Trestle table in cherry

This is 90” long, 34” wide trestle table for larger parties, that can be disassembled and put away when not needed. I have started the top glue up when I noticed very nice project by Marc Spagnuolo so the rest of the build is mostly based on his design.

The top is made of 1” rustic cherry, biscuit jointed, attached to the base with 1/4” bolts and insert nuts, both top and bottom edge rounded over with 1/4” roundover bit. The legs are made of 1 1/4” cheery and walnut; upper cleat and foot are glued with 5/8” dowels. In this case it is much easier than going with mortise and tenon, as I was able to drill through holes in horizontal parts, then align with leg and get started perfectly aligned holes in it.

The stretcher is made of 1 1/4”x4” piece of cherry. There is a light curve on its bottom – after cutting off most of material on the band saw, I was able to smooth the cut out with regular orbital sander and 120 grit sandpaper – there was enough flexibility in sander’s disc to follow the curve without leaving flat spots, as long as I kept constantly moving it.

The finish is satin wipe-on poly, 4-6 layers, light sanding with 400 grit sandpaper between layers.