Possible wood movement issues with coffee table top

cflansbaum

Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2007
Messages
161
Hello All!

I'm working on my first "official" domino project - a small coffee table with the sides and stretcher made of Myrtle and the top of Imbuia.  I've used the dominos to join the side "legs" and in gluing up the 2 tops.  Each of these 2 tops are made of 2 boards 3/4" x 6" x 36".  The design is to leave a 1/2" gap between these two sections and use 3/8" butterflies to tie them together.

My plan has all along been to domino together the boards directly to the legs. These would be laid out perpendicular to the length of the tops (i.e. in line with the side legs), but now I'm starting to worry that maybe I'm ignoring wood movement of these top pieces.

My rational has been that this wouldn't be a concern because: a.) each top piece is only 12" x 36" and b.) I could not glue the stretcher into the legs as the fit is tight enough but could move if wood expansion/contraction of the top forced it to (although I'm not sure that if this force would be enough to move the legs against the weight of the item against the floor - if this makes sense.)

Anyone have an opinion or input?  I'm not against coming up with a way to account to this possibility, but I've hit a wall with something simple (as I don't want to make this piece overly complex) and I'd like to use dominos to do this...

Picture 1 shows the overall look of the table but with only one of the table tops for reference.

Picture 2 shows the 2 top pieces

Picture 3 shows how/where each top piece with be joined to the leg(s).

Thanks!

Carl
 
Don't see any cross grain problems so wood movement shouldn't be a problem. Make sure the grain in your butterflys are running in same direction as the top.
 
The grain in butterflies should not run parallel with the grain of the tops. you would lose any strength in them.

As far as the top expansion and contraction goes you are all good since the leg grain is oriented in the same direction of the top they will expand and contract together.

Beautiful design and execution.

Eiji Fuller
 
Back
Top