Fastening Oak beams

[RustikCustom]

Hello guys

Im fairly new to woodworking and my question is this what would be the best way to fasten oak beams together or pine beams aswell ive been told dowels with Carpenter glue or epoxy and even long 12 inch screws any ideas ? I need this to be solid as heck p.s it is a sleeper coffee table

 

[Andy RV]

The best way is probably a stopped mortice and tenon, however it's certainly not the easiest.

You could route a deep groove into each piece and insert a floating tenon.

 

[hanser]

Big stuff like that will want to move through the seasons etc. I would drill right through the sides and insert 2 maybe 3 M10 threaded stainless rods to keep the lot together. Recess the nuts/washers and finish off with shaped plugs -something like these http://www.plugitdowel.co.uk/wood-produ ... hroom-head

 

[marcros]

i wouldn't fix it together. i would use some chunky dowels in the cross piece and some oversized holes in the underside of the long pieces. Let it move if it needs to.

if you fix it together, you are going to struggle to move it, ever. I made a similar one as a tv stand, albeit with a rustic look from new "sleepers" which were very green. gravity keeps it together, the dowels are just incase it gets knocked, although an elephant could use it as a scratch post and it wouldn't go far.

 

[marcros]

also, i expect to have to re-flatten mine at some point. it has been 18 months so far though and it is still flat enough, but I acknowledge that it will move.

 

[The Bear]

I hope your floors strong enough

The commercial ones I've seen have a coach screw from the bottom into the top.

Mark

 

[marcros]

have a look on the tarzan tables website or blog. they show their fixing detail on a page or post, but it is basically a piece of stainless bar routed into the timber. their critical idea is that there is no wood to wood contact, so it sits better.

 

[beech1948]

Looking at the photo I see something close to my workbench except in height.

Mine is 4" thick beech some 28" deep and 7ft 6" long. The weight is remarkable and hard to move so beware.

The top sits on the base with some tight fitting 1.5" thick dowels which penetrate the top and legs about 2" each. Three per upright. The dowel fitting is just loose enough longitudinally to allow for some movement across the width.

Gravity keeps it on. There is no movement even with occassional strenuous pounding on pieces, planing long stuff, sawing tenons, dovetails etc. My bench is 87 yrs old and was my grandfathers.

So given its weight I would do the same for your coffee table. Use dowels, give them some room to move to allow for wood movement.