Hey everyone,
I’m a little stuck as I’ve almost finished a commission for a client who asked me to make them a dining table. I’m very happy with it apart from once putting the top on it wobbles a little too much for my liking. As in the leg posts seem to reverberate. My clients choose Marcus Soto’s design from August 2017 whilst leafing through my old FW collection. I see now I have slimmed down the leg posts maybe a little too much. I’d appreciate some pointers or any ideas as to how I steady the top. I have thought about inserting 5mm flat carbon fibre bars on between the leg posts. See what you think?
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Water under the bridge, but IMO single post trestle for a table that heavy is a design flaw. My first thought was gussets at the top, but I still think the issue is the single post.
Not sure how rigid CF is. My second thought was flat steel inserted in the gap, but I’m not sure how much flex there is in that. Or maybe a way to rabbet in a section of T steel and hide it.
Or, maybe add a board to each side, creating a T shaped support?
Probably not that helpful but just a couple ideas.
Thanks for your thoughts. The T section on each side would work best I think, but will see if the carbon fibre rods I’ve ordered do anything first.
You need a couple of diagonal of some kind on each end. It's just too easily wobbled as it is.
Diagonals would do it I agree, just not sure the client will like it. It may be what has to happen in the end.
If the leg were wider, it would act as a diagonal for itself. But as narrow as it is, it's just going to let the top rock back and forth.
I recommend that you not do simple straight diagonal supports, but that you curve them up and outward so that at the end of the curve it matches the diagonal at the top. That way, it might look like an intended design element.
Combining the twin vertical posts on each end will go a long way towards making the posts rigid. Lose the gap between them by cutting a shallow dado in each and glue in a heavy spline (3/4" thick?) You won't see through it any more but the shadow line will remain.
Run the grain of the spline counter to the legs.
I take it you have not yet glued everything together, correct?
With this design, the joint between the twin posts and top cross rail is all there is to resist side to side tipping of the table top. As MJ suggested tying the twin posts together might help.
Nice work and design. Joining the crowd here and thinking, 1) a thick spline between the leg post, and 2) gussets between the the post and the top crossrail. If they are dadoed in between the two, they might add the rigidity you need without detracting too much from the design.
Hi all, thanks a lot for your thoughts. I agree with all of you who say a spline in the gap, in fact if I were to build it again, the post would be a solid piece with a groove up the middle. However I made the splines and clamped them in hard and the movement didn’t decrease all that much. It was a proces of trial and error. The client came to see and we agreed on diagonal support to steady thing. I would have loved to add a curve to and that’s something I will do if I build this design again. This time though time and budget just didn’t allow for it. Anyway it’s all done now and being delivered tomorrow just in time for Christmas. Merry Christmas to all!!
Well done. I personally like the design more with the supports than before.
Nice!
Nice fix. Looks great, and I'm sure it's much more stable.
Thanks for the update. Nice outcome ..
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