dining room table with plywood?

What type of finish would you be considering?

-- The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

If you check out my blog, I’m doing something similar, however I am not done yet so I cannot give any advice, but it looks promising! I plan on using a water based varnish.

I haven’t considered the finish too much yet. It will have to be dark to match the table base and I don’t have the equipment to spray it on so it will have to be applied with a brush or a rag.

What is the current top made out of? If it’s solid just sand it and refinish it. If it’s not solid, then how long have you had it? You say it’s beat up so if you use a material of the same nature won’t it get beat up too? The problem is that you won’t be able to refinish it in the future without risk of sanding through, that is if you don’t sand through when you sand the banding flush. Veneered plywood is getting so thin these days it’s easy to sand through. Why not use solid maple? It really shouldn’t be to much more in cost then a full sheet of plywood and then the hardwood banding. And will defineatly be cheaper in the long run when you have to replace that top. At least you can resand and refinish a solid top. Or you could just throw it away and make one that is a work of art, so that we can all gawk at it in admiration. I need inspired so it would be nice of you to do that. LOL

-- ~ Inspiring those who inspire me ~

Maple is notorious for “blotching” when its stained – light and dark areas. Oak would be a better choice.

I can’t just refinish the old table because the main objective is to get a larger table surface. I’m thinking of using plywood because I think it would be more stable than using solid stock. I’m just a novice and don’t totally trust myself making a good table top from solid wood. The table is currently stained very dark. I think it is maple, but because of the stain I can’t say for sure. I suppose it could also be birch. I don’t think I want to use oak for a couple of reasons. First, I have enough maple on hand and I think the grain of using oak on the top would not fit with the rest of the table. I am worried about the blotching though.