Farmhouse Dining Table - Walnut and Alder

Here's how I made this farmhouse dining table. There is also amplifying information in the Closed Captioning of this video.

I started by freehand cutting 7 walnut boards down to approximately 7 feet using a circular saw.

These are 6/4 walnut boards, or an inch and a half thick. The following steps show how I milled the lumber myself, but you can always have this done for you if you don't have a jointer and planer.

First, I flattened one face of each board on the jointer. I kept running it through until it was smooth and completely flat.

Then, using the flattened face as a reference against the jointer fence, I straightened one edge of each board. Again, I just kept running it through, taking off about 1/16th of an inch until it was completely flat and smooth.

I flattened the opposite face of each board by running it through a thickness planer.

I then straightened the remaining edge of each board on the table saw. Now all of the boards had 4 flat sides, all 90 degree corners, and a constant thickness. The boards ended up being a little under 6 inches wide.

I cut slots for biscuits in each board. This is optional, but makes the glue up much easier. I just marked the locations on each board, then aligned the mark to the mark on the biscuit joiner. I used size 30 biscuits.

To makes things a little easier on myself, I glued up 3 of the 7 boards first, then the other 4, and then glued those 2 "halves" together. I used Titebond II wood glue.

I used some angle iron as makeshift cauls to help keep each section flat. This is optional.

For the final glue up, I used 3/4 inch pipe clamps. You can use any kind of clamps you want, just make sure you get a good, even squeeze out.

I also used angle iron cauls for the final glue up. Again, this is optional, but helps prevent cupping of the boards due to the clamping pressure.

I didn't have a track saw at this point, so I used a guide and a circular saw to trim the ends even. I simply clamped down the straight edge guide and ran the rail of my circular saw against it. The table was just under 7 feet long after this step.

I cut/milled a couple boards to just over 3 feet that would become the breadboard ends. Breadboard ends help keep the table flat over time while allowing for expansion/contraction of the wood due to moisture/humidity changes. Here I am transferring the center of the 7 long boards into each breadboard end.

I used this jig that I made for my plunge router to cut the mortises into the breadboards. This jig can be made many ways, but basically all you need is a rectangle in something that you can clamp to the end of a board. Then you use a "template bearing" in a plunge router to route out the area under the rectangle.

The middle mortise in each breadboard is a "tight" mortise. In other words, the floating tenon won't have any wiggle room.

The remaining (6) mortises in each breadboard will be "loose" tenons. In other words, there will be about a quarter inch of play in each direction for the tenon to move left and right as the table swells wider (higher humidity) and shrinks narrower (dryer air) over time. Here you can see three marks on the template. For tight mortises, I just aligned my mark with the center one. For loose mortises, I aligned my mark with the left one and then the right one, resulting in a wider mortise.

Here you can see the middle tenon fits tightly into the middle mortise in the breadboard end.

Here (in a breadboard end mortise that isn't the middle mortise) you can see a gap that allows some wiggle room for the tenon. I repeated this process on the other breadboard end.

Here I'm routing the mortises in the table itself. All the mortises in the table itself are tight mortises. I did this on each end of the table in all 7 boards.

I cut some mahogany down to the correct width and thickness, rounded over the corners with a round over bit in the router to match the mortises, and cut them to the correct height at the miter saw. You could also round over the corners with a belt sander.

I drilled 3/8 inch holes in the breadboard to drive pins through to lock the breadboard in place.

Here I'm using the 3/8 inch drill bit to transfer a mark onto each tenon.

I drilled through the tenons about 1/32 of an inch closer to the table than the mark....

...this causes an offset that will make the pins pull the
breadboard tight toward the table, making a very strong joint. This is called "draw-boring."

I glued each tenon into the tabletop mortises, carefully removing all the excess glue so it wouldn't dry and affect the fit of the breadboard.

I cut the pins from a 3/8 inch oak dowel and rounded the ends on a belt sander. The length of the pins doesn't really matter... you'll want to cut them longer than you need, then trim them flush after gluing them in.

I used a router with an edge guide to extend the pin holes in the tenons left and right. This will allow the pins to move left and right as the table expands/contracts. This is NOT done in the middle tenon because the table will expand/contract from the middle outward.

Here you can see the hole in the middle tenon isn't extended; the remaining 6 are. This is repeated on the opposite end of the table.

Glue is only applied to the middle of the table/breadboard. The breadboard isn't glued anywhere else because then it wouldn't allow the tabletop to expand/contract. Again, this is because each board expands and contracts across its grain from the middle outward.

The middle pin is glued all the way through the tenon and the breadboard.

The remaining pins need to be able to move back and forth in the tenon, so they are driven into the tenon unglued, then glue is applied only where they will be in contact with the breadboard. This will keep them from popping out over time.

I trimmed the long edges of the table with a newly acquired track saw. Use a framing square to make sure you are at 90 degrees to the adjoining end.

I laminated 4 3/4" thick alder boards to together make the legs. After the glue dried, I squared them up on the jointer and planer. You could also just buy pre-made 4"x4"s or pre-made table legs online.

After the glue dried, I trimmed them to 29 inches using a stop block and my miter saw. The total height of the table should be around 30 inches.

After laying out the legs where I wanted them, I measured and cut the pieces for the apron, then glued in some 45 degree cross braces for support and for the legs to connect to. These measurements where just eyeballed-- it's personal preference, really. I had a 3 inch overhang all around the table.

Then I basically doubled everything up. You don't really need to measure for this... Just mark each piece in the spot that it will actually go.

I just kept measuring, cutting, and gluing in pieces to interlock and reinforce everything, clamping for 24 hours until the glue dried.

A little tough to see here, but I used a router and a rabbeting bit to cut slots in the inside of the base. These will be used to attach the tabletop to the base with metal mirror brackets (shown later). For the same reason we allow for wood movement with the breadboard ends, we don't want to just screw the base to the tabletop because it wouldn't allow expansion and contraction of the wood. These slots don't need to be anywhere specific... they will be hidden after all.

I clamped the legs in place to drill holes through the cross braces and into each leg. Again, this will hidden, so just go for it!

Then I used a 4 inch lag bolt and a washer in each leg to attach it. You can use 2 bolts here if you want, but just one is super strong.

I spackled the knots in the base, sanded up to 220 grit, and applied 3 coats of white latex paint, lightly sanding between coats

I used epoxy resin to fill any knots or imperfections in the walnut tabletop. Apply enough to overfill the holes, then sand everything flush when sanding the tabletop.

Then I sanded the tabletop with 80, 150, and 220 grit sandpaper on an orbital sander.

I used Rubio Monocoat "Pure" oil for the tabletop, per the included instructions. Just wipe it on, let it sit for 15 minutes, then wipe off the excess. It's a very easy to use product.

Lastly, I used the metal mirror brackets to attach the base to the top. Just screw in the tabs so they catch the slots that were rabbeted out before. I cut six slots, but found that 4 brackets were plenty of strength.

Some more shots of the finished table. Hope this was helpful/interesting!