First Dining Room Table -- All Done with Dominos...

[Jeff Monson]

Very nice Brad, for a first table you sure did well! I like the design, and you chose a great finish for tables. The domino is sure a versatile machine!

[Peter Hawser]

I do hope the critiques here are well meaning and they sure seem to be, but for what it's worth a small minority of people post their work online and so good for you! I sure miss my Domino. I really didn't use it, but seeing posts like this make me second guess the sale (less than 90 minutes from ad to guy walking out the door on Craigslist for full asking price!). I also will defend it's price. Joinery is never cheap for tools and/or labor.

[Charlie Watson]

very nicely done!

[Brad Rucker]

Thanks very much, Jeff and Peter. It's guys like you that make this board what it is.

Peter -- I completely understand. If it wasn't for the Domino, I wouldn't be doing mortise and tenon joints at all. I would guess that 90+% of my projects use it now.

Again, guys -- thanks!

Brad

[phil harold]

Brad,
I want to state That I like the look of your table

I was showing to my wife trying to get her opinion on if she liked it
I owe her a new table and I wanted to build a trestle table similar to yours, especially with the curve legs and curved stretcher

I like the idea of a trestle table for its look, but more of the durability and knock down features for moving it

Form follows function.
The durable design of the trestle table dictates the shape

classic example:

http://crookedtreefarm.com/history/f...estletable.pdf

Now you say you used 125 bdft of red oak @ 3.7 lbs per bdft would be 462lb table
That's a heavy table and may not be the actual weight
So lets just look at the table top 4x9=36 @3.7lbs is 133 lbs
I would not want to see that fall on anyone

So lets understand why I am concerned about the grain direction

Northern Red Oak has Static Bending Modulus of Elasticity of 1.82 * 10^6 psi (1,820,000 psi)
Northern Red Oak has Shear Parallel to Grain, Max Shear Strength 1780 psi

So you are using a wood know for its beauty and strength and using it in a structural area at 0.097% of its strength.

While everyone wants to give you an attaboy and a slap on your back for a pretty project you built

I want you to see how to improve.

Let me reiterate I like the table it looks nice,
now if I could only get my wife to like it, I would be building mine out of ash

If I did make this table I would have the grain run vertical on the legs, also would consider grain direction on the arched trestle to avoid cracking with the grain there too.

Like Red Green says:
"Remember, I'm pulling for ya, we're all in this together."


phil

[Prashun Patel]

Nice job! Very elegant. I am very impressed you got the top glued up nice and flat like that. Seems like a small thing, but it's no mean feat. I applaud your boldness in making your own design.

I'd also like to applaud the posts on this thread. I see some constructive criticisms but everything's in an encouraging spirit. I love SMC for that reason.

I'm also a Domino fan.

One more thing: good color matching with the sideboard piece in the back. That's also no mean feat.

[Chris Hachet]

A very nice table indeed !