Hickory Coffee Table with Walnut Raised Panels-FINISHED

obi sometimes it takes a couple of years to split and sometimes it will split right away depending on the weather in your area, but a good rule of thumb is on crossgrain construction you should not glue more than 4in. and that's only on 1 side. now if you like the look of the dowels you could dowel one side down and put faux dowels on the other side and use figure eight or clips on the other side. i am in this for the long run as i know you are too. you just don't want a top to split on a customers piece a year or so from now. i hope this helps

And through your discussions I keep getting more and more information on how I "Should" have made the table top for my challenge table.

Obi:

I've done floating breadboards (on a workbench that I made) Mortise and tenons. On this one I drilled for three dowels through the breadboards and through the tenons on the end of the bench. I then elongated the hole in the end tenons. so that the dowel could slid side to side but not allow movement away from the bench top. (The center one was a round dowel in a round hole in the tenon, thereby locking the movement to the center)

I mounted the Workbench top by putting a square tenon in the end of the leg and in so doing I've anchored the front to the front of the bench. The rear had a rectangular mortise so that the top could move at the rear. (The front was locked with the square mortise and tenon.) The top weighs 150 lbs so I didn't have to attach it to the legs just sat it there.

I use "Z" clips in a slot in the apron and let the top move as it wants.

I use veneer on plywood and give the table a solid edge and attach to Style and Rail sides thereby having no movement.

Sorry I didn't explain further when I made the original post.

So if you wanted the look that you gave your table, using my techniques. Drill and mount your center dowel as you have done, or do it on one of the sides. Then use "Z" clips table top fasteners or cshardware product 15.75z or 15.DTF.00 or a wooden variety. Then the other dowells would be for show. I wouldn't use the figure 8 on the other side because that could keep the top from moving.

If you noticed Dusty's attachment of the figure 8 clips he attached them to the seat bottom on a stool type table but they were attached in a way that there would be no binding if the top were to move. Dusty's project

Too many words… I got lost.

So which way does the wood move. Obviously it doesn't move side to side because the glue holds it. Therefore it must get longer? And is it all wood all the time in all climates or is it just some woods most of the time in wet climates or wet wood in dry climates after the wood dries out?

I've been bangin' nails for over 30 years and I know that wet lumber dries out and houses settle, but in a controlled invironment where there is no extreme temperature changes why would it move, especially when you buy dry (less than 5% moisture content) lumber to begin with.

Wood moves across the width. Unless it's quartersawn then it expands and contracts across its thickness. If you have access to finewoodworking.com http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesPDF.aspx?id=2867

Wood changes seasonaly. Even here in Los Angeles. Door panels might shrink in the winter and expand in the summer. That's why solid wood panels are not glued in. It's not only the temp. It is also the humidity in the air.

There's a possibility that the climate you live, the humidity doesn't change much, so you won't get much movement.

Where I live we have high humidity in the summer, & very low humidity in the winter.

MN is like a desert in the winter. A lot of the furniture gets real loose. So if your table moved to a different climate, things may happen to it.

John,

I don't, but thanks for the info.

That's the kind of thing I was talking about in the PDF file sharing thing. I don't know, so I have to find what back issue it's in and order it because my friends at Lumberjocks are too worried about stepping on Taunton Press' toes.

Googleing wood movement returns quite a few items. I think we may be lucky here in the central valley. Humidity is pretty low.

Well this table is doweled in the aprons, and the legs so if it's going to give, it's gonna have to fight the glue, and i know that the glue will win… This is going to be interesting.

If I'm not in jail in the next few years, I'll let you all know how the tables withstands the climate here in the Central Valley.

Probably it will survive. I bet the dowels have a little play. In my house the original door panels were painted at some point. This locked them in place so they couldn't float they cracked (many of them) not at the glue joint but just in the middle of the panel. I have heard that the glue will outlast the wood.

It's not about stepping on toes; it's about abiding by the laws of our country. If you don't like or agree with the laws, you work on changing them - you don't simply ignore them.

The subscription to FineWoodworking.com is $15 if you have the magazine subscription and something like $30 or $40 if you don't.

So if you pay $8 for one back issue (does that even include shipping?), then in two purchases you've already gone over the FineWoodworking.com subscription price if you have the magazine subscription and you'll have gone over it in three more purchases if you don't.

But you get access to SO MUCH more information than what you'll get in two or five back issues… People don't think twice about dropping $30 on a router bit or a saw blade (much more $$ than that, really) or some other jig or tool that will help you with your woodworking. This is no different. The knowledge and plans and design ideas you can get access to with this membership are infinitely better than one router bit.

If you have a "business", then you probably write off other tools you buy, right? Buy the subscription and call it a business write-off as well.

I hemmed and hawed about buying it for a while, but… after thinking about it like that, it became a no-brainer. To off-set the price, I simply didn't renew one of my other magazine subscriptions that really didn't give me much good information to begin with.

O.K. I just updated my web site to include a few more images of the Hickory Coffee Table here

Hope it meets everybody's approval

Nice job on the table Obi. What did you do to get the table top so shinny?

that is a beautiful table, Obi. Beautiful

8 coats of high gloss lacquer

Wow, that is wonderful. Did you sand/polish between each coat for a smooth finish? A very nice job with that finish. I am still working on improving my finishes.

Nice table.