Basic Table Design

[paulrockliffe]

I'm after a little project to keep me busy and the next thing on my list is a small table for my son to sit at, he's 18 months old and loves sitting at his own table when he visits friends.

I have 4 solid beech table legs from an old desk that I'm going to cut down to length and I have 6 3' x 6" ash boards that are more than enough to make a top and sides with, that were left over from some wardrobes I built a few years ago. The boards are all 1" thick, though I do have some 1.5" I could use for the sides.

I've not done anything similar in terms of the construction so want to get some advice on the best way to build the table. The legs were attached to the desk using threaded bar bolted through metal brackets and I can't remove the bar, so I'll attach them the same way, with side rails morticed into the legs.

So I think my main question is around the top construction and taking account of wood movement; should I use breadboard ends and how should I attach the top to the frame? I also have some 1.5" ash that I can use to make the perimeter look deeper, would there be any issues with this if I decided to do that?

Thanks in advance!

 

[custard]

That sounds like it will be an awfully heavy piece of furniture, especially if you have to tote it around when he visits friends. If you build it properly with good traditional joinery then you could safely reduce those dimensions significantly. For a child's table I'd be thinking of tapered legs that are 30-32mm x 30-32mm at the top, aprons that are 15mm thick (with a shallow curve on the underside to remove a bit more weight while retaining strength), and a top that's maybe 16 or 17mm thick. A breadboard end would be a nice touch visually and they're fun to make, I've seen many antique tables where the breadboard ends were thicker than the table top by about 3mm.

 

[PAC1]

As much as making a little table would be fun. Given it will be decorated on a daily basis and they will grow out of it in a year or two I would buy something from mother are or ikea and save your wood for another project

 

[paulrockliffe]

Sorry, I don't know why I said the boards were an inch thick, they are 1" boards, but they were planed from rough sawn and now they're about 19mm or so and will be a little thinner when planed up again. I also didn't mean moving his table, just that we don't have one and his friends do so he likes using theirs when he's there. I can plane the legs down a bit and agree they need to be smaller really, but I need to be careful where the bolts are that I'm not planing into metal. I suppose I need to have a proper look at the legs and see if I could remove the bolt section and leave enough square wood for the rails, or I would at least learn something if I kept the bottoms of the legs instead and had to make angled aprons.

I think the useful life on the table will be 4 years, as I've another due in April that will want to use it, the ash was cheap and I can easily get more for future projects, so there's no point hanging on to it just in case a better use for it comes along. I'm going to seal it with 2-pack varnish to protect it from crayons and paint. For various reasons I can't keep all the wood I've got under the bed as there's a mattress to fit under there shortly, so better to make a start reducing the spare wood pile.

How do I attach the breadboard ends and the top to the table frame so that the wood can still move?

 

[Racers]

The breadboard ends are traditionally held on with dowels, the middle one fixed and the ends in slotted holes in the table top so it can expand and contract.

I agree with custard make it light and strong, he is bound to want to stand on it and jump up and down.

Pete

 

[No skills]

Build it strong - today's toddler table is tomorrow's kitchen platform for budding chefs.

I made Jnr #1 an ugly table from thick laminated pine, legs were rectangular pine with a dovetailed shaped tenon on the top, cut out the corresponding mortises in the top (through mortise) and glued the legs in. No stretchers required.

 

[paulrockliffe]

I had a look at the legs, there's not much that isn't tapered, so it looks like the best bet will be to use the bottom of the legs and plan the taper back square at the top. I think only two sides are tapered, so I can put them through the thicknesser to square them back up easily enough. I think I know what I'm doing now fairly well thanks.