Can anyone tell me how this table has been made?

[Jacob]

....

If the OP can make basic M&T joints then he can construct it very simply. It's hardly rocket science but if his woodwork skills are such that he can't cut and fit the joints accurately then it can be achieved via wood blocks and screws or even angle brackets though I'd strongly recommend conventional wood joints for strength and stability.

...

Those table corner brackets with wing nuts are highly effective but there's a bit of skill in getting them properly installed. I've got a large drawing office desk with drawers which must be 50 or more years old and the 6 legs all bolt on. Makes it easier to move if you have to, also means it needs lifting a touch if you drag it across the floor

 

[Max Power]

It sounds like you have more experience with joinery and woodwork in general than you think. I've worked with people on site recently who can't use a router or even screw a simple OSB crate together, yet they describe themselves as fully qualified joiners.

I've worked with joiners that should have been taken to court for misrepresentation, talk about rough

 

[Jacob]

I've worked with joiners that should have been taken to court for misrepresentation, talk about rough

A local joiner had his motto on his van "You name it, we can do it".
Somebody added felt-tipped comment "and even if they can't do it, they'll still do it"

 

[paulrbarnard]

It's a table. If the OP likes the look of it so what?
He asked how it was made and not an opinion on how it looks. Some people actually like rustic style furniture...if he likes it and it functions as a table then the job's a good'n..
To my mind It's simply a crude version of many tables that I've made over the years and it employs a similar method of construction. Note I'm describing it and not judging.

If the OP can make basic M&T joints then he can construct it very simply. It's hardly rocket science but if his woodwork skills are such that he can't cut and fit the joints accurately then it can be achieved via wood blocks and screws or even angle brackets though I'd strongly recommend conventional wood joints for strength and stability.

I learned my woodwork skills through church organ building and my particular interested lies in the construction of furniture over the past 3-4 centuries but some people never have any skills or training when they first wish to start leaning about woodwork so I'd rather give them help and guidance than put them off through criticism. Just saying!

Are you sure there were mortise and tenon joints in that table? From the general look of it I seriously doubted it.

The offer from @AJB Temple was great.

Knowing how to make a mortise and tenon (loose even) and how to handle the construction of a table so it stays together is what the OP needs to know.

The aesthetic of the table from there on is entire down to what the OP likes. It is as possible to make a terrible looking table well as it is to make a beautiful table badly.

 

[Ttrees]

Just some more pictures, just incase the OP might get some inspiration.
Looks very much like the Steve Latta, bench on a bench.
I can't screenshot PDF documents, so one would have to find the workbench book by Landis
to see Ian Kirby simple bench which is regular height, and looks good to me.

Here's another bench on a bench with some skis more akin to something Scandinavian.

And they double up as a bench of sorts too, so a win win.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Leg to rail construction probably something like below, i.e., mortice and tenon, possibly haunched as sketched, or maybe not as shown further below. If leg is thick enough there's no reason to mitre the end of the tenons because the mortices won't need to meet at their extremities. Buttons as shown in the upper sketch could be one way of holding the top down to the rails.

As for joining the boards to make the top a number of options are possible, but because the proposal is to use scaffold boards probably some reinforcement might be a good idea. Whatever method is chosen for reinforcement and alignment mating edges would need to be straightened so that a tight joint is created. Reinforcements for mating edges could be dowels, biscuits, slit feather, tongue and groove, and so on; I don't have any good sketches or photos of such joints to hand.

Sorry you got so many negative comments about your aesthetic preference regarding your proposed table build. It wouldn't surprise me if you've decided we are mostly a bunch of self important and opinionated a*rse*holes (sorry, er, high-minded aesthetes) and you've sloped off ne'er to return. Slainte.

​

 

[HOJ]

If that is what the op aspires to create, who are you to judge ?

I did add a caveat to my original statement for what it was worth, with a suggestion that the OP could make a far better table, and hopefully to encourage a rethink, oh well, clearly I am wrong in that view, so I shouldn't have commented in the way I did.

we are mostly a bunch of self important and opinionated a*rse*holes

I resemble that remark, as are a lot of the people I work with, keeps you on your toes!

you've sloped off ne'er to return

@HomeGrownHeroz don't take offense, I would offer the same option as @AJB Temple if you were local to me, and provide the timber as well, but it would have to be Oak I'm afraid.

 

[Jacob]

I did add a caveat to my original statement for what it was worth, with a suggestion that the OP could make a far better table, ....

Not many things get shown on this forum which couldn't have been made better, in spite of many having spent a fortune on every tool and gadget under the sun!
M&T not a joint for a beginner really, even with all the kit. I first spent a week or so on just half-housing joints with scraps of 2x1". Dozens of little crosses - could have supplied a pets cemetery. Good exercise though with a lot of basic hand tool skills involved. And marking up procedure - I discovered why we had been taught face and edge marking at school, which I'd often wondered about.
OP shouldn't be put off by the big-heads, he's only asking how to knock up a simple table/bench with scaffold boards

 

[ey_tony]

Are you sure there were mortise and tenon joints in that table? From the general look of it I seriously doubted it.

How are you so sure that there aren't any M&Ts in the original table construction? The table looks square and tight and gives no reason to suggest that M&Ts weren't used. If I was constructing such a rustic table that's how I'd build it. I would never judge any table by the top as if they're old then very often they may have been damaged or wormed and someone replaced it with available boards however in this case, looking at it's prominent position in the room it's displayed in, I'd think it's very likely to have been made that way deliberately.
The matching bench seating also suggests that it was deliberately made that way too.

Sorry, I know this may irk some of the crafts people on here but some people do make tables and the likes that they want to actually look that way! Rustic to some people is just as good to them as finely crafted furniture is to other people. Rustic can look very good in the correct settings so never discount it completely.
Heaven forbid some people even like furniture from Ikea...there's just no accounting for taste, thank goodness or the world would be a very boring place.

Post #66 about nails it for me, that's how I'd suggest the OP approached it if their skills are sufficient and I'd maybe add a couple of dowels just to keep the joints in place as they would in centuries gone by. Three of my smaller tables which are used daily I've constructed that way, the only difference is that they are French polished rather than rustic.
If the OP hasn't got the skills and not enough time to learn them the I'm sure YouTube has plenty of ways of constructing tables like that with wood or metal brackets.

 

[paulrbarnard]

How are you so sure that there aren't any M&Ts in the original table construction? The table looks square and tight and gives no reason to suggest that M&Ts weren't used. If I was constructing such a rustic table that's how I'd build it. I would never judge any table by the top as if they're old then very often they may have been damaged or wormed and someone replaced it with available boards however in this case, looking at it's prominent position in the room it's displayed in, I'd think it's very likely to have been made that way deliberately.
The matching bench seating also suggests that it was deliberately made that way too.

Sorry, I know this may irk some of the crafts people on here but some people do make tables and the likes that they want to actually look that way! Rustic to some people is just as good to them as finely crafted furniture is to other people. Rustic can look very good in the correct settings so never discount it completely.
Heaven forbid some people even like furniture from Ikea...there's just no accounting for taste, thank goodness or the world would be a very boring place.

Post #66 about nails it for me, that's how I'd suggest the OP approached it if their skills are sufficient and I'd maybe add a couple of dowels just to keep the joints in place as they would in centuries gone by. Three of my smaller tables which are used daily I've constructed that way, the only difference is that they are French polished rather than rustic.
If the OP hasn't got the skills and not enough time to learn them the I'm sure YouTube has plenty of ways of constructing tables like that with wood or metal brackets.

You may be right but too many examples of tables like this, from the scaffold board school of woodwork, are made by people who have never worked wood before and have never seen a M&T. I know exactly how my wife would approach this project. I’ve seen a book shelf she made before we met. One of the first things she asked me to do with it was put it back together…

Absolutely the OP should look at the reference example given in the thread. It’s the right way to go about it.

 

[Jacob]

..... the scaffold board school of woodwork, ....

Not a million miles from the crate school of woodwork as established by Rietveld and central to modern design, Jugendstil, The Bauhaus, etc. Highly influenced by the Arts n Crafts movement and getting back to basics.
Don't knock it - bring on the old pallets!

 

[ey_tony]

You may be right but too many examples of tables like this, from the scaffold board school of woodwork, are made by people who have never worked wood before and have never seen a M&T. I know exactly how my wife would approach this project. I’ve seen a book shelf she made before we met. One of the first things she asked me to do with it was put it back together…

Absolutely the OP should look at the reference example given in the thread. It’s the right way to go about it.

I'd wager now, not that I would mind you, but if I started producing rustic pieces of country furniture similar to that shown in the OPs post there would be a market for it. I'd certainly be able to sell the pieces I made such is the market appeal for that sort of thing. Part of the attraction of such items for some people is the simplicity so I've learned that beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder which is why I can see why the OP would want to know how to make the table.

A newcomer doesn't need much expensive equipment to produce a decent M&T joint. If someone has a mains electric drill and cheap drill stand then that will do to drill out the mortices. Most people have a cordless drill and with careful use they can drill out the mortices and finish them off with bevel edged chisels but a drill stand would be better..
A mortice gauge would help and a decent hardpoint tenon saw to cut the tenons so really no fancy tools required.

I learned to do everything with hand tools rather than machines but all except smaller mortices which were drilled out on a bench press, the larger ones were drilled out with a brace and bit and finished off with chisels. We didn't use mortice machines and didn't use traditional mortice chisels as they were deemed too coarse for what we did but that too is an option for the OP if he's so inclined.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

M&T not a joint for a beginner really ...

The first joint we learned at school at eleven years old.

 

[Jacob]

The first joint we learned at school at eleven years old.

Have you done many since then?

 

[ey_tony]

The first joint we learned at school at eleven years old.

It was the first proper joint I learned at about 12 years old at school too. It was back in the days when coffee tables were popular projects and the black painted bracket tapered legs were even splayed rather than perpendicular plus the top was finished in French polish.
They taught proper woodwork skills back in those days.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Have you done many since then?

Hundreds.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

It was the first proper joint I learned at about 12 years old at school too. It was back in the days when coffee tables were popular projects and the black painted bracket tapered legs were even splayed rather than perpendicular plus the top was finished in French polish.
They taught proper woodwork skills back in those days.

Our was a flowerpot stand - two "H" shapes joined with a halving joint on the centre bars. M&Ts, then the four legs curved, cut with a coping saw and cleaned up with a spokeshave.

 

[paulrbarnard]

Our was a flowerpot stand - two "H" shapes joined with a halving joint on the centre bars. M&Ts, then the four legs curved, cut with a coping saw and cleaned up with a spokeshave.

Fancy foot stool with magazine rack for us. Even got to upholster the top.

 

[Jacob]

Ours was a letter rack - two vertical boards stuck in housings in one horizontal board. Followed by an egg rack - one horizontal board with egg sized hole ins, housed into two vertical boards. Followed by woodturning - one 12" x3" blank turned into one 10 x 1" plate, supposed to have been a bowl.

 

[niall Y]

O.M.G. what a load of useless items were produced It is a wonder any of us ever went on to do it as a living. Amongst my invariably, brown-stained, and French-polished offerings ,were a teapot stand and a match box holder.