Thread: Dowels in outdoor table

Dowels will not allow the top to move as it needs to with changes in humidity and temperature.
You should use buttons or figure 8 brackets.
Do a search on the forums for securing a table top.

Absolutely agree with the Laird.

Whatever you do give the table a darn good coating of protectant.

I used Feast & Watson Weathershield on mine, even on the underside.

Oak dowels will be the first thing to rot. The Red Oak (Quercus rubra and others)group has open vessels ("pores") which run the entire length of the tree, from root to leaf. For wood in service, they can soak up water like a sponge. There is a paste filler to solve that puzzle in red oak flooring. By contrast, the white oak group have the vessels naturally plugged in older wood. Hence the value in barrels for whiskeys, sherries, wines and so forth.
It is convention here to space the table top woods 1/4" so that the edges can dry. Sikkens Cetol finish if you really want the outdoor wood furnishings to last.

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

Oak dowels will be the first thing to rot. The Red Oak (Quercus rubra and others)group has open vessels ("pores") which run the entire length of the tree, from root to leaf. For wood in service, they can soak up water like a sponge. There is a paste filler to solve that puzzle in red oak flooring. By contrast, the white oak group have the vessels naturally plugged in older wood. Hence the value in barrels for whiskeys, sherries, wines and so forth.
It is convention here to space the table top woods 1/4" so that the edges can dry. Sikkens Cetol finish if you really want the outdoor wood furnishings to last.

Good Morning Robson

You have been mislead a little by Australians using European and American names for indigenous timbers.

Messmate, is a common name for Eucalyptus Obliqua, a fairly hard and decorative hardwood favoured especially for laid floors, and also called stringy bark, among other local and regional names.

Two other eucalypts, E Delegetensis and E Regnans, commonly known as alpine ash and mountain ash respectively, are slightly softer and lighter coloured hardwoods than messmate. Mix the latter two species together and the timber industry calls it "Victorian Ash", add some messmate to the cocktail and it is marketed as "Tasmanian Oak". Crazy, but the industry has used those names for 100+ years.

Dowelling sold by the bigchain hardwarers (cf Home Depot), if not imported meranti or lauan, is frequently made from Victorian Ash, but oftentimes retailed as oak.

None of the timbers are even remotely related to oak or ash - all are eucalypts.

Confusing, inaccurate, frustrating ........ but who said marketing had to be logical?



Fair Winds

Graeme