Trash to Treasure: Picnic table

I don't know if anyone remembers my recent post You Might Be a Redneck If.... but in it I talk about how I trash picked a picnic table. Well, I finally got around to that DIY project. What happened was, I happened to be jogging at a snail's pace running in my neighborhood and saw this disgusting looking table out for the trash. Anyone else might have turned their nose up at it and said 'forget it', but I'm not just anyone else I guess. A couple days later it was still there, so me and my stubborn self decided I had to get it before anyone else did and couldn't wait for DH to get home to pick it up in his pickup truck. Nooo...I had to cart my three princesses over, take the backseat out of my minivan (all by myself which was no easy feat) and pick it up...THEN put the half ton seat BACK IN my minivan. DH teases me that if I want to do something, nothin'll stop me. But if I don't want to do something nothin can make me. I guess this is true...

So anyway, here are the tools I used: 

A chisel (I'll tell you why later)

A HUSKY 14 in One paint tool (LOVE this thing!) 

The Mouse power sander

Bondo scraper (this is for later also)

First thing I did was to scrape all of the old paint off. I didn't want anything loose otherwise it would probably peel once the new coat was on. However, I ran into a glitch along the way. Rot. Apparently whoever owned this gem previously didn't care for it...hence it was out to the trash. I mean look at it! Well, there was one section that I came across which was rotted. I was going to just paint over it and deal with it later. Not the smartest idea, I know, but I wasn't sure what to do at that moment.

With the next step, though, which was to sand the entire table down, the rotted wood came off. Ugh. So, here's what I did. I finished sanding the table and then wiped it down with a damp old rag. 

Next, I took the chisel and carefully removed the rotted wood. Then, I remembered I had this Bondo body filler which my dad used in our old house because our half-bath door was hung the wrong way when we moved in so he fixed it for us but had to fill in the old holes from the hinges. (Thanks goodness for my Dad!)

Here's the product I used. It comes with a filler and a tube of hardener. Next is the tricky part. It takes about a minute after mixing to harden so you must be ready and work quickly. Using a disposable spoon I scooped it into the hole and used the Bondo scraper (you can use a putty knife) to smooth it out and fill in the hole.

It took about 4 different batches to fill in the hole completely. Be sure and use the scraper to remove any excess around the hole. 

Here's what it looked like after the hole was filled. 

After it cured for about 30 minutes I used my sander to sand it down smooth. I wasn't looking for 'perfect' because it is an old table and has many imperfections. Then, I wiped it down with a damp cloth.

Next I used an outdoor SOLID stain and painted the entire thing in two coats. Voila! 

Another man's  trash is another's treasure, right?

Here's me after a full day of painting...I'm NOT a clean painter. If you're not either, be sure and wear old clothes or a painters' suit. (I had other outdoor furniture I painted to match.)