Day 1

Everything on the side of the basement where the track was going to be built got shoved to the other side of the basement. Can anyone say, Yard Sale?

My Dad had taken my doodle for my idea of the framing for the table and made it stronger, better and cheaper. He's a draftsman and woodworker...need I say more?

He drafted out the framing of the table to be the most sound table using the least amount of wood. He had the parts list down to...10 @ 2"x4"x96", 4 @ 2"x4"x12' and so on.

He used 3 different length screws and knew how many of each we needed. He figured out how the 4'x8' sheets of OSB had to be cut so they would not only cover the framing, but would fit down the stairs to the basement since they double back.

All of the above was great and ended up saving me money from not buying more wood that what was actually needed. He even figured what pieces were to be cut from which length of 2"x4" to make the cut waste as small as possible.

I picked him up around 9 am on a Saturday morning and we headed for Lowe's with his list in hand. We had to get their rental truck to get this all home and figured an early start would get the truck without a problem. However, the truck was already out and not expected back for around 50 minutes. That wasn't a problem because it would take that long to inspect and choose all those 2"x4"s for straightness. Plus, I had to get the boys to cut down 4 sheets of OSB to the correct sizes we needed. It also gave my Dad some time to help a couple of younger guys make sure that they picked the right wood for a project they were working on that day. He said, "I don't work here, but I can give you my opinion and if I was wrong that's okay because I won't be there." The guys gave a good laugh and were glad for the help.

All the wood picked, cut and loaded on the truck we headed home. We unloaded all of it into the garage and took the truck back. We headed over to a Sears Hardware store for the screws. It pays to shop around folks. Lowe's had the best deal on the wood because of a sale going on that week, but they couldn't come close on the screws. They didn't have a box of screws under $7.00, but Sears had what we needed for under $5 per box.

Once we got back home we unloaded all of my Dad's tools and setup his chop saw. We slid all the 2"x4"s via the basement window and attacked. No nails on this job. Everything was drilled, countersunk and screwed together for strength and easier dismantling if needed down the road.

We put in 7 to 8 hours that day getting the frame work done minus the legs. In the picture below we had aleady used around 100 screws. However, the knees, ankles, legs and backs were killing us at this point and so we called it a day. The plan was to call each other around 10 am Sunday to see if either of us could still move and if so we would continue with the build.