So you want to build a farm table?
Hi,
My name is Lee and I am a hobbyist woodworker. This is my first post and I hope you'll be kind. I have noticed on Pinterest that quite a few people are looking to build a farm table for their homes and one of prevailing methods is to use lumber from your local home center. I'd like to share my experience in building one.
As I said I am a hobbyist. Basically, my wife Linda says "Honey? I think I'd like a ........" and then I go build it. Many times it requires a fair amount of research on the techniques and then the practical application. What I like to build, when I'm not on the home projects is electric guitars. But they are a discussion for another day.
I'd like to break this down into the basic operations that go into making a table and maybe I can even impart some creative details that can inspire you to make something other than four straight legs with a top. I'll try keep the lessons short and try to publish a new one on a regular schedule. I hope you will enjoy.
I am making an assumption and I know what that typically represents. That I am usually wrong. But since you've probably found this on Pinterest, you are likely to be endeavoring on your first major furniture project, looking for an less expensive alternative to going to the local furniture store. Or perhaps you like the old time look and feel of a farm table and it fits your style. Whatever the reason, this project was a lot of fun and I think the food tastes better when we sit down to dinner.
February 2018-The look of love. We'll be married 37 years at the end of the month.
Lesson 1-Design
One of the things that I was reading, is that people were having issues with the top warping and twisting. The goal of taking on this project is to produce a level, non-wobbly, flat, shiny topped table, that you can be proud of to display and use in your home. For a first furniture project, tables are a good place to start, but they do demand certain things.
Whether you realize it or not, you are endeavoring to make a piece of custom furniture. Why custom? It probably has to fit in a particular space, either because the space is limited or very large and needs to be filled or maybe in between. A kitchen/dining room table is a big piece of furniture and the bigger the project the more mistakes you'll make. I have found that woodworking is an exercise in managing mistakes. You will make them, so don't fret, we will try to work through them.
What are the dimensions of a kitchen table? Who knows? General rules of furniture construction say that they can be 29" to 32" tall to the top of the table, 24" to 42" wide and however long you care to make them.
The 29" to 32" tall range is where most people are comfortable when seated. The apron, or that piece that joins the four legs together has to be high enough so that your chairs or possibly your legs can comfortably slide underneath. Our dining room is a converted bedroom that is 9-feet wide by 12-feet long, so our table couldn't be a monster. We had a 46" round table in there for years, but my pet peeve was that I, who sits against the back wall, couldn't get around the table if someone was seated along the long side of the room. So, our table ended up 32" wide. So, when I set out to design ours, I looked at our chairs, room, and the other table to create the overall size of the table. This allowed about 36" clearance on a side, so that when everybody was seated, anybody could get up from the table, to go get more water or whatever. The final dimensions ended up at 32" x 62" and 32" tall. It will seat 6 and I guess I like my food close to my mouth.
Lesson 2-Materials
The table you see was made entirely from wood sourced at Home Depot over a period of a couple of months. Many other folks have written that dimensional building lumber can't be used to make furniture. You can if you know what you are looking for. There are two issues with. building lumber. First, although it says kiln dried, it is only dried to about 18% moisture content. The second is that it is cut from the log to maximize the yield from the log.
Typically, what is called cabinet lumber, cherry, oak, mahogany etc. is dried to about 6% moisture content, which make it more stable. Also, because these woods are cut from deciduous trees, they grow slower and the grain is typically finer. Pine or building lumber are cut from coniferous trees which grow more quickly and typically have more space between the growth rings. Keep growth rings at the top of your head for a bit, you are going to use them. For our project I selected Douglas Fir and looked for boards that were stamped accordingly. Where the stamp below says WP, this means White Pine. DF, means Douglas Fir. Douglas Fir is a bit harder and heavier than White Pine and has a bit more dent resistance, hence my choice.
Board Grading Stamp
I think that the S-DRY means sort of dry.
What you are going to want to select from your lumber yard are boards that were quarter sawn. What is this you ask? Without trying to describe the various ways a board can be cut from the log, what you want are boards that that have the growth rings that run pretty straight up & down through the thickness of the board. See the picture above. What you'll end up doing is sorting through the piles looking for boards that meet your criteria. This type of sawing produces a board that is more stable in its dimensions that flat sawn boards. When a board that is quarter sawn, releases or gains moisture it expands across its face, rather than across its thickness. The grain is also quite straight and the cupping and bowing is reduced.
Many of the boards that I selected were 2" x 10"s or 2" x 12"s, with a few 2" x 4"s thrown in. I think all in all I spent about $200.00 for lumber on this project. I also checked them for warping, cupping, bowing and twist. Basically, you want them as straight as possible. Don't be afraid to walk away from the lumber yard empty handed if they don't have what you are looking for. Come back another day and maybe you'll hit the jackpot. You will spend more time and energy trying to fix a warped board than it's worth.
You will find that only certain sections of a board will display the characteristics that you're looking for. You will need to refer to your design to determine how many of these jewels you'll need, to create the parts for your table. So on a 2 x 10, that's 8-feet long you might find that 4 1/2" wide x 6' long section of the board exhibits what you are looking for. The rest is pretty much firewood.
When you get your treasures home, you will want to put them in a safe place. The garage is fine, but not on the floor. As you can see you'll end up with a pretty good pile of sticks. Because they have more moisture than you want, they need to dry for a while. So, place them up off the floor and between each layer you'll place a what is called a sticker. Not your daughters My Little Pony ones. These are just thin 1/4" or so pieces of wood that create air space between the layers. Over 8-feet, four or five of them should do. Now you wait. How long you ask? Good question. I don't know. If you live in the desert southwest a couple of months. If you live where I do, in Michigan it took about 6-months for more moisture to escape from the boards. I found from a company called Lee Valley and they have a low cost wood moisture meter that seems to work pretty well. When you get to about 7 or 8% you are pretty good to go.
Next issue will be on tools. Till next time. Be safe.
My name is Lee and I am a hobbyist woodworker. This is my first post and I hope you'll be kind. I have noticed on Pinterest that quite a few people are looking to build a farm table for their homes and one of prevailing methods is to use lumber from your local home center. I'd like to share my experience in building one.
As I said I am a hobbyist. Basically, my wife Linda says "Honey? I think I'd like a ........" and then I go build it. Many times it requires a fair amount of research on the techniques and then the practical application. What I like to build, when I'm not on the home projects is electric guitars. But they are a discussion for another day.
I'd like to break this down into the basic operations that go into making a table and maybe I can even impart some creative details that can inspire you to make something other than four straight legs with a top. I'll try keep the lessons short and try to publish a new one on a regular schedule. I hope you will enjoy.
I am making an assumption and I know what that typically represents. That I am usually wrong. But since you've probably found this on Pinterest, you are likely to be endeavoring on your first major furniture project, looking for an less expensive alternative to going to the local furniture store. Or perhaps you like the old time look and feel of a farm table and it fits your style. Whatever the reason, this project was a lot of fun and I think the food tastes better when we sit down to dinner.
Lesson 1-Design
One of the things that I was reading, is that people were having issues with the top warping and twisting. The goal of taking on this project is to produce a level, non-wobbly, flat, shiny topped table, that you can be proud of to display and use in your home. For a first furniture project, tables are a good place to start, but they do demand certain things.
Whether you realize it or not, you are endeavoring to make a piece of custom furniture. Why custom? It probably has to fit in a particular space, either because the space is limited or very large and needs to be filled or maybe in between. A kitchen/dining room table is a big piece of furniture and the bigger the project the more mistakes you'll make. I have found that woodworking is an exercise in managing mistakes. You will make them, so don't fret, we will try to work through them.
What are the dimensions of a kitchen table? Who knows? General rules of furniture construction say that they can be 29" to 32" tall to the top of the table, 24" to 42" wide and however long you care to make them.
The 29" to 32" tall range is where most people are comfortable when seated. The apron, or that piece that joins the four legs together has to be high enough so that your chairs or possibly your legs can comfortably slide underneath. Our dining room is a converted bedroom that is 9-feet wide by 12-feet long, so our table couldn't be a monster. We had a 46" round table in there for years, but my pet peeve was that I, who sits against the back wall, couldn't get around the table if someone was seated along the long side of the room. So, our table ended up 32" wide. So, when I set out to design ours, I looked at our chairs, room, and the other table to create the overall size of the table. This allowed about 36" clearance on a side, so that when everybody was seated, anybody could get up from the table, to go get more water or whatever. The final dimensions ended up at 32" x 62" and 32" tall. It will seat 6 and I guess I like my food close to my mouth.
Lesson 2-Materials
The table you see was made entirely from wood sourced at Home Depot over a period of a couple of months. Many other folks have written that dimensional building lumber can't be used to make furniture. You can if you know what you are looking for. There are two issues with. building lumber. First, although it says kiln dried, it is only dried to about 18% moisture content. The second is that it is cut from the log to maximize the yield from the log.
Typically, what is called cabinet lumber, cherry, oak, mahogany etc. is dried to about 6% moisture content, which make it more stable. Also, because these woods are cut from deciduous trees, they grow slower and the grain is typically finer. Pine or building lumber are cut from coniferous trees which grow more quickly and typically have more space between the growth rings. Keep growth rings at the top of your head for a bit, you are going to use them. For our project I selected Douglas Fir and looked for boards that were stamped accordingly. Where the stamp below says WP, this means White Pine. DF, means Douglas Fir. Douglas Fir is a bit harder and heavier than White Pine and has a bit more dent resistance, hence my choice.
Board Grading Stamp
I think that the S-DRY means sort of dry.
What you are going to want to select from your lumber yard are boards that were quarter sawn. What is this you ask? Without trying to describe the various ways a board can be cut from the log, what you want are boards that that have the growth rings that run pretty straight up & down through the thickness of the board. See the picture above. What you'll end up doing is sorting through the piles looking for boards that meet your criteria. This type of sawing produces a board that is more stable in its dimensions that flat sawn boards. When a board that is quarter sawn, releases or gains moisture it expands across its face, rather than across its thickness. The grain is also quite straight and the cupping and bowing is reduced.
Many of the boards that I selected were 2" x 10"s or 2" x 12"s, with a few 2" x 4"s thrown in. I think all in all I spent about $200.00 for lumber on this project. I also checked them for warping, cupping, bowing and twist. Basically, you want them as straight as possible. Don't be afraid to walk away from the lumber yard empty handed if they don't have what you are looking for. Come back another day and maybe you'll hit the jackpot. You will spend more time and energy trying to fix a warped board than it's worth.
You will find that only certain sections of a board will display the characteristics that you're looking for. You will need to refer to your design to determine how many of these jewels you'll need, to create the parts for your table. So on a 2 x 10, that's 8-feet long you might find that 4 1/2" wide x 6' long section of the board exhibits what you are looking for. The rest is pretty much firewood.
The board pictured above would yield a section of quarter sawn on the right hand side that is about 2 1/2" wide and pretty much the length of the board.
When you get your treasures home, you will want to put them in a safe place. The garage is fine, but not on the floor. As you can see you'll end up with a pretty good pile of sticks. Because they have more moisture than you want, they need to dry for a while. So, place them up off the floor and between each layer you'll place a what is called a sticker. Not your daughters My Little Pony ones. These are just thin 1/4" or so pieces of wood that create air space between the layers. Over 8-feet, four or five of them should do. Now you wait. How long you ask? Good question. I don't know. If you live in the desert southwest a couple of months. If you live where I do, in Michigan it took about 6-months for more moisture to escape from the boards. I found from a company called Lee Valley and they have a low cost wood moisture meter that seems to work pretty well. When you get to about 7 or 8% you are pretty good to go.
Next issue will be on tools. Till next time. Be safe.
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