Hi All,

I've started making a dining room table but I've hit a bit of a snag and could use some advice. I've made the base already which is has basic tapered legs with an apron all out of soft maple, with overall dimensions of 38"x92" giving a 2" overhang on all the sides.
The table I want to make has a top dimension of 42"x96" and the thickness I was shooting for was around 1.5" and I'd prefer it to be made out of solid wood, for durability sake. Heres a Sketchup drawing for the table top. For the lighter wood I wanted to use 8/4 curly maple and then the darker border would be walnut. To finish this I was thinking to do a Natural Danish Oil to highlight the curls then a coat of Poly over top to protect the top. TableTop.jpg

So for the snag... I talked to my wood supplier and he told me that some 8/4 medium to heavy curly maple is around $25/ bd. ft... which is above what I want to put into this project (For some reason I thought it was going to be around $10/bd. ft.) So I was wondering if there are some cheaper ways to accomplish this. The few ideas that I've had are:

1) Forgo the Curly maple and just make it out of regular soft maple (Pros: Solid wood and easily sourced, wife would have the table that I said I'd do last year , Cons: doesn't have the curly look that I like)

2) Make the center of the top out of 3/4" plywood and then glue 3/4" solid curly maple on top of the plywood. (Kinda like a really thick veneer, I can find 4/4 curly maple alot easier and it wouldn't be soo expensive as the 8/4) Then make the edge banding out of solid wood and glue to the sides. The question I have with this approach is I'm worried about the movement of the wood. Can you face glue the curly maple to the plywood and not have to worry about a joint opening or the boards cupping? (Pros: Thicker wood top that could be sanded if a scratch or something happens to it in the future, has the look I want, Cons:???)

3) Make the center section out of plywood and put your typical thinner curly maple veneer over top, then follow up with solid wood edge banding on the sides. (Pros: Has the look I want, Cons: durability of the top? maybe I'm overthinking this)

Anyway any thoughts or other ideas would be appreciated... as this is the first table I've made please point out any design flaws or areas that need more attention.

Thanks for the help,
Brent