Any advice on building a kitchen table?

-- Cindy (S.E.IN) (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), September 24, 2001

Answers

I built a very low cost table, initially supposed to be used as a reading table, but eventually made it's way to the kitchen.

You will need 1 Sheet of 3/4 inch plywood. Get the nicest piece you can find. Measure the heighth of a table that you like from ground to the INSIDE of the leg (Where the leg meets the bottom side of the table). You also need a good amount of 1x6 pine - cut two pieces of the 1x6 to the desired length and nail them together (Should look like an "L" - This makes on leg - repeat 3 more times and you have the legs. Cut the sheet of ply wood to your desired size, and use your 1x6 to nail it around the bottom of the sheet - like a lip. Nail or screw the legs in and add braces of 1x6 in a 45 degree angle from the bottom of the table. Sand like crazy and paint.

-- bill (bill@bill.com), September 24, 2001.

Years ago, without any special equipment other than what most people already have, we built a nice trestle-style kitchen table partly out of purchased lumber and partly from scrap picked up at the dump. It came out very well, and all you need is a library book on furniture building. Most of them have basic trestle table plans.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), September 24, 2001.

Cindy, in my opinion it is easier to make a satisfactory table if you build it heavy. Chippendale and his mates were very good at making light-weight elegant stuff but not me!

The table top is the critical bit, it could be plywood but ensure that the wood is not treated if you want that traditional scrubbed pine look. I think a sheet of ply or construction board of some kind would be much easier than glued planks. I have a useful table in my workshop that is simple chip board covered in vinyl floor tiles.

Put the table top upside down on the floor then build a sort of box from (say 6X1) planks on the underside of the table top leaving about 4 inches all around. Use glue and screwes angled through the wood to fix this 'box' to the table top. You need to do this without screws coping up through the table top.

Now cut the four legs which should be about 4x4. Cut the legs to the total height of the finished table, this is about 1" longer than you might expect but you will be cutting a little off later. Stand each leg inside a corner of the 'box'. Use glue and two crossed carriage bolts to fix each leg in place.

Everything should now be quite rigid, if it is not it will never be a satisfactory table. Use short lengths of the 6x1 as braces across each corner of tbe box fixing them in place with glue and screws.

Stand the table on its feet but dont be concerned if there is a bit of a wobble. Place the table in it's intended permanent position then get a sharp pencil and a small block of wood about 1" thick. Put the block of wood on the floor and use it to accurately draw a pencil line around each leg of the table. Turn the table over and carefully trim each leg to the pencil line. You should have a table with no wobbles even if the kitchen floor is not level!

Good luck with your project!

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), September 25, 2001.