This table was inspired by the Peter Southall table on the back cover of fine woodworking Oct 2008.  My wife was complaining about our wobbly old cheap ikea dining table and expressed a desire for a “real” table for christmas.  She had definite requirements in that it had to be a “regular” size for normal everyday use but had to be able to extend for larger family gatherings. 

I had access to a large pile of tongue and groove fir pannelling left over from a construction job.  For the base, the T&Gs were cut off and the planks planed down to 3/8″ and steam bent.  This was my first attempt at steam bending and fortunately I had sufficient extras for a few “mistakes and failures”.  My steamer comprised an old electric kettle connected to a 4″ PVC drain pipe and I was able to steam 2 planks at a time without problems.  As in Peter Southall’s table I used 6″ copper rivets and roves (extremely difficult to locate) and again a new skill (riveting) was learnt.   (its amazing what you can learn from google!).  Although visually impressive (well anyway, I think so) the base was relatively simple to construct once the steaming and riveting had been worked out.

The top design was a whole different story.  My wife’s single requirement was that the table must be extendable.  The same T&G planks were used for the top and the design comprises two interlocking “S” shapes made up of mitred pieces glued/screwed to a plywood base.  As I didn’t want to break the pattern in the middle I had to figure out how to extend the table at the ends.  For this I used heavy duty (250 lb) drawer slides which allow the end plank to slide out and for the leaf extensions to drop in.  Although the leaves are quite heavy, once the table is locked back in place there is no vertical movement at the ends of the table.  In order to hide the extension mechanism i had to have false sides on the main table and decided to work the slat effect from the legs into the edges by using 4 horizontal 3/8″ slates on the edges.

The first time we used it was for dinner on christmas eve with 12 people seated comfortable around it. 

PS.  one old wobby ikea table going free to a good home!

 

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