Trestle table project

[Brmorgan]

My friend's girlfriend asked me if I could build her a "rustic" looking dining table, so I suggested a Trestle style design and she said it was exactly what she was thinking. Originally I had hoped to find some old 2" Douglas Fir barn boards at abandoned homestead somewhere, and plane just enough off to flatten them while leaving the gray weathering in the cracks and dents. However we're still under 2' of snow or more, so that's not very practical right now. So I offered up some of the Birch planks that I've been keeping around to possibly build a workbench top out of:

I milled these out of an 18" diameter Paper Birch out in a swamp behind my Dad's place in August '07, just a couple weeks before trimming my fingers up on my jointer. There are 5 pieces just over 6" wide, and one at about 8". They weren't easy to get nice and flat, as they started out as 9' long, 2" thick planks which weren't too easy to maneuver alone. And only having a 6" jointer didn't help anything. To get the 8" done, I set the jointer as deep as I could, about 5/32", and made one pass to get a flat surface. Luckily it wasn't very warped and one pass was enough. After that I took a 1X6 that I knew to be perfectly flat and screwed it to the flat rabbeted portion of the 8" piece, and sent it through the planer. It looks just as flat as the 6" pieces that were jointed.

I know they're not really shop-grade or clear, but she wants a rustic sort of look so I think the knots and pinworm holes will keep with that idea. Also she wants it stained fairly dark to match some other furniture she has. It'll end up being 38" X 6' unless I also decide to put breadboard ends on it. I don't know if that would be a great idea though since I'm building it in a fairly dry climate and it'll be used in a more humid one.

I'll also be building a bench set to go with the table, which will probably be made out of the 1" birch pieces I have from the same tree, if they're not too warped to be usable. I'm juggling this project with a couple others but will hopefully have it done within the next few weeks.

 

[BobL]

Nice top!

Did you alternate the directions of the growth rings point before joining them up?

Cheers

 

[BIG JAKE]

Looking good so far BR-looking forward to seeing trestle pics

 

[Brmorgan]

Nice top!

Did you alternate the directions of the growth rings point before joining them up?

Cheers

Oh, they're not joined at all yet (there are actually a couple joints with 1/16" gaps that you can't see), I just laid them out together like that to take a picture so she could see what the boards looked like. She lives ~6 hours away down in Vancouver and is pretty much unfamiliar with what different woods look / feel like. I will try to alternate the grain as much as I can, though there are a couple pieces that are G1S only, so hopefully that won't inhibit me.

 

[striperswaper]

that should look nice, take pics of your progress
regardless of where the table will be breadboard will help keep it much more stable. are you going to use biscuits to join the top?

 

[dallasm1]

Nice Project. Keep posting, I would like to see how you fare before I tackle any of my "table from milled wood" projects. Any thoughts on the the leg design? Hows the weather in Willy's Puddle?

 

[peterrum]

Good luck with your project BR, you have to do something up there to keep warm.

 

[Brmorgan]

I'm leaning towards routing a narrow (1/4" - 3/8") dado in the edges of all the pieces and splining them together for almost the entire length. I have a good Freud slot cutter set that can cut over 1/2" deep, and I can stack cutters for almost any thickness configuration I want. I don't have a biscuit jointer (yet) but the same job can be done with this slot cutter and a router, just not as quickly & easily. I believe the long splines would have more strength to resist any cupping of the joints anyway.

As for the legs, I'll have the traditional trestle "foot" and top, but connecting the two I'm planning on having two vertical planks, spaced about 3/4" apart, with a vertical stretcher board that's dadoed to fit snugly between those uprights when they're installed. This way I shouldn't have to rely on a wedge-pin type joint to keep the stretcher tight and in place. I don't know if that did a good job of explaining the design, and I haven't had much luck finding a good pic on the internet. But the new Woodsmith magazine I saw the other day that had a very similar design on the cover. I might pick it up just for some more ideas.

Regarding the weather here, it's been beautiful and sunny during the day, which also means it gets :censored: cold at night when the skies are clear. Towards the end of the weekend overnight lows are forecast at below -20°C, while daytime highs are around -5°C. There appears to be even more snow in the forecast though, and so far this has been one of the heaviest snowfall years in recent history. If it turns really warm quickly, you guys down near Vancouver are going to be flooded right out (again) as all the water from up here ends up there.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I'm leaning towards routing a narrow (1/4" - 3/8") dado in the edges of all the pieces and splining them together for almost the entire length. I have a good Freud slot cutter set that can cut over 1/2" deep, and I can stack cutters for almost any thickness configuration I want. I don't have a biscuit jointer (yet) but the same job can be done with this slot cutter and a router, just not as quickly & easily. I believe the long splines would have more strength to resist any cupping of the joints anyway.

As for the legs, I'll have the traditional trestle "foot" and top, but connecting the two I'm planning on having two vertical planks, spaced about 3/4" apart, with a vertical stretcher board that's dadoed to fit snugly between those uprights when they're installed. This way I shouldn't have to rely on a wedge-pin type joint to keep the stretcher tight and in place. I don't know if that did a good job of explaining the design, and I haven't had much luck finding a good pic on the internet. But the new Woodsmith magazine I saw the other day that had a very similar design on the cover. I might pick it up just for some more ideas.

Regarding the weather here, it's been beautiful and sunny during the day, which also means it gets :censored: cold at night when the skies are clear. Towards the end of the weekend overnight lows are forecast at below -20°C, while daytime highs are around -5°C. There appears to be even more snow in the forecast though, and so far this has been one of the heaviest snowfall years in recent history. If it turns really warm quickly, you guys down near Vancouver are going to be flooded right out (again) as all the water from up here ends up there.

Splines won't keep it from warping one bit... They are just added work and wasted time, as todays glues are stronger than the wood in the joint. (as long as your glueing long grain to long grain)

There are two schools of thought as to alternateing the growth rings or not... From my custom furniture/cabinet makeing days, i prefer to have them all one way, and control the top warping with a cross brace under the top. I've seen to many wavy tops from alternateing the rings in the boards. Just alow for the expansion and shrinking of the wood to the brace...

Anyway, nice looking wood..

Rob