I've built a couple of dining tables in the past but they had four legs. For the more confined space in this house dictating a smaller table I decided to use a pedestal. The wood is all hard maple and the table is 51 inches square.
table overall.jpg
Since the table is on hardwood flooring and I didn't want it to move easily so I recessed silicon feet on the bottom ends of each foot.
pedestal.jpg
The top of the pedestal was cross dado'd to accept a support cross piece. I made a 1/2 inch diameter metal "bullet" that is pressed into the middle of the cross support. A loose fit matching hole was recessed in the middle of the bottom of the top to make it easier to locate the top for assembly. This picture shows the support on the unfinished bottom where I could locate the center with diagonal lines before rounding the corners of the top.
cross support.jpg
Since I am fortunate to also be a machinist I used my mill to make the recessed slots to account for wood movement. I ended up with a total of 8 slots.
support slots.jpg
I bought 5/4 stock for the top expecting to end up with a 1 inch top but issues with my drum sander (now replaced) forced me to end up with a 7/8 inch top. The finish starts with a coat of dewaxed shellac followed by a light color gel stain. I like using General Finishes products so next was 2 coats of Seal-A-Cell followed by 5 coats of Arm-R-Seal oil based semi gloss.