Thread: Triangle dining table ...

I have no issues with the design as such - allways loved crazy designs and doing things in different ways....BUT:

- the table IS going to be unstable , there's no doubt about it - I've seen 3 -legged furniture before , and the moment somebody puts some weight close to the edge where the thin leg is.....I hope it won't be anything fragile and expensive
- the top is the trickiest part: no matter how dry the timber is , you can't avoid seasonal changes and movements .Maybe solid wood is not the best option here?

Congrats on the commission AB,

I`m not sure how stable the design would be, but IMO it`s great to see someone pushing the limits of what can and cant be done.

Good on ya i say

I guess one could make a small to scale model first.

Zelk

Hi folks,

Thanks again for the comments. I don't mind the differing viewpoints actually. It's all interesting to me and helping me to learn more about this craft.

Here's a pic of the lose strips for the top. It's 2m long, 1.2m at the wide end and 650mm at the narrow end. HEAVY!
Attachment 147673

Since then I've glued the top up. I had it in three parts, dropped it off to a local "wood machining" for thicknessing and it's now in one nice flat slab. Just need to square off the ends. I'll post some more pics over the weekend.

Originally Posted by Lignum

Attaching the top is easy with out the need to mortise up into the top or put a support under it, but its tricky to explain and my camera is stuffed , so I cant do a quick mock up to show you. I will try and think of somehow explaining.

I'd be keen to see that if possible. This is still the part that is hurting my head.

Cheers,
Af.

What's the timber for the top?

Afro, the first thing you must do (hope its not to late) in ensure the timber for the top is all true qtr sawn. That is a must.

If the boards are selected quarter sawn material As Lignum says ,then cuppimg would not be a problem and if Alexs idea is used to secure the leg to the base . then seasonal movement should not be a problem either as the leg and top would move together. IMHO the legs is wide enough and the top massive enough for the table to be stable in the event of a large person resting their elbows on the table down at the pointy end .
That's my six penneth worth anyway

Have a look at the post by Jow on the works of allan Jarvi. There is a beautiful triangle table in the video.

Hi Afro,
It wasn't apparent to me that the top was 'triangular' too (sorry if you said it was), I thought it was just perspective in the model. If I had a minor concern with the stability before, I don't think that anymore.
It's looking good.
Cheers
Michael

Originally Posted by Afro Boy

Here's a pic of the lose strips for the top. It's 2m long, 1.2m at the wide end and 650mm at the narrow end. HEAVY!
Attachment 147673
Since then I've glued the top up. I had it in three parts, dropped it off to a local "wood machining" for thicknessing and it's now in one nice flat slab. Just need to square off the ends. I'll post some more pics over the weekend.
I'd be keen to see that if possible. This is still the part that is hurting my head.
Cheers,
Af.

Afro
I think you've highlighted the most important point at this stage of the build -- the shear mass of the construction

I suggest your primary consideration should be how the whole thing will be moved into place -- or moved arround.

Does the designer appreciate how heavy the unit will be?
If not now is the time to tell them.

as to attaching the top to the base ...
because of it's size and mass the parts need to be detachable.
I suggest that:
the base be in four parts that can be wedged or bolted together
• the ~1000 wide upright at the wide end
• the upright at the narrow end
• the diagonal brace, and
• the sub-top -- shown in your sketch as a horizontal brace

Given that the top is ~40mm thick you don't really need the horizontal brace or sub-top because the top is stiff enough to provide the structural strength but the sub-top will make the table much easier to assemble.

I suggest the sub-top be triangular frame about 700 wide at the wide end and about 2-300 wide at the narrow end.
attach the narrow leg using a bolted (or pinned) bridle joint
attach the wide leg with a pair of halving joints (plus bolts) so the base of the leg is inside the frame

attach the top to the sub-frame using pins in slotted holes

Personally, I think that the support at the thinner end will be wobbly when leaning against that end of the table. Somehow it must be braced to minimise the torsional effect. At the other end, as the table top is heavy, just use cleats.
Zelk

Hi folks,

Thanks for all the advice and ideas. I've put together the base and thought I'd share a few pics. It's only held together by clamps at the moment until I get all the joints nice and solid.

First up, squaring the ends of the top. Pinning a string to the middle of the centre board and drawing an arc at the other end, gave me two points - where the arc crossed off the end of the top. Drawing a line between these points gave me the squared edge I needed.

Attachment 148490

There's only one right angle in the base (aside from the points where the legs meet the top). So, I started here with a lap joint. Eventually I will pin this with a wedged dowel.

Attachment 148491

After brushing up on my trigonometry, I worked out the rest of the angles, made a few cuts and some pairing with chisels. Then came a trial assembly which involved lots of scrap blocks, a few clamps and some heavy lifting.

Attachment 148494

Here is the base upside down. Next I need to pin the joints and get them all nice and solid. Then I need to work out a few more angles for when I dock the ends of those beams. They should all meet the floor flat. Once I can get the base standing square on the floor, I'll start looking at ways to attach it to the top taking in some of the advice from this thread.

Attachment 148492
Attachment 148493

Cheers,
Af.

Originally Posted by Artesano

I have no issues with the design as such - allways loved crazy designs and doing things in different ways....BUT:

- the table IS going to be unstable , there's no doubt about it - I've seen 3 -legged furniture before , and the moment somebody puts some weight close to the edge where the thin leg is.....I hope it won't be anything fragile and expensive
- the top is the trickiest part: no matter how dry the timber is , you can't avoid seasonal changes and movements .Maybe solid wood is not the best option here?

Hi there i suggest a veneered top with a thicker solid lipping around to make the top look more chunky.


My name is John and am in UK.

It's looking pretty big

I can see how you're going to get it out of the shed

how are you going to get it into the room it's going into?