Utitlity/Dining Table Build

[Russell0331]

You'll need:

Home Depot:

• (1) 1x12x12 Band Sawn Eastern White Pine
• (1) 1x8x12 Band Sawn Eastern White Pine
• (2) 1x4x12 Band Sawn Eastern White Pine
• (1) 4x4 Kiln Dried Douglas Fir
• (1) 1x2x8 either poplar or red oak
• (1) 3ft of 1/4" or 3/8" oak round stock (dowels)

Rockler:

• (1) pack of table top fasteners

Cuts:

Chop

• Top: 1x12x12 and 1x8x12 to (4) @ 72"
• Aprons: 1x4x12 to (2) @ 61.5", (2) @ 25.5"
• Supports: 1x2x6 poplar or red oak (3) @ 30"
• Legs: 4x4 to (4) @ 30"
• Pegs: oak round stock (16) @ 5" (you'll also need to taper one end of each peg)

Make the top:

• Depending on how rustic you want it, plane boards or don't
• Get a straight edge on one side of each board.
• Rip opposing sides
• Biscuit join and glue top together, use cauls to keep it flat

Making the base:

Legs:

• Mark the end grain on each leg; A,B,C,D
• Mark tenon locations on all legs
• Using a router, chisel, or mortiser; mortise 1/2"W x 2.5"L x 1.5"D mortises
• Drill holes in outside of mortise location through the mortise and into the opposing side of leg. These are for the pegs.

Aprons:

• Mark your tenons: Tenon dimensions are same as mortise except the depth is 1/8" less than the depth of the mortise.
• Cut your tenons with a hand saw, band saw, tenoning jig, router, or something else.

Supports:

• Drill (4-6) holes in the edge of the red oak or poplar and elongate all holes except (1) hole that will align with the 1x12's.

Assembly:

Base:

• Dry fit the aprons into the legs, ensuring they are square.
• With a brad point bit of the same diameter as the peg hole, mark all tenons through the hole you've drilled for the peg.
• Mark 1/32" towards the tenon shoulder and drill a hole through the tenon.
• Glue mortise and tenons and assemble.
• Drive pegs tapered end first and apply a dab of glue on the final 1/2".
• With the biscuit joiner; ensure the blade height is level with the table top fasteners and cut (6-8) slots on the inside top of aprons.

Top:

• Flip the top over and drill the supports to the top. Make sure you have elongated holes on the outer boards as the top will contract this winter.
• Put the top on the base and align.
• Get under the table and install table top fasteners.

I knocked this build out in like 3hrs Friday night. I needed a large surface to assemble other pieces of furniture. It costs a little less than $100 to build the structure. I did mine a little different, but this is the basic order of operations. I ripped my legs at 3" and tapered 2 sides 24" down to 2". I also cut a slot for a dovetail in the long aprons and ran a board across the middle. I considered running one long ways as well, as pine has a lot of "flex" and want to mitigate racking/twisting forces on the joints.

 

[galvatron]

 

[jdav]

Looks like it’s 6’ long? How wide?

 

[galvatron]

Looks like it’s 6’ long? How wide?

bout this wide " "

 

[Russell0331]

Sorry about 36”

 

[jdav]

Thanks for the pattern

 

[Russell0331]

No problem