Finished at last! 4 weeks build time. Antique pine dining room table. Wood salvaged from an old family barn in S. Ga. Wood was payment for building a co-worker for a Christmas suprise table for his wife several years ago. Most wood was cut from 8"x8" barn timbers. Size, 70" x 32" , built to fit my dining room and replace the existing 40 year old table. This table top includes a bullet that was imbedded in the wood. Top is floating to compensate for wood movement, and has shrunk about 1/64" since the top was glued up! Finish is wood conditioner, red oak stain, Danish oil and Butchers wax.
Finished! Wife's new table
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Beautiful table. It really would go better in our house than yours...but I guess I won't be getting it.Comment
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The tables that I have previously built suffered from some expansion/contraction issues although I followed existing table building practices. Lots of research later I tried a little different approach from what everyone does on the Internet. To complicate things my wife wanted a breadboard look. When boards expand the table width increases and leaves the breadboard ends short, making all 4 corners look bad. Not much that can be done about this. What I didn't want was a warping table so I built a floating table slab using a different attachment method. This wood is very old, and some of the boards have over 14 growth rings/inch. Our best guess is the wood was cut in the late 1800s and was possibly I've 100 years old then. It has been inside my air conditioned shop for over 4 years so I figured it would not have much movement. In the 4-5 weeks that I have cut the 8x8" beams down to usable size and done the glue up for the top slab it has shrunk about 1/32". This is not much but it has left the breadboard proud of the ends of the table top enough that you can feel it with your finger. Not what I thought would happen. At least it didn't pop and bust and warp. This weekend it will be moved into the house and into a different humidity situation, I'll see which way the top moves then.
capncarlComment
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. . . In the 4-5 weeks that I have cut the 8x8" beams down to usable size and done the glue up for the top slab it has shrunk about 1/32". This is not much but it has left the breadboard proud of the ends of the table top enough that you can feel it with your finger. Not what I thought would happen. At least it didn't pop and bust and warp. This weekend it will be moved into the house and into a different humidity situation, I'll see which way the top moves then.
capncarl
The reason for wood handled hammers coming loose is not because of use/abuse as much as from humidity changes. High humidity causes the wood to swell inside the hammer head hole and it crushes the cell walls. When dry times come, the wood shrinks and the handle becomes loose. Over 3 to 4 years of repeated changes, the handle will become very loose.
This is why I admire the great craftsmen of fine furniture of old. They knew all of this and took it into account when choosing wood and making fine furniture. This aspect has been all but lost. The making of a very nicely designed table (by me) that had considerable wood movement some 30 years ago is what caused me to buy books and research this very issue of wood movement.Hank Lee
Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted!Comment
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To get started in WWing, I took a night class taught in a HS shop class. It was only one semester long and the focus was on safety and proper use of the equipmentTo get started in WWing, I took a night class taught in a HS shop class. It was only one semester long and the focus was on safety and proper use of the equipment. Most of us had never used a TS, jointer, or planer. I don't think there was any talk about expansion/contraction and how to deal with it in the construction of our projects. I don't blame the instructor. There were too many people and not enough time.
Most of us had never used a TS, jointer, or planer.I don't think there was any talk about expansion/contraction and how to deal with it in the construction of our projects. I don't blame the instructor. There were too many people and not enough time.
One of the projects I made was a large coffee table (3'x5'). It, too, has breadboard ends. The four legs are bolted onto corner blocks that are attached to the aprons. There is one shelf between the top and the floor. It's solid red oak except for the shelf which is plywood.
The breadboard end was made my forming a 1/2" tongue on the two ends of the top. I made a matching groove in the breadboard end slathered glue the length of both tongues and grooves and pounded them home with a mallet and let them sit in clamps.
To attach the top to the base, I screwed through the apron and into the top. The holes in the apron were not enlarged for movement.
So right there I made 2 no-nos. However, after 10+ years, 8 in this house in MD and 2+ in dry San Diego, the top is still flush with the breadboard and nothing has cracked and exploded.
Contrast that with a sideboard I also made in SD. I had some "schoolin'" by then and made the breadboard right and attached it to the base with figure 8 fasteners. That top has cracked. I'm pretty sure the reason is because I used construction ipe for top and didnt let it dry enough before glue up.
Every year I wait for my coffee table to crack but it hasn't happened. I keep a fruit bowl over the crack in the sideboard. Maybe one day I'll fill it with epoxy.Comment
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Uneven ends on the breadboard is understandable by most of us, but try to explain to your wife who still refuses to believe the scratches on her car door at the handles are caused by the diamonds in her wedding ring. It ain't happening.
The breadboards on this table are tongue & grooved and not glued. I used the Kreg pocket hole screw to fasten the breadboard in the center of the table and on the outsides I used the Kreg to create a 3/4" wide pocket for the outside screw, and set the screw snug. That allows 3/8" table top expansion each way in the breadboard. Then I added the additional slab board under the slab over the pocket holes to give the wanted 1 1/2" thickness.
capncarlComment
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My buddy that traded me the antique pine still lives in his grandmothers old house on what is left of the family farm. He says his grandfather always carried a .32 S&W and was know to shoot at the pegions, rats, cats or whatever in the barn with it! Some of the wood that I built his table with came from the farm blacksmith shop. Lots of .22 bullets found and every board had bird shot in it. All of the buildings on the farm are rotting down in place and have very little usable wood left. Most have already been push down. All of this kind of buildings will be gone soon and all we will have is HD wood.
capncarlComment
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