will find a semi-permanent home there, with piping underneath to take draining water away to a grey water mulch pit.
The whole thing cost maybe $30 to build, and perhaps $20 worth of paint to make it last longer (we didn't use a whole tin, which we'd bought for something else originally anyway, so hard to tell exactly how much). It took Kyle around 5 days worth of work to build and paint up, stretched into sessions a few hours long over the course of about a month.
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