# Chevron wood movement



## Polymorphic169 (May 30, 2013)

*This is my first post, so go easy please 

So my wife and I talked about a new dinning room table. She wants a chevron pattern on top of it but not with pallet wood, with walnut instead. With all those small pieces I'm concerned about how to put them all together and wood movement. I don't know if I can glue it down to a piece of plywood as a base, or really how to keep all the pieces together. Then with the alternating pattern I feel like it might stress the chevron joint? Also they framed their table and I've always read that is a big no-no. I live in Indiana, so the humidity definitely swings pretty good in the house (25%-50%). I've been lucky in the past with smaller end tables and other projects, but this would be the largest surface area project I have done to this point.

Picture of the idea, but ours would be with just two rows, not three, and not as big. We don't have that big of a house.


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## SASmith (Mar 22, 2010)

I would bet that the above pic is veneer over plywood or mdf.
How thick were you planning to make your chevron pieces?


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## bondogaposis (Dec 18, 2011)

You really can't glue the pieces to a plywood base, the wood will move and the ply won't, will result in a lot of separation issues. Just like SASmith said, probably veneer. Go solid wood or veneer. A project like this is a glue up night mare and not a good beginner project.


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## Polymorphic169 (May 30, 2013)

@SASmith, I found the blog post that came from(google image search!), they took an oak door and glued and pin-nailed ash strips down to the whole door. To bad no one does a follow up post later on when the seasons change!

I was planning either 1/2" or 1/4" depending on how I secured the top to the table frame. If used a series of rails I would go smaller, but if I just go with an outside frame I think I should go thicker. I can get walnut dirt cheap in my area so the size isn't to much of a deal. I just have to plane it down to that size.

@bondogaposis This isn't my first project and I know it is going to be a glue up nightmare. I think I might make a smaller one for my wife's best friend to get the jigs and such setup for this larger one. It would be like coffee table or end table size. But the question still remains as to how the wood will react with the chevron pattern. From my understanding the wood will lengthwise grow very little, but it's width will swell, which would stress that 90' point a bunch? I was debating if I had to some tongue and groove style joint with room to move or glue it in only a few places.


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