Memorial Day Weekend Hands-On Project

As a kid, it seemed my dad always had a Memorial Day Weekend project planned. Sometimes it was assigned by my mom, but most of the time it was something he had come up with on his own. Now that I'm a dad, I'm trying to continue the tradition.

My son loves LEGO. A lot. And I encourage him to tinker as much as possible and whenever possible, including my frequent visits to the local B&N bookseller where they have a nice little LEGO table set up. He loves that table and has been asking for one for some time... but I don't love the price (Around $170, I believe). I've found other tables here and there, but they all have their drawbacks. One table, for example, was too short. Decker doesn't like to build while sitting on the floor or on his knees. Another table had more road/terrain than LEGO plates glued to the surface. Another table had no LEGO plates glued down and had only a cartoonish image of a city/streets/buildings on it. Another table was so wobbly that I could already hear the screams as tall LEGO gizmos toppled and broke apart. 

Those of you who follow my blog posts for GeekDad.com already know where this is going -- there was simply no table that matched my requirements SO... I chose to build my own.

I initially thought about purchasing some 2x4s and plywood and finding a nice plan on the Internet for a small adjustable-height table, but I didn't want to spend all the weekend in the workshop cutting, sanding, drilling, and assembling. I wanted Decker to have something to enjoy fast AND since I knew he was getting some LEGO birthday gifts from friends and family, I needed it now.

So... Friday I took a trip to IKEA on faith. I knew they'd have to have something I could work with. And, sure enough, I found the most awesome $50 table. Perfect size, adjustable height, and even the demo unit on the floor wasn't wobbling and felt solidly built. I grabbed it along with two matching chairs (for reasons I'll explain shortly) and headed home.

I already had some square green LEGO plates but I had also purchased one large gray square plate for $15. I didn't have a layout plan yet, and I decided to let Decker have the say there.

Total time to assemble the table was about 30 minutes. The screws provided are long and the holes were accurately drilled, so this thing was tightened down and has zero wobble. The four bottom plastic pieces (2 red and 2 blue) seem to almost have been designed to make this wood table a LEGO table, and they have 3 different height settings -- Decker chose the bottom hole which gives the table maximum height. When he stands at it, the table surface is just above his waist and he can build so easily I just smile... it really does look comfortable standing and building.

Regarding the plates -- he specifically wanted "roads" so we tried a few patterns for laying out the five LEGO plates (4 green/one gray) and chose the one you see in the photos. Plenty of white "road" for cars and planes to taxi and drive around on and also just for sitting pieces for experimenting. I superglued the plates down and they are NOT coming off easily.

And regarding the chairs -- these are awesome. A bit more than I wanted to spend ($20 each), but they are the matching chairs for this table and the red lids come off and provide about 8 inches of depth for storing LEGO. (The box is about 13" x 13" square, so you can do the math and figure out how much LEGO each will hold - a LOT!) The chairs are just as solid to sit on and have no wiggle/wobble. The wood is very strong and they just look great.

Total cost for Decker's LEGO table, plates, and chairs (soon to be Decker and Sawyer's LEGO table as the 2 year old is eyeing it with intent) was just over $120 plus tax.

My next plan is to find an interesting way to hang some plastic buckets on the sides and/or underneath the table for holding more LEGO and instruction books. There's so many places to add storage on this table, but I'm in no rush so if anyone has an interesting idea, please share it here! Ideally I'd like some sort of hook system that the boys can easily unhook and rebook plastic see-through containers to, but I'm really open to any ideas.

My two sons had a dual birthday party this weekend -- the LEGO table was a big hit when the kids came indoors (from the outdoor air rocket launching party) and kept them busy while the adults visited. One of my friends is going to IKEA this week to pick up the same table and make his own at home... they've been wanting a LEGO table but haven't wanted to pay the "official LEGO" high price either.

One final note -- the SANSAD table comes with a hex wrench and this funny little black handle tool to put it in to make turning easier. Don't use it. It's much faster to just the hex wrench by itself and just turn it like a crank -- the screws go in easy enough that you'll waste time trying to use this doodad (pictured here).

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Tags: LEGO, handmade, table

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Comment by James Floyd Kelly on June 6, 2012 at 10:50am

Hi, Steve.  Can you tell me what Ikea Hacker is about... never heard of it.  Thanks, and glad to be able to point people to those great little stool/chairs.

Comment by Steve on June 6, 2012 at 10:33am

Awesome! 

I've been scoring Ikea Hacker for a while for Lego table ideas. I think this is the best I've come across! Love the chair storage.

If you haven't, post over at Ikea Hacker. I'm sure you will get much love for doing so.


Cheers!

Comment by Max Castera on May 29, 2012 at 8:04pm

Indeed! Ikea can be surprising! However personally I use different chairs since I renew them very often as you can in my config here http://geekdad.hotwired.com/photo/space-workshop-lego-brickscientist-9

Comment by James Floyd Kelly on May 29, 2012 at 7:58pm

Hi, Max.

I'm pretty impressed with the table -- they're the perfect height for kids age 5 and up.  Most tables I've found are simply too low, along the lines of the Thomas the Train tables. The adjustability of these really surprised me, and the quality of the wood they use is top-notch (no warping, no splinters).

Comment by Max Castera on May 29, 2012 at 2:44pm

Hi Jim, Great choice! I use the same tables for my LEGO workshops, perfect to adapt to different ages!

Comment by James Floyd Kelly on May 28, 2012 at 8:48pm

Keep in mind I didn't design the chairs... they came that way!  The genius works for IKEA.

I told a buddy of mine about your project -- he's all into that stuff and totally jealous of the patch. Patrick and I enjoyed spending time with you at Maker Faire. Wish you lived closer to Atlanta because we could probably do some serious damage to our bank accounts with all the projects we could come up with.

Best of luck with all the testing and such! Might make for a great guest post on Geek Dad, you know?

Comment by Dan Bramos on May 28, 2012 at 8:41pm

Oh, I love the chair storage idea. Genius. Between all of us, do you think that we could figure out how to put storage like that in a recliner?

Thanks to your post, I did get to brag a little. My wife was reading over my shoulder and commented that she really liked table in the picture, then sarcastically asked "do you know who built it?". Me: "Pfft. Of Course. That's the guy I told you about spending the afternoon with at Maker Faire".

On that note, thanks for playing tour guide for me for a while. I had a blast.

Now that I changed the subject a bit, we can return to your kick butt LEGO table. With roads. Way cool.

 

Comment by James Floyd Kelly on May 28, 2012 at 8:14pm

Hey, Dan!

I'll look into your idea -- need to see if there's actually enough depth to the wood surface to mount them on well enough that they won't get ripped off.

I like your table -- you beat me on the price, though!  I thought about cutting holes in the surface to drop some bins in like the one at the bookstore, but just didn't have the time to go with that option. I like using my router, but the small chairs were a quick solution. 

Yes, I'm certain our LEGO collection will grow over the years, so a better storage solution will eventually have to be found.

The Dude sounds like he's got a great dad!

Comment by Dan Bramos on May 28, 2012 at 8:10pm

Nice Jim! For additional storage, how about using some "L" brackets under the table to slide plastic bins in? I have to warn you though, you might as well think big when it comes to storage. The Dude is 10 and we're on our third storage unit for LEGOs. I mean, who can get rid of (or have too many of) those things?

By the way, great minds think alike. Here's my project from last Fourth of July weekend:

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/07/one-geeky-dads-diy-lego-play-t... 

Comment by James Floyd Kelly on May 28, 2012 at 5:17pm

No... I tried to use bricks to create a standard width, but it doesn't match up exactly. The green plates are glued exactly on the edges of the table with a 1/16" wood border left intact (otherwise the plate's sharp pointed edge would be something they could cut themselves or poke themselves on).  You could probably find a way to center the gray plate a specific distance from two of the green plates, but not all four (I believe). If you need a closeup photo of the tabletop, let me know.

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