12/4 Ash Dining Table

[Scott Bernstein]

I am building a 70" long by 36" wide table for our dining room, with 12/4 Ash. The legs will be attached directly to the table with large finger joints - no apron. Planning to use epoxy as opposed to standard yellow (PVA) glue. After planing, the stock will be about 2.8" thick. The stock I have is about 8-10" wide and was delivered to me reasonably flat on the faces. It's too wide for my jointer, but I was able to run it through my lunchbox planer with good results, without using a sled. I will handle the edges with my Festool track saw and then run it through the table saw for the other edge. I will use some dominos to help align the edges for the (epoxy) glue up. The boards will be around 7-9" wide after the edge jointing. Finger joints will be done with a band saw to remove most of the material, followed by a pantorouter with a 3" long 1/2" cutting diameter straight bit for the final pass.

The questions I have are 1) should I pin the finger joints and 2) should I align the grain pattern on the ends of the boards all the same direction or alternating? I would think with material this thick, it's not going to move too much in that direction. And with no apron it'll be free to move along the length and width.

Scott B

[Andrew Hughes]

Sounds like a good heavy table always arrange the boards for the best look. Especially if this table is for your family.
Have you used epoxy with ash? My experience is that it will darken the wood at the joint.
Large finger joints are nice looking if done right.
Good luck

[Jim Becker]

The questions I have are 1) should I pin the finger joints and 2) should I align the grain pattern on the ends of the boards all the same direction or alternating? I would think with material this thick, it's not going to move too much in that direction. And with no apron it'll be free to move along the length and width.

Personally, I'd align the finger joints with the grain in the same direction as the top for both best appearance and wood movement.

[Charles Lent]

Do you have forklift access to your dining room? That is going to be one HEAVY TABLE.

Charley

[Dave Zellers]

Do you have forklift access to your dining room? That is going to be one HEAVY TABLE.

Charley

My thoughts exactly.

I love working with Ash. After it's dried, it is very stable. But 12/4? Whoa!

[Patrick Walsh]

12/4 ash

It’s heavy, I move it with a pallet jack.

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[Scott Bernstein]

Don't have a pallet jack. But I have a friend named Jack, plus 4 or 5 others who I can hopefully bribe with beer to help move the table once it's done.

Ash is a beautiful wood, and the table will match the Ash computer desk I built last year. Why 12/4? Well, I wanted the table to not only look solid but actually be solid. Also the extra thickness over, say, 6/4 or 8/4, gives some extra surface area in the finger joints for more glue.

My supplier provided 14ft pieces, which were very difficult to move around. So after I cut them down a bit, I realized the cutoffs were long enough to make a smaller table. So, I started working with those pieces to make a desk for my son's room using the same construction as for the dining table. The length of the desk will match the width of the dining table, so if we need to seat a couple more people we can bring the desk over as an extension for the dining table. Also making the desk will give me a chance to finalize my finger joint technique for the dining table. The finger joints for the legs are really the only aesthetic detail of the table, other than the wood itself, so I'd like to do as good a job as possible.

Scott

[Frank Drew]

Scott,

Maybe I'm having a senior moment, but what's a finger joint in this application? Multiple tenons?

[Nick Decker]

Scott,

Maybe I'm having a senior moment, but what's a finger joint in this application? Multiple tenons?

We're both seniors, Frank. I was wondering the same thing.

[Jim Becker]

Scott,

Maybe I'm having a senior moment, but what's a finger joint in this application? Multiple tenons?

I'm wondering if a bridle joint is being called a "finger joint" here as they do resemble each other.

[Scott Bernstein]

https://angelaadams.com/product/tula-table/

The joints will look like this. In my mind a bridle joint would consist of one giant finger..? This example is I think a little under 2" thick - may version will use a little thicker stock but same idea.

Scott