First post - Dining table WIP

**rzamora** · 8th March 2013, 03:55 PM

Hello everybody,

So here goes my first post. I have wanted to make a dining table for about 4 years now, when I picked up a bunch of painted Jarrah from an apartment building in which they were removing a pergola. This is my first project on my own, so please be patient. I intend to complete this project in the next couple of weeks.

First step was to remove the paint from the wood. I used a scouring? disc attached to the angle grinder. It took couple of hours and was quite a messy job, but it was the best way with the tools I have available.

I have been looking at table designs and have set on a simple design, but here comes the first question. For the apron I have two options, the first is the classic mortise and tenon into the legs. The second is an apron joined with dovetails, like a box. The apron is attached to the legs by cutting the thickness of the apron from the top of the leg on the two exterior edges and gluing/doweling. I have seen this ‘untraditional’ joint in shops where they sell rustic tables that have been built with recycled wood. Anyway, the question is if there is a reason why not to use the second option. I like the way it looks, but I assume that the resulting leg would be too weak?

The second question is regarding the table top. I will follow the step-by-step instructions in this link. My problem is that I want to make a 1,800mm x 1,200mm and I don’t have enough planks that are longer than 1,800mm (couple of them just barely 1,800mm). So the question is how to join two planks to make the length I want? Because it is end grain to end grain joint, I guess I have to provide some long grain surface for gluing, so thought that I should do some sort of lap joint. Is this the way to go, or is it a better way of doing this? If I do a lap joint, what do I have to have in mind when selecting the pieces to be joined?

Below are some photos of the planks before and after removing the paint.

Cheers,

Rodrigo

1.JPG 2.JPG 3.JPG 4.JPG Attachment 256967

**artme** · 8th March 2013, 04:38 PM

Welcome along Rodrigo!! Good to see you here!!!

Firstly welcome to the Grand Amalgamated union of Scroungers and Recyclers.

It's really great to see you recycling useful timber.

You could join with biscuit.

Don't forget the join will be supported either side by another board, so no need to
fret about strength

How do yu intend to join the boards across their width?

**AlexS** · 8th March 2013, 06:52 PM

Welcome. Looking forward to watching the table.
Firstly, either method of installing the skirts should be strong enough if done properly. If you go with the 'dovetailed box' method, I'd use hidden screws through the legs into the skirts, from the inside.
Not sure how you stand for enough width, but you can 'stretch' the boards by cutting them diagonally, but the trade-off is loss of width. In jarrah, especially if you can cut along the grain, it shouldn't be too visible. It will be stronger than end jointing.

**Trav** · 8th March 2013, 10:57 PM

Welcome. I terms of the leg joinery, I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean for the second option. But it sounds as if you will be cutting away the two outside edges of the leg at the top and running the apron around the outside. Depending on the thickness of the apron vs the leg, you could end up cutting away as much as 3/4 of the thickness of the leg (assuming the apron is half the thickness of the leg). I think it would probably be ok, but make sure you leave enough meat in the leg.

You should probably think through whether you are happy to have end grain showing on the apron. Unless you mitre the ends of the aprons, you will see some end grain.

I terms of the end join, there will be no problems. As others have said, the long grain joins alongside will be plenty strong enough. I wouldn't even necessarily glue between the end grain joins. No need for a lap or scarf joint. A simple butt joint is fine. But make sure it is clean and sharp, and try and match timber colour and grain.

Trav

**rzamora** · 14th March 2013, 07:30 PM

Thanks a lot for the replies.

I got distracted last weekend making a pair of scissor clamps for the top. I didn't have clamps long enough, but now I do (I will post some picture on the weekend). The only down side is that there was no progress on the table itself.

I will join the top using biscuits, so if I have to joint some pieces I will use biscuits as suggested. Now I am having second thoughts about the need for such a long table, at the end of the day, the wood I have might be good enough to make a 1750mm long table, which should be fine without having to mess with adding pieces.

With respect to the legs, I think I will go with mortise and tenon. My only question is on dimension of aprons. Is there anything used as rule of thumb for with and thickness? My boards are 50mm thick, but I was thinking that 35mm should be enough. As for the width, I was thinking to use 80mm, is this too much? Or too little? The table top will be 40mm thick (if I can get it from my logs) and the legs will be 100 x 100mm at the top.

Thanks again and I will post pictures when I get some progress.

Cheers,

Rodrigo

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