How Do You Make a Simple Dining Table?

Making a simple dining table is well within reach for a first furniture project, provided you understand the one principle that causes most home built tables to fail. Solid timber expands and contracts across its width through the year, and a top fixed rigidly to its base will eventually split. This guide walks through sizing the table from the room rather than a plan, choosing between pine, oak and pre glued panels, and building both the top and a four leg apron base using pocket hole joinery rather than traditional mortises. It covers the three correct methods for attaching a top so it can move, finishing with hardwax oil without leaving a sticky surface, and how to pair the finished table with seating at a comfortable height....