Joe Craven
05-02-2014, 7:49 PM
Good evening everyone,
I lurk around here a bit but don't post too much. On this project, though, I'm trying to be extra careful so I figured I would reach out for some help!
I have a couple of chestnut slabs that I've been working on to make a dining room table. A 2" planing bit and 1 torsion box later, I finally have the planks planed on both sides (thanks for the collective help on this site getting me this far, BTW).
Anyway, I was thinking about doing basic tongue-and-groove joints to marry the planks, but because of the limited size of the planks, and because I want some character in leaving a big hole in the middle of the table, where the planks will join (on each edge of the table) I don't have too much overlap so I'm afraid that I won't have enough surface area - especially if I ever have to put this thing on a moving truck.
That got me to thinking: maybe I can just flush-cut both joints, and use bed bolts on the underside to marry the two halves? That way if/when I move, I can disassemble the whole thing with a little more confidence that it would survive the trip. I'm mainly curious if the bed bolts will stay tight enough over time, so that I'm not under there tightening them every couple of months?
Below are some pictures - the first is where they'll overlap and the second reveals what's left of the other (uncut) slab, in case I still want to go the tongue-and-groove route. Also, I plan to hire a welder to build a 1.5-2" square tube frame for the legs, etc., which I will affix to the underside of the joined slabs after dado-ing some grooves to inset a span of the metal all the way across the underside, on each end of the table (the point I'm making is that I should have plenty of stability there).
Many thanks,
Joe
288585288586
I lurk around here a bit but don't post too much. On this project, though, I'm trying to be extra careful so I figured I would reach out for some help!
I have a couple of chestnut slabs that I've been working on to make a dining room table. A 2" planing bit and 1 torsion box later, I finally have the planks planed on both sides (thanks for the collective help on this site getting me this far, BTW).
Anyway, I was thinking about doing basic tongue-and-groove joints to marry the planks, but because of the limited size of the planks, and because I want some character in leaving a big hole in the middle of the table, where the planks will join (on each edge of the table) I don't have too much overlap so I'm afraid that I won't have enough surface area - especially if I ever have to put this thing on a moving truck.
That got me to thinking: maybe I can just flush-cut both joints, and use bed bolts on the underside to marry the two halves? That way if/when I move, I can disassemble the whole thing with a little more confidence that it would survive the trip. I'm mainly curious if the bed bolts will stay tight enough over time, so that I'm not under there tightening them every couple of months?
Below are some pictures - the first is where they'll overlap and the second reveals what's left of the other (uncut) slab, in case I still want to go the tongue-and-groove route. Also, I plan to hire a welder to build a 1.5-2" square tube frame for the legs, etc., which I will affix to the underside of the joined slabs after dado-ing some grooves to inset a span of the metal all the way across the underside, on each end of the table (the point I'm making is that I should have plenty of stability there).
Many thanks,
Joe
288585288586