Greene-ish dining table (top)

[atratinus]

I all,

I don't have enough documentation of this project to post in the 'Journals' forum, but I wanted to show the progress I've made thus far on our new dining table.

It's not fine woodworking by any means, but I'm proud of the piece, especially considering it was built with standard contractor's tools (with one exception, noted below). I'm a hardwood flooring contractor, so the top is solid tigerwood shorts (sometimes called koa, I think) nailed down to a 3/4-inch birch plywood base. I used 1x walnut to hide the plywood and flooring edges, and then decided to try to emulate a few G&G details: softened 'finger joints' and wenge plugs cut from a leftover piece of feature strip.

The flooring was nailed on the tongue with 15-gauge, and made flat with my flooring edger (the only specialty tool involved here). Finish is currently two coats of Waterlox original, soon to be followed by a coat of satin.

The base will be made next weekend, hopefully. I will add to this post at that time, but would appreciate any comments, especially regarding topcoating with Waterlox satin and proud finger joints, aand any ideas for the legs and aprons, which are going to be African mahogany but are otherwise still unsettled.

(I don't need comments on the dark four-board stagger, as I am still kicking myself for that. Ugh.)

Thanks,

Ryan

[minorhero]

Looks pretty spiffy so far!

 

Regarding the base. Just keep in mind where you envision people sitting at the table and how much space a person really can take up under the table. Putting legs in the 4 corners will result in the most stable table, but it means you can't sit anyone at those corners. If you are going for a trestle or something with legs inside the table, then allow for at least 15" between the outside of the table and the base wherever you plan to sit a person. 

 

Also keep in mind that the wider your apron, the less leg room someone has. Keep your apron 2.5" or less and you shouldn't have a problem. 

[Coop]

What about that dark four-board stagger!! Just jacking w/ ya. Neat looking project. Keep the pics coming as it progresses.

[Eric.]

Looks like my floor!

 

I fear you may have movement issues in the future.  Hope not.

[wouldwurker]

Looks good. The two-finger approach actually seems to solve the visual issue of 'heavier/weightier = fingers need to be more proud', that seems to be a G and G theme. In this case, given how heavy the table is, they'd be pretty darn proud with 3 fingers. However your use of 2 fingers makes them big (weighty) enough to compensate. Especially because REALLY proud fingers might look weird on a table (as opposed to say, a floor fireplace display or bottom stair).

I guess what I'm saying is, to my eye, your two big fat fingers seem to support the weight of the table.

My floors only move near the heat vents, and that's at point blank range. Maybe you'll be ok in that respect.

[Eric.]

My floor moves enough that gaps you couldn't squeeze a fart into in the summer can take the thickness of a quarter in the winter.  Or more.  And it's the same species.  Couple that with the non-movement of the ply it's nailed to and the frame...could be trouble.  Seattle has a fairly changeable climate, does it not?

 

Of course, the way the table was built with the butt joints and all, it gives it more of a rustic look anyway, so some gaps and unevenness in the boards may not look so out of place when it happens.

[atratinus]

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

With regard to wood movement, I'm not particularly worried. Seattle's weather doesn't much vary (goes from 100% humidity (raining) to about 90% (not raining)). The amount of movement (gapping) that Kiki describes suggests some serious variability or possibly a subfloor failure of some kind. I haven't seen any gapping like that in this area without major water damage.

All of that said, I anticipated some minor movement of the flooring and so did not glue the finger joints on the "skirt" boards. If they gap slightly, it should be somewhat obscured by the rounding over. I hope.

Vinny, I can tell you're well above my pay grade with regard to design, but follow. I was going for a 'beefy' look, and a three-ring joint would have looked too delicate, I think. I would appreciate your (and others') further thoughts on leg and apron dimensions. I intend to use 2x2 leg blanks from Woodcraft but I wonder if these would look too slender. And I had planned on a 4 1/2-inch wide apron; I understand that this might limit leg room, but a strategic cloud lift detail might help. I just worry that a narrower apron would be structurally weak.

Thanks again for all of your help,

Ryan