Table Design

[Rusty Elam]

I am planning on building a trestle table for my wife that will be about 8 feet x 3 feet. (I think that is about the right proportions?)
I have some 12/4 oak beams that I am planning to use for the base, stretcher, and uprights. These beams are 10 feet long and I need to cut them to approximate size for storage reasons until I get started on this project in the near future.

Can anyone with some design experience tell me what the approx. size should be for the items above, just sort of average for a 8 x3 size table?

I have had these oak beams for 20 years so I dont want to screw up and cut them too short, but I do need toget them to a size I can get them on my lumber rack.

[Jamie Buxton]

On a trestle table which is 8' long, the stretcher is around 6'. It may be shorter if you want people to sit at the ends, or a tad longer if you don't care about that. The usual height for a dining table is around 29", so the rough height for the uprights is that less the thickness of the top, and less some of the height of the crossbars at the top and bottom of the trestles. The crossbars on a table that big would be 8"-12" less than the width of the table. If I were building a table which is 8' long, I'd make it more like 40" wide than 36", otherwise it'd look long and skinny.

The stretcher doesn't have any structural need to be made from 12/4 lumber. Stretcher height is much more important to assure that the table doesn't wobble.

[Rusty Elam]

thanks that is what I was wanting to know, ballpark lengths..

I figured it would not need that thick of components but thats what she wants...Ijust hope I never have to move it.

I may go 40" but first I will build the base and lay a sheet of plywood that size on it to make sure it fits well in our dining room.