Thread: dining table top

G'day Garry. Good design.
You will have to leave enough gap around the glass ins3ert to take care of movement. How much this is with Marri I don't know.
I would suggest thoroughly sealinall possible sides, tops and ends of boards wiyh your finish (which is??) before assembly.that shoul help prevent moisture uptake and minimise movement.

I think you are doing the right thing. Better save than sorry.

Originally Posted by Wongo

I think you are doing the right thing. Better save than sorry.

Thanks Wongo, I didn't really want to leave too much gap between the glass...would look a bit ordinary I think. I'm not too woried about the long sides expanding towards the glass as they will be constrained by the end pieces. So I won't be so slack and do as per diagram.

garry

Hi Plunger

I built a very similar design a couple of years ago out of jarrah.

I expoxied the joints and sealed the whole thing - top, bottom, sides with multiple coats of dannish oil. It was used as a kitchen table - the kids were small back then - occassional spilled drinks would got down the gaps but we would lift out the glass and clean it. The gaps were quite small. Less than 2 mil all round. The glass was quite heavy - may have even been 10 mil glass rather than 6 mil. We sand blasted the bottom side of the glass to give it a frosted look - short skirts on under a clear table etc.

The only movement I could detect was not on the short sides but on the long sides. You could run your hand over the corners or where the long and short sides joined and pick up a very small ridge - could have sanded it off but didn't. Still have it -used as an office table by SWMBO. The table has travelled the world - made in Melbourne, been to Dusseldorf, Brussels, now in Sydney

Regards

Peter

Unless the mortise for the larger loose tenon is longer than the tenon itself then it will all be for nothing the elongated hole in the tenon is useless unless the mortise itself has room to move!

Ross

You are doing it the right way always better to be safe than sorry.

Yep I reckon Different is right, the larger mortice in the outer side lengths needs to be elongated too the same size as the oversized dowel hole in the tennon.

Thanks guys...drawing probably doesn't indicate but i was going to make the outside mortise longer.

One more thing....I'm presuming I should glue the dowel to the main timber but how do I not get glue on the tenon as it should allow movement.

Garry

A bit of paste wax where you don't want the glue to stick will do the trick. I'd also tap the dowel part way home first and then just wipe a bit of glue around the end of it before tapping it the rest of the way home. Any residue should come out the top, rather than carrying through to the tenon.

Originally Posted by silentC

A bit of paste wax where you don't want the glue to stick will do the trick. I'd also tap the dowel part way home first and then just wipe a bit of glue around the end of it before tapping it the rest of the way home. Any residue should come out the top, rather than carrying through to the tenon.

Anyway a small amount of glue in the wrong place is not a big problem in fact expanding and contracting timber will pay little heed to a couple of drops of glue.

Rgds

Ross