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Trestle dining table

16K views 34 replies 11 participants last post by  moshel 
#1 ·
Making the feet

This blog will follow my build of a dining trestle table from WOOD magazine #28 (you can see how it looks on the store ( http://www.woodstore.net/trestletable1.html ).

The trestle table is very delicate compared to most and uses laminated blanks to be strong enough. the original plan is "fixed" (not breakup) but i will modify it a little.

OK, to work:
after gluing up the blanks, I cut them roughly to shape on the bandsaw. unlike the plan that calls for exact cut and sanding i decided to use router template.





here you can see the laminations

I prefer to do my routing outside as its messy. here is the blank "clamped" to a sawhorse, after the first pass that used the mdf template.



second pass used the first pass as template



for the last pass i flipped the blank and used bit with bearing at the end and used the second pass as template

here it is… still have to trim the ends.



That's it for today. its the school holidays so not much free time.
 
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#7 ·
yes, two are the feet, two are the supports.

wood is from my infinite stock of European beech from the tree i milled some years ago.
lots of tension in this wood so the lamination actually was a good idea.
 
#8 ·
Making the supports

now for the supports.
The supports are really narrow (~1.5"), so i had to double tape them to get enough support for the router. Technique was the same as with the feet.





Here is one support all done with lots of shaving:



now all the blanks are resting, waiting for trimming and final sanding (and for me to have some more time):

 
#10 ·
beam and finishing the uprights

have some time now, so expect more progress!

first, i milled and chamfered the beam. although the plan calls for laminating two 3/4" pieces i used single 1.5" piece


as i am making the table easy to break apart and move, the beam will not be glued and doweled to the uprights. to get more lateral strength, i routed dadoes in the upright that fit the beam.



as you can see my dado blade leave a groove :-(



uprights sanded together to 180P



and chamfered according to the plan. this is not an easy part. they recommend using full face mask and i should have heeded their advice. you have to look very closely at the router to stop at the right places.



closeup on the detail (before final sanding):



this detail collide a little with the dado, hopefully it will look ok.

tomorrow i'll assemble the sides. Have a good day!
 
#12 ·
attaching the beam to the verticlas

verticals were grouped into pairs, and double taped so the outsides will be face to face (this way the hole will be nice and smooth on the outside). it is important to mark the pairs as the drilling is never the same unless done together.



all nice and drilled



i did not take pictures of the next stage. you dry assemble the uprights and he beam and mark where to drill with the same bit. again, it is important to keep orientation and affinity to the pair that used for the marking.

drilled on the drill press, made some threaded rods, used the nuts from last time and voila!





it is rock solid!

next i will put some finish on (combination of tung oil and white oxide, wiped off and left to dry)
 
#19 ·
Putting on finish and assembling the base

after lots of considerations and tests, i decided to use diluted white acrylic (10 water to one acrylic but your mileage may vary as acrylics are very different one from the other). I brushed it on and wiped it off. the result at first looked like nothing happened but as it dried out it became nicely white.

this is how it looks compared to a piece of the same material:


and a closeup :


the process is very fool proof and easy. just beware of drips… in retrospect i should have drilled the holes after putting on the finish. its very hard not to have drips when you have a hole…

after the acrylic dried i sanded it down a bit with 320 grit and started the tedious process of finishing.

i used waterborne poly (Resene - a local firm) as i wanted to keep the white colour. i was pleasantly surprised - putting it on left no brush marks, it dried very quickly and left very professional looking finish. I could probably put all 4 layers in one day but it got very dry and hot and it was not the perfect weather for waterborne poly.

after finishing everything it was time for the final assembly.

i have created proper spacers for the beam so it can go in with friction. marked the middle and marked the middle on all horizontals
also made spacers so the verticals will be positioned in the middle of the verticals. this is how it looks just before the screwing:





I have pre-drilled counterbores for the screws. these are 3" roofing screws. i like them very much - they are self drilling and have very coarse thread so hold very well to endgrain. they also have very wide hex head so no need for washers.

here are the supports fully assembled:


I have used wooden hex nuts from some bits ane pieces of exotic timber i had - something from the philippines i think. finished them with tung oil.

last part will be just pictures of the assembled base
 
#23 ·
I REALLY like the design of this piece! It has a very elegant and refined feel, but doesn't look frilly and flimsy. Aesthetically I think it strikes a perfect balance between form and functionality.

I'm excited to see the whole thing put together. Very nice job!
 
#30 ·
all done! (Well, the top is probably only temporary)

the top had to be done from two pieces that can be easily disassembled as it had to pass through narrow staircase and also probably be moved around quite a bit. the thought of waving around 60kg beech top was not really appealing, so i decided at least for now to use DF and have it in two pieces.
for finish i used an effect i found out while trying to bleach the base. I mixed tung oil with oxide powder, about 1:1 and rubbed it into the 80 grit sanded DF. the oxide settled into the scratches and the soft parts and created a very pretty effect. i thought i would continue and finish it with 4 more layers of tung oil but its getting cold here and each layer takes about a week to dry. so, i slapped two layers of blond shellac on top, and finished with 3 layers of waterborne poly. couldnt use oil based poly as too cold. while the waterborne was drying i had the heating going. very pleased with the result. it looks rough but actually very smooth.

thats how the finish look from about 1m:


the two parts of the top where joined with office furniture desktop connectors:


and here are some picture of the finished product:



 
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