Thread: Traditional kitchen table in Victorian Ash and Jarrah

Wood movement is not a myth it is real. Woodworkers around the world use wood buttons, sliding dovetails, breadboard, frame & floating panel. Why all the trouble? Because we all understand that a piece of wood will move no matter where you put it. And when it decides to move, nothing in the world can contain it. People used to split rocks by using wooden wedges and water, and that tells you something.

Love the contrast between the timbers, stunning.

Originally Posted by auscab

...The mitred corners can be forced open which is very hard to fix . We go to a bit of effort to lock it either with a dovetailed cross grain insert added up from the under side two thirds in . Or now I make a whopper domino . 120 wide x 10 thick . The mitred end slides on and through legs lock it together . These two ways stop the mitre from popping open with expansion .....

Rob

I put a dowel on the tenon side of the mitered tenon. This can also be drilled out for repairs...

Originally Posted by Wongo

Wood movement is not a myth it is real. Woodworkers around the world use wood buttons, sliding dovetails, breadboard, frame & floating panel. Why all the trouble? Because we all understand that a piece of wood will move no matter where you put it. And when it decides to move, nothing in the world can contain it. People used to split rocks by using wooden wedges and water, and that tells you something.

This thread is getting a bit frustrating! Of course wood warps, twists, and expands in response to changes in temperature and humidity... particularly if it was not well dried or is heavily figured, or if there is a twist in the grain or if milled in a particular way.

What I can tell you with absolute certainty is that this sort of movement has not been a problem with the furniture that I have built so far. Including other pieces with Ash framed Jarrah panels just like the table on the top of this thread. Maybe I have been doing something that I am not aware of - but the more likely explanation is that the oil or polyurethane finishes that I've used lock in the moisture in the wood and makes the pieces stable to all but the most extreme fluctuations in temperature and relative humidity. All projects are very vulnerable until the finish goes on.

Have you seen Rob's post? He says that he has made many famed panel table tops and has never had a problem. So why should opinion trump extensive experience?

Go on avoiding the technique if you like, but you'll be missing out...

Regards

Jorge

Sorry Jorge, I should have kept the opinion to myself. My apologies.

Originally Posted by Wongo

Sorry Jorge, I should have kept the opinion to myself. My apologies.

All good Wongo - After all you are right! Wood does warp, expand and contract and there ARE several techniques designed to ensure that that does not result in catastrophe! Above all it was not you who predicted that the table in the original post will warp and break within months. Perhaps I replied to and quoted the wrong post.

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by Wongo

Sorry Jorge, I should have kept the opinion to myself. My apologies.

All good Wongo - After all you are right! Wood does warp, expand and contract and there ARE several techniques designed to ensure that that does not result in catastrophe! Above all it was not you who predicted that the table in the original post will warp and break within months. Perhaps I replied to and quoted the wrong post.