Replies

1. 
   RalphBarker | Sep 28, 2010 11:06am | #1

   the reverse

   If you think of the breadboard end as the mortise, and the table top as the tenon, the elongated holes would go in the tenon, hidden inside the mortise. Remember, the breadboard end is long grain, and the tenons on the table top are cross grain, so the latter will have the greater expansion/contraction factor.

1. 
   swenson | Sep 28, 2010 11:29am | #2

   Be careful...

   When you elongate the holes in the tenons be careful to make them parallel to the width of the tenon. If the elongation gets any closer to the outside edge you will get a loose breadboard. FWW has some good articles on breadboard ends. Looking at the pictures will help lots more than reading about them.

1. 
   swenson | Sep 28, 2010 11:35am | #3

   Looking down into the mortises and at the drilled tennons. 

   
1. 
   RalphBarker | Sep 28, 2010 11:43am | #4

   Good example

   That's a good example, and shows the wood-movement strategy appropriate for a dining table. The center is held constant, and the seasonal movement of top is distributed equally toward both sides. For a desk or table situated against a wall, one might want to hold the front edge constant and direct all movement toward the rear edge, in which case the center and rear tenon holes would be elongated.

2. 
   swenson | Sep 28, 2010 11:51am | #5

   Perhaps your problem is that you are thinking of a tenon that exactly fits snugly into a mortise.  Breadboard tenons do not.  they must have room to move side to side as the wood expands and contracts, and while they are snug top to bottom, they are loose side to side.

   
1. 
   stumpknocker | Sep 29, 2010 03:48pm | #6

   Breadboard

   Thanks guys, the explanation and the pictures really helps.

2. 
   swenson | Sep 29, 2010 06:12pm | #7

   Better pix.

   There are better pictures in back articles of FWW than the old ones I found in my shop files.  I'm not too sure what you have read about breadboards but there is a lot more than we have covered here, such as gluing only the center of the center tennon.  The only time I do breadboard ends is when my wife or other relatives ask for them.  As the seasons change, and humidity changes, the ends stand proud of the table top sides, or the sides stand proud of the ends.  In my case I have made them in VA and sent them to my son's in Maine and you really see the size of the table change from season to season and it never looks exactly right as it did when it left the shop.  Good luck.

3. 
   RalphBarker | Sep 29, 2010 06:45pm | #8

   I love the look of freshly-assembled breadboard ends. But, as you say, it is seldom exactly right after that.

4. 
   stumpknocker | Oct 01, 2010 07:11am | #9

   Breadboard

   Well to make things even more complicated, what happens if you frame the table top?  How do you handle the sides?  For example, lets say you used different wood for the breadboard and sides. Would you treat the whole table top as a panel?

5. 
   RalphBarker | Oct 01, 2010 11:27am | #10

   As Mother said . . .

    . . . it depends.  ;-)

   If the "frame" is just contrasting strips along the sides of the table, and the BB ends are the other "frame" members, the "panel" is just wider by 2x the width of the contrasting pieces. If the contrasting pieces are around the entire original panel, I think you have a recipe for disaster, since the "frame" at the ends won't expand/contract at the same rate as the center members of the panel. You could, however, add the end frame elements to the BB ends, so the end contrasting strips become part of the BB ends, with the mortises extending through the contrasting strip. Ideally, the contrasting strip should have the same longitudinal expansion coefficient as the wood of the BB end, though. Otherwise, that joint may fail, as well.

2. 
   RalphBarker | Oct 01, 2010 11:33am | #11

   slippin' and slidin'

   I've thought about making a sleeve that would wrap the center of the BB end, and then splitting the BB end in the middle. Then, the two sections of the BB end could move with the center panel of the table, and the gap would be hidden by the sleeve. Copper or bronze might be nice for the sleeve. ;-)

3. 
   swenson | Oct 01, 2010 11:45am | #12

   Hi oldusty

   An observation from an old film editor.  One jump cut was a mistake, two were two mistakes, three or more was art.  I won't go into what a film jump cut was but in TV news it was a bad thing until you made a bunch of 'em in a row, then the producers loved it.

   I don't make tables that need breadboard ends to stay flat and I never used them until my son and daughter in law asked me to make a dining room table out of reclaimed fence boards and insisted on a breadboard end.  Next thing my wife decided she liked the look and that we needed a kitchen table with the same thing.  Over the seasons both tables always seem to have the ends proud by a hair or by 1/4 inch, never do the ends fall back behind the table edge.  They both left the shop with even edges so I guess the humidity in the shop made the table top as wide as it was ever going to get.  So I guess I was accentuating and embellishing without even knowing it.

   Along the same line of thought, I was once turning a very thin bowl.  As it got thinner and thinner I decided to see how thin I could get before tearing thru the side.  As it got close to paper thin, well cardboard thin maybe, I broke thru the bottom of the side and left a hole about three inches long by 1/2 inch wide.  I fired up a soldering iron and burned two more identical holes spaced evenly around the bowl.  Instant art.  I still have it on display.  Date on the bottom is 1994.

   Thanks for the input.  I never knew about the G&G splines

   
1. 
   RalphBarker | Oct 02, 2010 01:42am | #13

   tables

   The cherry table is nice, but that oak table is gorgeous.

1. 
   swenson | Oct 02, 2010 10:38am | #14

   Thanks RalphB that was the first BB end I ever made.  There are two "company boards" that fit onto each end to make the whole works nine something feet long.  The company  boards run the same direction as the  BB ends but are only used once or twice a year.