Final Report II: Car Camping Table, How and Why?

For my final project I decided to build a camping table for my car. I have wanted one for a while because I camp a good amount over the summer and never have a good time cooking when I am camping because of a lack of space to pack a table in my car. I thought I would make a folding camping table that can attach to my car, and is small enough to store in the back of my car at all times. I picked a western aesthetic for my table because pretty much all of my camping takes place in western half of the United States, and I wanted my table to fit in with the red deserts, mountains, and forests that cover the west

I tried as hard as possible to follow the timeline I created at the start of the project:

I was further behind on the manufacturing process than I hoped to be, but I ended up finishing everything in time for when I wanted to.

After acquiring all of my materials and beginning the building process like stated in previous posts, I began building the frame for the tops of the table.

After finishing the frame I turned it over to hammer the cedar planks into my table for the top.

I then turned it over and attached the hinges to two cross boards running under the table so it fold over on itself, and attached the legs by bolting hinges on to the top of the table and legs.

I then attached a wood “latch” that goes on the top of it and prevents the table from sagging in the center, and finalized the table by sanding the top so that it will not give you splinters when you are trying to use it.

Here is the final version of my table on my car.

I am really happy with the way the table turned out. I think not only does it look exactly like I imagined, it is also going to be a great project I can use for a while to come. I love that it looks like a camping table, and the somewhat red wood I used building it reminds my of a table from the wild west. I am definitely going to continue iterating and improving the table as time goes on, by making its legs more stable, and adding additional legs to both help hold up the table in the center, but also to maybe have extras where it can stand up without my car. One thing I wish I did differently was add design to it to really exemplify my aesthetic, with maybe some wood etchings of horses and bull skulls, or something along that manner.