Metal Table Base

[Steve Strohm]

Hi All - this forum is very helpful in the past few months of my browsing. usually i'm able to find answers to my q's but not for this one.

I was at a recycle yard and saw a metal table base for dirt cheap and grabbed it knowing I needed a dining table in the new apartment.

I've made the table top and now need a plan for attaching it to this base, which is a welded rectangle frame with 4 legs. Made out of 2 inch square tubing. There are pre drilled holes in the top, so my plan was to bolt on strips of 1/2" thick poplar around the base (think of someone lining a public toilet bowl with toilet paper) and then attaching the top to the poplar with the cleats from rockler. thoughts on this idea? I dont have a tool to cut slits into the metal frame for the cleats, which was my other idea. Thanks in advance!


Steve

[Jamie Buxton]

A pic would help.

[glenn bradley]

Agree. I am not quite getting it. If the top sets o the metal portions couldn't you just drill oversized holes and snug some screws through these?

[Andrew Hughes]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that doesn't understand.Thought I was loseing the last little bit of my mind.

[Steve Strohm]

i'll post some pics tonight, hopefully. sorry for the terrible desciption



Steve

[Steve Strohm]

here is a terrible shot of the base:

http://i64.tinypic.com/2hnm0q1.jpg

[Earl McLain]

How tall is the frame? Our dining table top is right at 30" from the floor, and it's a very comfortable height for eating (too comfortable--i eat too much!!). A 3/4" mounting board and 3/4" top add 1 1/2" to the height of the metal frame.
earl

[Steve Strohm]

How tall is the frame? Our dining table top is right at 30" from the floor, and it's a very comfortable height for eating (too comfortable--i eat too much!!). A 3/4" mounting board and 3/4" top add 1 1/2" to the height of the metal frame.
earl

it measures at 28 inches, I have 1 3/4" oak for the top and 1/2 inch poplar for bolting to the frame. do you think that works or is there a better way to attach the top to this base?

[Jamie Buxton]

I'm still not clear about the holes you mention in your original post. But what I'd do is drill vertically through those horizontal steel tubes, and run wood screws up through the drilled holes into the wood table top.

If the table top is solid lumber (as contrasted to plywood), you should allow for hygroscopic movement of the wood. Make the holes through the steel larger than the diameter of the wood screws, and put a washer under of the head of the screw. Snug the screws up, but don't really honk on them. This should allow the wood to expand and contract across the grain.

[Steve Strohm]

I'm still not clear about the holes you mention in your original post. But what I'd do is drill vertically through those horizontal steel tubes, and run wood screws up through the drilled holes into the wood table top.

If the table top is solid lumber (as contrasted to plywood), you should allow for hygroscopic movement of the wood. Make the holes through the steel larger than the diameter of the wood screws, and put a washer under of the head of the screw. Snug the screws up, but don't really honk on them. This should allow the wood to expand and contract across the grain.

The holes are in the top vertically right now. I did not even think of that as an option, thank you. That seems like something worth looking into. table top is red oak, 30" wide (made up of three 2x10's) thinking the movement would be about a quarter of an inch?