How to Build a Simple DIY Dining Table With Laminated Walnut Top

hey guys sheriff from woodshop Diaries and today I'm going to show you how I made this walnut top chunky leg dining table so if you're ready to get building let's go building a dining table is like a rite of passage as a woodworker it seems like it's always somebody's first big furniture project personally it was my first furniture build several years ago but I made my first table from old weathered 4x4 posts some 1 by fours that I had beat up with a pry bar and a few super twisted to buttons I've learned a few things since then so I'm sharing this video on how I make dining tables these days I've used these exact likes a few years ago on another table build and I love them so much I wanted to use them again I'll leave a link below to these exact legs if you're interested in purchasing some for your next table build okay now let's build I built this table 6 foot long and 3 foot wide I've got the plans linked in the description that explained how to modify this project to whatever size table that you want the first thing I did was make the tabletop now there's a thousand ways to make a tabletop and everyone has their own opinion about what's best but for a design like this I like using thicker boards so like 2 buys and I like to simply edge glue them into a panel in this case I was working with one by walnut boards so I had to do a little pre work before gluing up the panel so I started out with 1 by or 4 for walnut boards and I wanted to make like 2-inch thick boards for the tabletop so what I did was I planed the boards down first and then I glued them up individually but because I glued these up I just played them all down to the same thickness but I need to rip these edges so they're nice and clean before I start the glue up I ripped a laminated board edges on my table saw to give me a nice even clean edge to glue up the width of my final boards added up to be 36 inches which is the final width that I wanted my tabletop to be because I was gluing up several boards I found in my perience that it's easier to glue up smaller sections at a time so I light out two boards on a couple of pipe clamps applied some wood glue to the edge and clamp them together trying to keep everything as flush at the seam as possible [Music] I glued up two sets of two boards let just like shown here in this video and I'll let the glue dry for about 24 hours [Music] [Music] when I came back the next day I laid out these two panels and place the thinner board that I showed earlier in this video between them on a couple pipe clamps I applied glue again to the edges and clamped these all together I did everything in my power to keep the joints as flush as possible when I clamped them including climbing up on top of it to hold down a slight bow I clamped these nice and tight and let this dry for another 24 hours once the glue has dried I used a circular saw and a straight edge to trim the ends nice and clean and then I trimmed the top down to its finished size 6 foot long [Music] then it was time for sanding sanding is a super boring process so I didn't film it all but at this point I used the belt sander to sand the top nice and flat and to even out any offset joints from the glue up I stand at the top and then I flipped it over and sanded the bottom a little as well once I had gotten it fairly flat with the belt sander I set it to the side I'll do a little more work on it later but at this point I needed a break so I moved on to building the base this is the easy part and it's even more easy when you buy premade legs so I took my 4 table legs out of the box and grabbed a couple of two by sixes to use as the table apron [Music] now a lot of this table saw work here is optional I just like adding a few extra details because typical 2x6 construction lumber boards have rounded corners the first thing I did is trim off these corners so that they're nice and square it's just a personal preference and for this particular table once the one side was ripped nice and clean and square I ripped the other side of the board down so that the overall width was four and a half inches you could leave it at the full two by six width but I just trimmed it again just personal preference then I added a little detail to these apron boards I just had my saw blade height to a quarter of an inch and adjusted my RIP fence so that it was about four inches from the blade that gave me about half an inch on the other side of the blade and I ran the apron boards through to cut this small dado like shown here then I adjusted the RIP fence again to make this dado slightly wider again all of this is totally personal preference I just like the little detail now it's time to put everything together I cut too short and too long apron pieces to length on my miter saw I've detailed the measurements in the plans linked below for these pieces based on your desired table size [Music] I drove one-and-a-half inch pocket holes using my Cregg pocket hole jig into both ends of all my apron boards using two and a half inch pocket hole screws I attach these apron pieces so that they were one and a half inch inset from the outside edge of the legs again personal preference but I symbol the two short sides together then attach the longer boards between them like shown [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] once my base was assembled I stained it with Minwax provincial wood stain I've stained it underneath the paint because when I distress it later the darker wood will show up better in the distress areas the stain is totally an optional step after letting the same dry I painted the table base white I simply brushed it on but you could totally spray it if you wanted brushing was kind of therapeutic though and since I was distressing it later it wasn't a big deal if the finish was super perfect here once that was dry I was really eager to put the top on and get it finished but I had a little more work to do before adding the top I cut and installed two 2x4 supports into the table base like shown using pocket holes and screws I used two by fours from my scrap pile but really anything works here it just gives another surface to screw into to attach the top later in the past I've typically used pocket holes and screws through the apron to attach my tabletops most have been fine but due to wood movement I've had one split a little over time I since learned that pocket holes and screws aren't the best way to attach tabletops like this so in this case to avoid potential issues with wood movement I decided to use these figure eight tabs to attach the table top so I spaced several of these around the top of the apron and use this spade bit to drill out a hole that they could sit down into the wood and be flush across the top I used the chisel to chisel out the corners after I had drilled the holes I know this is super messy looking my chisels aren't the sharpest but the goal here is basically just to get the tabs to set down into the hole where they can still be able to pivot back and forth once I had all my holes drilled and chiseled out I used inch and 1/4 wood screws to attach them tight enough to hold the tabs snug but loose enough to allow the tabs to still pivot back and forth I place the top onto the base and centered it so that there was equal overhang on all sides then I used 100 quarter inch wood screws to attach the top through the other holes in the tabs on the bottom of the table if there were any places where the tabs weren't touching the top I used some washers between the wood and the metal to avoid over bending the tabs when tightening the screws I've never used these tabs before but I've heard several people swear by them and they're supposed to allow the top to expand and contract without splitting or warping if you wanted to skip the tabs though you could still use L brackets or pocket holes or another joinery method here to attach the top whatever is your own personal preference once the top was secured I examined it for any imperfections before giving it a final sanding I noticed some small cracks on the top so here's how I filled those I use gorilla wood glue and squirt along the gap or the crack then I take some matching sawdust from where I've already sanded or cut and sprinkle it along the glue I'll work this into a putty and smear it into the crack while the glue is still wet I like to go ahead and sand it off sanding all the glue is what allows it to smear even more into the crack and fill it a little bit better you can also see this method in my wooden urn video used on miter joints as well I gave the top of final sanding with my orbital sander up to 400 grit again sanding is a very boring process so I didn't film all of the sanding but I hand sanded the base to distress it in random places then I brought it inside to paly at the top now if this is my own table I would finish it with a food-safe furniture wax however since this is for a customer and I found that customers aren't usually as careful as I am with the finish I used the tougher finishing option with this polycrylic clear coat so I know that I'm going to get a ton of questions about how I finished the walnut this is exactly what I did on this tabletop I used Minwax polycrylic I used the water-based version in a semi-gloss finish and I just brushed it on with a typical little paintbrush what I did is I sanded the top down with 400 grit sandpaper unfinished and then I brushed on a coat of the poly acrylic and then I sanded between coats with 400 grit sandpaper I just sand it by hand and applied four coats to this tabletop and you can finish it a thousand different ways but if you're interested in exactly how I finished this particular top that's what I did so there you go and just like that it's ready for use dining tables are a large project but actually a really simple one if you can glue sand and drill you can build a table if you want to give this table a try be sure to check out the building plans I've linked below I've got several different table designs to choose from over on the blog as well I hope you've enjoyed this video and if you aren't already subscribed be sure to hit that subscribe button so you don't miss out on all the upcoming projects thanks so much for watching and until next time happy building

Channel: Shara Woodshop Diaries

Views: 60,985

Rating: 4.9157896 out of 5

Keywords: how to build dining table, how to build a dining room table top, how to build a farmhouse table top, how to build a farmhouse table base, how to build a dining table out of wood, how to make table top wood, how to make a wood table top smooth, how to build a solid wood table top, how to build a wood table top

Id: gd9fLXf-XCk

Length: 12min 10sec (730 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 14 2020