21
votes
Accepted
How can I attach a solid table top to perpendicular cross rails?
You can use screws, but in a slightly different manner. Instead of simply pre-drilling a hole and screwing the screw, you can use a router to create a slot with a countersink or counterbore bit.
...
- 2,400
15
votes
How can I attach a solid table top to perpendicular cross rails?
Tabletops are often attached to the frame and aprons using tabletop fasteners such as these, which allow for some wood movement:
(Source)
This is what they look like installed:
(Source)
rob♦
- 18.6k
13
votes
How can I attach a solid table top to perpendicular cross rails?
The wood in your top will expand and contract in one direction, while the cross braces will expand and contract perpendicular to that.
There are a couple of different products and techniques that ...
- 4,392
12
votes
Accepted
Make a table top using pocket holes?
For strength, a good glue bond is all you need. If you want to minimize clamping, you could use pocket screws, but I would recommend against it. When you tighten a pocket screw, it tends to pull the ...
- 8,036
11
votes
Accepted
Why are table legs attached to the edge of tabletop so rare?
Why are table legs attached from the bottom in almost all cases? Are there some considerations when attaching legs from the edge?
Attaching legs to the edges of a table top would provide very little ...
- 9,116
10
votes
Why are table legs attached to the edge of tabletop so rare?
In addition to Caleb's excellent points, an additional drawback to edge joined legs is that all of the weight on the table is borne by the fasteners and a thin strip of wood (left in the top above the ...
- 6,142
8
votes
Accepted
What would be the best way to bevel an oval table top?
To expand upon @keshlam's answer, you're going to want to purchase a chamfer or low angle bevel bit. Amazon (among others) sells a 60-deg bevel bit (pictured below), and chamfer bits can be found at ...
- 12.1k
8
votes
How do I make a table top from oak 1" x 4"
@bowlturner gives some excellent suggestions. Let me just add a few things:
Be sure to use cauls. They are pieces of wood laid across the top of the boards being joined to keep them aligned (and to ...
- 4,176
8
votes
Accepted
Metal framed wood table, will expansion be an issue?
I would be quite concerned with wood movement in this design. You will be bonding epoxy (which doesn't move seasonally) directly to the end grain of wood. Since the wood will be expanding and ...
- 5,490
7
votes
How to attach table legs to wood that is too thin?
18mm isn't actually particularly thin, many smaller pieces use 1/2" material (roughly 13mm) for their tops and numerous sizeable tables have tops 18mm thick or less.
For tables, legs are almost never ...
- 62.1k
7
votes
How to attach table legs to wood that is too thin?
Ive looked everywhere for table legs which I can screw into the wood but every table leg I see needs a minimum depth of 25mm for the wood, whereas my wood is much thinner at 18mm.
For my Imperial ...
- 12.1k
7
votes
Accepted
Stabilizer for softwood tabletop that bows
The ideal 'fix' for this is probably to saw the table apart (yes I know, *gulp*) and flip a few of the boards over,
But going with what you have, two very traditional methods that were used to help ...
- 62.1k
7
votes
Do pocket hole screws allow for proper expansion and contraction in planked table tops?
Do pocket hole screws allow for proper expansion and contraction in planked table tops?
It completely depends on where they're sited. They're perfectly acceptable in some places and utterly wrong in ...
- 62.1k
7
votes
Why does my teak dining table have splits?
The top is attached (at least in part) using buttons, although it's hard to tell what's going on with the cross-bracing framework. Buttons are one of the established ways of allowing for seasonal ...
- 62.1k
6
votes
Accepted
How can I create a planked wood table top with a plywood core?
I was wondering how I could make a table similar.
You can't really, and shouldn't try. Making a table that looks similar is easy enough, but actually laminating solid wood to plywood is inherently a ...
- 62.1k
6
votes
How can I create a planked wood table top with a plywood core?
There are several issues to address in fabricating such a table top.
First, as you pointed out is wood movement. The plywood base will not have any appreciable movement in either direction while the ...
- 8,049
6
votes
Accepted
Do pocket hole screws allow for proper expansion and contraction in planked table tops?
will pocket hole screws allow the table to expand and contract as it is supposed to?
I'm assuming you built something that was fastened together along the lines of this
(source)
where you used ...
- 12.1k
6
votes
Accepted
How do I make a table top from oak 1" x 4"
Well I would tend to use my biscuit joiner to join all the pieces. Try to avoid flat sawn pieces in the middle of the table top and if you have flat sawn lumber then make sure you alternate the ...
- 15.5k
6
votes
Accepted
finish for a very large pine dining table --- is beeswax crazy?
I'll preface my comments by saying that finish choice is a very personal thing, what one person is comfortable using and living with (in terms of upkeep and periodic maintenance) another would not. ...
- 62.1k
6
votes
Threaded inserts
Epoxy will work as mentioned in the comments. There are two other possibilities I can think of. One is to drill out the area where the threaded inserts are and glue in a dowel. Once that glue is cured,...
- 244
5
votes
Make a table top using pocket holes?
Much useful related info in these previous Questions:
What is a good way to prevent jointed tabletops from bowing when tightening fasteners or the glue sets?
Do pocket hole screws allow for proper ...
- 62.1k
5
votes
Stabilizer for softwood tabletop that bows
Typically there will either be cross pieces underneath, or "breadboard ends", to keep a tabletop flat. Either way you have to allow for wood movement as the table expands and shrinks across the grain, ...
- 9,141
5
votes
Is it necessary to apply finish to both sides of a table top?
Bob Flexner says it is unnecessary to finish both sides of a table top:
...finishing the undersides of tabletops or the insides of cabinets or
chests has only limited impact on reducing the ...
- 723
4
votes
Accepted
Follow up, camber extendable table with the rack and pinion
Table slides are those pieces of wood that join the two halves of a table and support the leaves. The bigger the opening the more pieces necessary for each slide (Normally two slides per table, each ...
- 3,667
4
votes
How thin is too thin for a large dining table top? Is 11/16" too thin to properly attach to the table base?
11/16" works out to 17.5mm and although that isn't beefy for a table of this size it doesn't seem too thin to me.
Many tables have been made with tops are under 1" (25mm) thick, although the ones I'...
- 62.1k
4
votes
How thin is too thin for a large dining table top? Is 11/16" too thin to properly attach to the table base?
It depends on how heavy your base is going to be as that is the weight it will need to be able to hold when you pick it up but as long as you you use enough z clips to securely attach the top to the ...
- 574
4
votes
Ikea Beech Table top conditioning
left it to dry 24 hours.
First thing, I don't know if Ikea make a selection of oil treatments but going by the one that's most commonly used this won't ever dry.
If the oil is based on mineral oil ...
- 62.1k
4
votes
Accepted
Panel Flatness During Table Top Glue Up
Glue up strategy was pipe clamps alternating on top and bottom every foot. I also used biscuits.
Alternating clamps top and bottom is a good way to help achieve a flat glue-up, but if you want to be ...
- 62.1k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible