Thread: How to Repair a Cracked Table Top

It sounds like the humidity conditions between your in-laws and your place are different.
In that case take it back to your in-laws place and bring some glue and clamps along with you.

That's interesting. I can not offer a solution to open up a crack other then taking the breadboard end off but that sort of defeats the purpose and just gives you a lot of work.

I do like Bob's suggestion about taking it back to the in-laws and asking them to call you if this opens again.

I thought about cutting off the breadboard end and then using floating tenons or dominos to reattach it once fixed. I currently have the top in my workshop with the air conditioning turned on - I'll leave it there for a few days and see if the drying out opens the crack again...

Originally Posted by Stanger

I thought about cutting off the breadboard end and then using floating tenons or dominos to reattach it once fixed. I currently have the top in my workshop with the air conditioning turned on - I'll leave it there for a few days and see if the drying out opens the crack again...

I wouldn't mind betting that this will work. Dry it out somehow and the crack is likely to reappear.

On similar problems I have found that Chair Doctor glue works very well. It is thin, and will run into small cracks. If you bore very small holes from underneath into the crack, the needle end supplied with the glue will allow you to force glue deep into the crack. Try to have the glue come out onto the face of the table. Clamp it up for a while and it should be fine.

What concerns me is what caused the crack in the first place. You don't want a recurrence.

Easy peasy - use a planter/pot warmer mat. They are $10 from the hardware store or ebay. We have them for the animals (for the winter, to sleep on). Just leave it under some towels, the heat will build up and dry it out and the crack will open right up.

When it does, put woodglue on top and use a vacuum nozzel from below to suck the glue in.

As John said, you need to think about why the crack occurred in the first place. Wood expands & contracts across the grain with seasonal moisture movement, with negligible movement along the grain, so a breadboard end has to be attached to cater for the cross-grain movement. A common way to do that is with a single dowel in the centre (usually inserted underneath so it doesn't show) and/or with more dowels further out inserted through elongated holes to allow the top to expand & contract. If the top is glued into the breadboard, as I suspect may be the case with your table, and the top wants to expand because it's taken on a bit of moisture, something has to give, either the glue lets go or the top cracks. Or it could be that it's doweled, but the outer dowels have been put in tight holes. Otherwise, I'm at a loss to explain the crack.

Your problem is that if the crack obliges by opening up for you, & the breadboard is glued on, you won't be able to clamp it to close the crack & in any case, it's most likely the glue wouldn't hold, so the next time the top wishes to move, it will simply open up again or crack in a fresh place. If it's just over-tight dowels, that will be a relatively easy fix. But it will be a bit of a challenge if the breadboards are glued on!

Cheers,

Ian is almost certainly correct. If memory serves, he speaks from experience. I think his dining table has breadboard ends.

Looked at a cracked table at my niece's place last night. It has three cracks, all along glue lines. The table is rubberwood (I think), and was made in asia. The legs and skirts are fastened together with large coach screws (assembled in Aust.). The top is screwed directly to the frame, so the table can't expand and contract with seasonal movement. My experience is that this situation will result in the top growing and buckling when humidity is high, and shrinking and splitting when humidity is low ... and we have just come through a dry winter.

I will pull the top off, put it over the table saw to remove the cracked joints and glue it back together. Then the plan is to take 20mm off the legs and put a 20mm frame on top of the skirts (in blue in the pic). Then slightly oversized holes are made into slots and recessed button screws and washers fasten the top into place. Of course, there are many other ways to allow for movement.

Table Top Fastening.jpg

You have breadboard ends, so as Ian suggests, it is likely that the original cause of the problem is that the boards cannot shrink/grow across the table because they are fastened too well to the breadboard end. If you decide to cut off the breadboard ends and reattach with floating tenons, cut over-long mortices and only glue the centre tenons into place into the breadboard ends. This allows the boards to shrink and expand with humidity changes.

Your problem is one reason I have never made a table with breadboard ends.

AIR CON in the SHED -Luxury.

Originally Posted by wood spirit

AIR CON in the SHED -Luxury.

It's my dream. One day.....

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