Table leg question: mounting plates and wood movement

[Aaron Liebling]

If I had a glued up top and freestanding legs attached with metal mounting plates (no apron), do I need to provide an outlet for wood movement?

I've been assuming yes, but since the legs are not attached to one another across the grain of the wood, would the legs simply slide along the floor as the wood moved? That said, it seems like it's safer to account for wood movement, but with my current design, it would be nice not to have to.

[Stewart Lang]

Nope. If each leg is separate and not connected to one another, then you don't have to worry about wood movement. The leg will just move with the top :)

[Aaron Liebling]

Theme Stewart! Makes my life much easier!

[Prashun Patel]

Of course, you won't have anything to keep the table flat. I've made some tables with battens to help keep them flat. YMMV.

[Aaron Liebling]

This is actually holding a solid wood cabinet, so no worries about keeping it flat. I just used the table as the common example. It's also brass rod instead of a mounting plate, but again, the same from a mechanical perspective.

I'll post up a photo when it's done.

[Aaron Liebling]

Tangential (so to speak) question: If you had two horizontal glued-up panels (like shelves) of the same wood with grain in the same orientation, attaching them with vertical posts (say with mortises in the shelves and tenons at each end of the vertical post) should be fine (top and bottom shelves will move together).

Does the answer change if the shelves differ significantly in thickness?