Dining table WIP

[danst96]

Thought I'd start a thread for a dining table I'm currently working on so I can get the ongoing advice and thoughts from the experienced people here.

We like to entertain and sit around a proper dining table. Table will be extending, sitting around 3 meters closed, extending by 1 meter up to 4m total. Should allow me to sit around 16-18 people around for the bigger events.

Table is being made from white oak and is loosely following a design by foureyes (yt woodworker).

The extension is being achieved using a table extension runner from Lee Valley.

Base is made from 8/4 material and top will be from 6/4. I'm shooting for a wider table so I can seat 2 adults on the end, around 140cm width.

 

[danst96]

First was to make the individual parts of the legs. I cut the initial shape on the bandsaw followed up with the router and a template. I left the transition between the bottom and leg unfinished till after glue up to avoid and headaches with it lining up nicely.

Glued with some dominos.

 

[danst96]

After that was the join the two leg sub assemblies together. Involved cutting some angles, 60° to be precise and then a fairly stressful glue up

 

[danst96]

The stage after I didn't really get any pictures of but it involved cutting some slots for the stretchers to into. I considered for a moment whether to get fancy and do a dovetail for this but with the angles and this being my biggest project todate I decided to keep it simple and just go with the angled slots and then a straight slot on the bottom on the point.

Cut out with handsaw, chisels, router and more chisels. Made a bit of a dogs dinner of them but they turned out not too bad in the end.

then milled the main stretchers from a huge piece of 8/4 lumber which I struggled to move around by myself

 

[recipio]

You don't say what shape the table top will be. For rectangular tables a ' butterfly fold ' in the middle works quite well. I would avoid oval ends as the end diner sits about a meter away from everybody else and feels isolated. Expanding circular tables are another world and can be as difficult or as easy as you want them to be.

 

[Doug71]

I do enjoy a WIP, we need more stuff like this rather than the pages of off topic arguments which we get at the moment.

@danst96 Thank you for posting this

 

[danst96]

You don't say what shape the table top will be. For rectangular tables a ' butterfly fold ' in the middle works quite well. I would avoid oval ends as the end diner sits about a meter away from everybody else and feels isolated. Expanding circular tables are another world and can be as difficult or as easy as you want them to be.

The table top will be rectangular but there is going to be a slight curve on both the end and the length of it, just to give it a bit more visual interest.

 

[danst96]

Next up was to join the base all together, both the top stretchers and bottom.

I spent approximately 9 months drawing and pondering on sketchup and not really getting my head around it so I just thought stuff I'm going to wing it. So various parts including figuring out the length of the top stretchers was done fair rudimentary by putting the legs at a distance I wanted then measuring off each corner till they were square to each other then taking the measurement for the stretchers.

Either way it seemed to work. When it came to clamping together, I did a few dry runs and could not get a good connection to pull the top stretchers tight so I settled on 2 big screws to pull it tight. It's the first time I've used screws in a project like this so will see how that works out. Obviously all glued up as well

 

[danst96]

And up to the stage I'm currently at, I attached the bottom stretcher. This was easier to clamp so no hardware involved with this one.

My workshop had also by this point hit peak messiness so it was a pause from working Yesterday to getting it tidied up and somewhat ship shape. My workshop gets to the point where it's so messy I can no longer think straight in the space so that needed fixing

 

[danst96]

I did get the base up onto my bench and I'm now working on sanding down, getting the joints and transitions cleaned up and sanded all up to 240grit.

I also need to plane a bit off the bottom stretcher on the underside to avoid it rocking on the floor.

After this it will be onto the top panel but will be some delay as I am travelling all week for work so no workshop until next weekend.

I have a goal to have this finished in 2 weeks, going to be a struggle!

 

[paulrbarnard]

I did get the base up onto my bench and I'm now working on sanding down, getting the joints and transitions cleaned up and sanded all up to 240grit.

I also need to plane a bit off the bottom stretcher on the underside to avoid it rocking on the floor.

After this it will be onto the top panel but will be some delay as I am travelling all week for work so no workshop until next weekend.

I have a goal to have this finished in 2 weeks, going to be a struggle!View attachment 168129View attachment 168130

Very nice. Impressive joinery.

 

[Yojevol]

I'm a bit worried about the long term integrity of the joints. There doesn't appear to have been any jointing going on other than butt and these all involve end grain surfaces. It is going to end up as a very strong and stable structure so any movement is going to be taken out at the joints. The 3-way joints will be particularly vulnerable.
Brian

 

[paulrbarnard]

I'm a bit worried about the long term integrity of the joints. There doesn't appear to have been any jointing going on other than butt and these all involve end grain surfaces. It is going to end up as a very strong and stable structure so any movement is going to be taken out at the joints. The 3-way joints will be particularly vulnerable.
Brian

The dominos in one the early pictures suggested it has loose tenons.

 

[Jesmona]

I did get the base up onto my bench and I'm now working on sanding down, getting the joints and transitions cleaned up and sanded all up to 240grit.

I also need to plane a bit off the bottom stretcher on the underside to avoid it rocking on the floor.

After this it will be onto the top panel but will be some delay as I am travelling all week for work so no workshop until next weekend.

I have a goal to have this finished in 2 weeks, going to be a struggle!View attachment 168129View attachment 168130

Looks great

 

[Yojevol]

The dominos in one the early pictures suggested it has loose tenons.

Ah yes. I await Dan's confirmation that all is well.

 

[danst96]

I'm a bit worried about the long term integrity of the joints. There doesn't appear to have been any jointing going on other than butt and these all involve end grain surfaces. It is going to end up as a very strong and stable structure so any movement is going to be taken out at the joints. The 3-way joints will be particularly vulnerable.
Brian

That's a fair concern. The leg assemblies were all made using floating tenons. The bottom stretcher is just a glue joint but has contact on 3 surfaces so I'm confident we shouldn't have too many issues.

 

[Yojevol]

That's a fair concern. The leg assemblies were all made using floating tenons. The bottom stretcher is just a glue joint but has contact on 3 surfaces so I'm confident we shouldn't have too many issues.

I hope you don't have any issues!

 

[danst96]

I hope you don't have any issues!

That's a better way to look at it lol

 

[Fitzroy]

Looking great! It encourages me to get back to one of my many ‘on the go’ projects.

 

[Sideways]

It does look great.
With the bottom stretcher close to the ground like that I assume you do the hoovering in your house