For a while, I have wanted a woodworking project and the need for a dining table seemed like the perfect opportunity!
I like a modern style, and came across this table in my search. I used this design for inspiration and came up with the design below.
Material & Equipment
Material:
- 0.75″x5.5″x6′ Red Oak Board, 7x
- 0.75″x3.5″x6′ Red Oak Board, 4x
- 2.5″x2.5″ Red Oak Board, 4x
- Z-clip tabletop fasteners, 16x
- 1.25″ #7 Kreg screws
- 0.75″ #6 Kreg screws
- 2-1/2″ long 1/4-20 hex bolts, 50-pack (McMaster 91247A552)
- 18-8 SS 1/4-20 washers, 100-pack (McMaster 92141A029)
- 16mm long dowel nut with 1/4-20 thread, 25-pack (McMaster 90835A210)
- Minwax Prestain
- Minwax Dark walnut stain
- Minwax Wipe-on polyurethane
- White cloths (for staining)
- Tack cloth
- Wood glue
Equipment:
- Table saw
- Miter saw
- Jointer
- Router
- Belt sander
- Orbital sander
- Kreg pocket hole jig
- Freud 40-120 25 degree chamfer bit
- Freud 56-106 3/32″ 3-wing slot cutter
Build
I started with building the tabletop using the seven 0.75″x5.5″x6′ boards.
I ran one edge of each board through the jointer, removing about 1/16″ of material, to make the edge flat and perpendicular to the large face of the board. Then, I ran the boards through the table saw, taking another 1/16″, making the other edge flat.
In hindsight, I should have borrowed a friend’s planar and planed the boards to a set thickness before running the them through the jointer and table saw. That would have made alignment of the boards during the glue-up easier.
I started the glue-up with 5 of the 7 boards and wood glue. Clamps were used every 12 inches to pull the board edges tight together. I made clamping cauls using 1″x4″ pine boards by adding a strip of packing tape along one edge. The clamping cauls are used to pull the top/bottom surfaces flat.
In hindsight, I should have glued the board boards together one by one to better align the edges. Planing the boards would have also improved the edge alignment.
The final two boards were glued to the rest and the result was a solid single sheet of red oak.
There was variations between the board edges due to differing thicknesses and gluing several boards at a time. I attempted to use a #5.5 hand plane to flatten the top and bottom surfaces, but I think a lack of experience and dull blade made for poor results.
I switched to using a handheld belt sander and had much more success with that, although it took a long time to get the tabletop relatively flat. First, I brought down the tall edges using the belt sander to get the edges aligned. Next, I used a straight edge and pencil to find the high spots on the table top and bottom. The high spots could be found by laying the straight edge across the table and seeing what points of the surface the top touches.
After many hours of sanding, I got the top and bottom flat enough to be happy with the result (which definitely could have been improved). With that done, I cut the far ends to make a even edge using a circular saw and a straight edge for a guide.
Next, with a router and 25 degree chamfer bit, I added a chamfer to the outer edge of the top all the way around.
Next was making the apron. Using the 4×6 boards, I made a rectangular frame, with the two long ends flush with either end of the table and the short ends inset from the outer edge by about 5 inches. A 25 degree cut was made on both ends of the long boards to match the 25 degree chamfer on the table top.
Before the sides were joined, I used the router with a 3/32″ slot cutter to cut out slots that would be used to join the top with the apron. I used a couple pieces of scrap to dial in the router so that it cut the slots at the proper height, and then cut 2 slots on each short end and 4 slots on each long end.
The kreg jig was used to add pocket holes to the short sides of the apron to join them to the long sides. The 1.25″ #7 kreg screws were used to join the sides together.
With the apron frame joined, and the slots cut, I positioned the apron to the tabletop to drill the pilot holes for the z clips that would later attach the tabletop to the apron. A 3/32″ diameter drill bit was used to drill the pilot holes for the #8 screws used with the z clip table top fasteners. Painters tape was use to set the depth of the holes to be drilled, approximately 3/8″. One hole was drilled per slot.
(picture)
Before I added corner brackets to support the apron, and which the legs would attach, I needed to flatten a section of the legs so that the leg had a flat surface to mate with the corner bracket. The legs are made from 2.5″x2.5″ red oak.
Using a miter saw, the legs were cut to 29.25″ long so that the total height with the tabletop attached was 30.0″ from the top surface to the ground. To create the 3.5-4″ flat portion of the legs, I marked the legs to make the flat surface about .75″ wide and used a chisel and mallet to flatten the edge.
The legs were to be attached to the corner bracket with 1/4″ bolts. To make the legs removable for easy transport of the table, I decided to use dowel nuts for the bolts to fasten with. The dowel nuts are 10mm in diameter, so I used an X size drill (.397″ or 10.08mm) to drill a ~4″ hole in the center top of each leg. A pilot hole of 1/8″ was first drilled and then stepped up to the X size drill bit.
Next, I positioned those in the corners of the apron to size the corner brackets. This was a little more trial and error than precision cutting, but the result was a relatively tight fit with each leg. The corner bracket were cut with a miter saw to make 45 degree edges for lying flat against the apron frame.
The kreg jig was used to create pocket holes in the corner brackets and 0.75″ #6 kreg screws were used to attach them to the apron frame.
The fit was checked with each leg and then the corner supports were screwed in place.
Next, I positioned the legs within the apron frame and drilled 2 1/8″ pilot holes through each corner bracket and into the legs to ensure the holes would be aligned. I then used a larger, 7mm diameter, drill bit to increase those hole sizes on both the corner brackets and legs.
Wood glue was applied into the top holes of each leg and two dowel nuts were placed in the top hole and aligned with the holes perpendicular to the top. The bolts that would later hold the legs to the table were used to hold the nuts in place while the wood glue cured.
The legs, apron, and tabletop were all then sanded with 120 grit and then 240 grit paper with the orbital sander for a smooth surface.
Next step, finishing! I wanted a dark surface, so chose dark walnut stain, and I decided on a wipe-on polyurethane for a protective coating. To prep the surfaces, I wiped down all surfaces of the wood with tack cloth to pick up dust from cutting and sanding.
To ensure I got an even coating of stain and not have any blotches on the large top surface, I used a pre-stain conditioner. This was wiped onto all the surfaces before applying the stain.
The stain was applied with white cloths and applied three times to achieve the dark color I wanted. The pre-stain also made the color a little lighter, so the second and third coats brought it closer to the look of one coat of stain without the pre-stain.
The wipe-on polyurethane was applied about 48 hours after the last application of stain.
I applied four coats of polyurethane, sanding the surface in-between with #0000 steel wool to ensure good adhesion between coats. Before applying the next coat of poly, the tack cloth was used to wipe away any steel fibers from the wool and the poly particles that were sanded off.
The final, fourth, coat was left to cure and after 24 hours I assembled the apron to the top.
The z-clips were positioned and screwed into the predrilled holes on the top surface and latched onto the apron. The fit was a bit tight, but it feels sturdy and should allow for any movement of the wood over time with changes in humidity.
With the apron attached, the table could be brought into the house! With it inside, I attached the legs with the two 1/4-20 bolts and 1/4 washers per leg.
And like that, the project (finally) comes to an end!
The quality of the build is far from perfect, but I learned a lot through the process and am happy with the result. I have gained a significant amount of respect to the effort and skill it takes to make fine wood products after this experience. I will definitely have some more woodworking projects in the future, but I think I have had enough with with project for a while.
