John Booth

I am planning to put together a desk top that will be 60" long by 26" wide, thickness 1.25", I am using an average of 5" wide planks of Tiger Oak and surrounding it with 4" wide English Oak with breadboard ends, I had condidered mitre joints at the corners but did not think they would be strong enough. I am thinking along the lines of using slots around all of the tiger oak and using loose strips of wood, no glue, the only place I was going to glue is at the four corners were I was going to use T&G joints, My client keeps his house VERY warm and I have had trouble with movement at the joints in the past, he does not want any of the same problems with this desk, will the method of fixing I have outlined allow enough movement between each piece so any opening will be un- noticable, I am using a hard wax finish with plenty of wax, both sides will be finished the same. The desk top will be well supported.
Any alternatives would be welcome or am I on the right lines?

Webster

Hi John!

Have a look at a previous thread here...... Stop splitting on table top
it may have some info you're looking for.

I'm not quite understanding why you want to glue the joints on the corners of the breadboard ends though?

That sounds like it will be a brilliant looking piece and wax isn't a very practicle way to go, especialy for a finish on a desk top. If you're looking for a kind of hand finished look, there are some simple mixes you can make up, which will give that a very nice look & much more durable.

Rick

John Booth

I am thinking of glueing to hold everything together, are you suggesting that I use dowel pins? I do not want to have the pins showing on the top, I know I can stop the pins and go up from the underside, would this be strong enough to hold everything together?
Are there any links I can follow on your suggestion of other finishing materials?
Thanks for your help

Webster

Well, if you glue the corners the boards will have no where to expand (width wise), and will buckle or break the glue joint.....and the same if you were to run glue down the whole end piece.....it'll look good for a while, but more likely than not, will fail depending on the environment.

With dowel pins through an elongated hole in your planks, this will give the boards ample room for movement.


Ok., so you don't want to see the dowels showing on the top.
Here's a link for a table....... http://www.popularwoodworking.com/up...avernTable.pdf
The end result looks similar to a through tenon. I'm sure you could even make it match and blend right in, if you wanted.

You can use plywood and then frame it out. Then you can have mitered corners or breadboard ends or half lap joints or whatever.

I've read here something called 'space balls'?. I have no idea about them. I would imagine they allow the wood to move, and still keeping it snug.....maybe allowing it to move only side to side???


For your finish, here is a link..... http://www.woodsmith.com/files/issues/sample/sample.pdf
It's in the last few pages.
There is also many topics on here about some finishes.
Or you could buy something of the shelf. Watco, Minwax to name a few.

Rick