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The following is excerpted from a new book, Furniture Fundamentals: Tables, in which you’ll find collected many of the best table projects published in Popular Woodworking. You’ll find the full step-by-step instructions for this Glen D. Huey piece in the book, but the measured drawings below are an excellent place to begin.
I’ve built a number of trestle tables in the Shaker style over the years, usually following the style of an original table from one Shaker collection or another. But when I decided to do a trestle table for Popular Woodworking readers, I took a second look at some of the designs and decided I could add a feature and come up with a stronger table without sacrificing the simple Shaker lines.
The one shown here is a standard two-pedestal table with a single stretcher tying the bases together. One of the concerns I’ve always had with this design was the stability of the joint at the stretcher. Anyone who has been to a family dinner at my house knows that a sturdy table is important when everyone starts hungrily reaching for platters of food. To solve the stability concern I doubled-up the hardware from another sturdy piece of furniture – the bed. By using a pair of bed bolts at each joint, this table becomes amazingly stout.
Click image to enlarge.
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If you’ve seen my other furniture, you know I’m addicted to figured maple. Though they’ve tried to get me into treatment, I haven’t yet accepted that I have a problem.
But when it came to choosing the wood for this table, even I had to admit that with such a simple piece, adding busy figure to the base would be gilding the lily. So I saved the good stuff for the top and chose to use painted poplar to build the base.
— Excerpted from Furniture Fundamentals: Tables
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I am intrigued! From a structural standpoint, your design seems to be a very solid concept. I would, of course, probably make a few changes to the design! Well, isn’t that the way it is for all of us! I look forward to the book and probably will even break down and buy a copy.
Are you going to post a table of contents or pictures of the projects? This would help my decision making process.