First Table.......

I have been asked, by a friend of my wife's, to make a table for her family (2 parent, 6 kids, and 2 grandparents). She had no ideas as far as what she wanted, so I drew up this trestle table and benches for her. She loves the design. I will be making it from reclaimed barn wood (oak) that has been in her family for over 100 years. Does this design look "do-able" to all of you table experts out there? This will be my first attempt at building a table.

I will also be designing and building a couple of chairs for her in the future.http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachme...9&d=1325180566

Mike Svoma

I am no expert, but it looks like a nice design to me. One thing I would change is to make sure the feet of the table are a different width than the bench feet so when not in use you can slide the benches under the table a bit.

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Originally Posted by Mark Ball

I am no expert, but it looks like a nice design to me. One thing I would change is to make sure the feet of the table are a different width than the bench feet so when not in use you can slide the benches under the table a bit.

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The way I read the drawing, they already are - the bench feet go outside the table feet.

Looks good to me, just one observation, watch out for cupping of the outer boards in the table top, the inner ones will be constrained by the tops of the trestles, but the outer edges not. Breadboard ends might be a safe option, though with recovered wood there should not be much trouble with movement.

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Originally Posted by David Keast

The way I read the drawing, they already are - the bench feet go outside the table feet.

Looks good to me, just one observation, watch out for cupping of the outer boards in the table top, the inner ones will be constrained by the tops of the trestles, but the outer edges not. Breadboard ends might be a safe option, though with recovered wood there should not be much trouble with movement.

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Yes, the bench feet are outside the table feet for clearance.

I have already changed the width of the trestle top to help control cupping. They are going to be 36" wide. That only leaves 3" per side unsupported.

I'm not an expert either, but I'd think you'd have to really pay attention to the joinery that attaches to the feet. My tendency is to over-engineer things, but I could see 2 or 3 boys leaning on one side of that table or people leaning back on a bench and having the joint fail. Again, I have a habit of overdoing things and there are many, many people here with more practical experience than I have. Maybe I'm wrong.

Mortise and tenon joinery for foot to leg/leg to top support and through mortise and tenon with wedge for stretcher to leg subassembly. For attaching the table top to the base assembly I will use a center pin and lag screws from the support into the bottom of the table top (slotted holes for expansion/contraction. Same basic construction for the bench, on a smaller sclae. Open to other options/opinions.

Thanks.

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