Herring Bone table top design help

[Michael Furey]

I'm building a table top a little differently than I normally do. My normal method is biscuits and glue, but with a herring bone design, that doesn't really work (or is not that easy to do). The table is made of pine and is a standard 4 turned style leg base. I was thinking of building a border with 1 x 3's and then attaching some plywood underneath. Then just glue the boards on and use finish nails from underneath. This is my first time doing this design, does this sound like a good way to go about this? Does anyone have any other/better methods to creating this top? Thanks in advance!

[Jamie Buxton]

I'd start by making the herringbone panel. I'd use plywood for the substrate, and like you say, just glue the herringbone pieces down. I'd use heavy weights to hold each piece down while the glue dries. After I have the panel complete, I'd trim it to size, and build the table around it.

If you don't trust just glue, you could use screws from underneath. You'd drill clearance holes through the plywood, then hold each herringbone piece in place with one hand while you're you're using the other hand to run a power screwdriver up from underneath. Sounds challenging but possible. A good thing about screws is that they'll hold even if wood expansion/contraction wants to break the glue joint.

[Lee Schierer]

Even with your herring bone pattern the wood is still going to expand and contract with seasonal moisture changes. If your herring bone pieces are veneer thickness you might not have a problem gluing it to the substrate.

[Michael Furey]

I'm using 1x6's for the top and gluing them to 3/4" plywood.

[Dave Richards]

I'm using 1x6's for the top and gluing them to 3/4" plywood.

Sounds like a recipe for a problem.

[Michael Furey]

Why do you say that?

[Dave Richards]

Did you see Lee's remarks? Due to its construction, plywood expands and contracts very little with seasonal humidity changes. Pine, on the other hand, will. There's absolutely nothing you can do to stop it. Glue it down to the plywood will limit the dimensional change at the glue interface but not on the top side of the table top. You will find it causes the top to warp, probably you'll have failed glue joints or more likely the plywood will delaminate.

[Frederick Skelly]

Sounds like a recipe for a problem.

+1. If you glue them down, they will pop loose over a couple years of seasonal changes. Seems like a shame.

[Michael Furey]

What if I also screwed them down like mentioned above? Also, if that way is no good, do you know of a better way?

[Jamie Buxton]

It is true that the herringbone pieces will expand and contract against the plywood. But it is not true that the table is doomed to failure. Have you ever seen a traditional herringbone floor? They exist, and I've walked on one that is supposed to be from the 18th century. What happens is that the cracks between the herringbone pieces are not absolutely tight. This table, made of 1x6s, might well survive. Screws from the underside would ensure that the pieces don't come out.

[Frederick Skelly]

Screws from the underside would ensure that the pieces don't come out.

I agree - that's a better idea than glue.

[Wayne Lomman]

It's certainly not a recipe for disaster. It's just parquetry. You can improve it by reducing your 6" pieces to 2" or 3" if you want to. Follow Jamie's method. It works and won't fall apart. It may get a few gaps at times but so does a breadboard end. Plenty of apologists for that style of table.Cheers

[Neil Steininger]

This sounds pretty similar to the first project I ever built, the desk that I'm sitting at now. I cut pieces about 3/4 thick 2x10 inches and glued them down to half inch plywood then trimmed the edges with a circular saw and added a pine border. Didn't use any finish nails in the bottom, I had planned to but it seemed unnecessary when all was done. I cut my herringbone pieces out of a mix of scrap wood I found in the basement after buying my house, a couple pallets, and a piece of purpleheart. I was also worried about the desk sagging so I built a frame of 1x4s and screwed that to the bottom. So far, 2 years in, there has been a small amount of movement but nothing major, what might be saving me is that I had a difficult time clamping everything in tight, it was fairly awkward to try to clamp some of the pieces on with the limited number of clamps I had. As a result there were gaps to begin with. I think if I did it again I would cut cut the pieces down much thinner to minimize the movement issue.
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