Edges Around Tabletops

[Eddie Ormerod]

I see all these YouTube videos of people making Farmhouse tables and they're putting a wide edge around the top to make it look thick. I've tried this several times and 50% of the time, the edge breaks off due to the top moving.
Does anyone else do this and what was your outcome?

Eddie

[Mel Fulks]

I consider the thick tops just a current style. I’ve see old “primitive “ tables with tops about one inch thick tapered thin from apron to top edge. I think that’s a better look.

[Jim Becker]

If you mean edge banding and it's being wrapped around all four sides of the table, yea...it's going to break from seasonal movement. Wood expands across the grain "yugely" more than it does lengthwise. That's why breadboard ends have to be attached in a way that permits expansion. If you want to work with thinner material yet have that thick board look, a waterfall edge along the length (45º miters) with breadboard ends of thicker material to allow for movement gets you there.

[Charles Lent]

Edging a piece of wood by gluing a second layer strip around the bottom edges to make it look thicker, is possible, but you need to keep the grain of this added wood running the same direction as the grain in the upper piece. This means that the pieces that you add to the ends need to have their grain lines running side to side, and not end to end.

When I have wanted to do this, I started with a glued up panel that was wider and longer than the finished size by 2X the width of the desired final edge pieces.. I then cut the front and back strips from each side of this glued up panel, marking the top surface at the cut so I could just fold it over when gluing it under the glued up panel. I did this for both long edges, then made similar cuts from both ends of the glued up panel, again marking them and the panel so that I could glue them as if folded over on the under side of the panel. With the 4 pieces cut free from the glued up panel I then began the glue-up of them, keeping each added piece oriented as if just folded over the edge of the main glued up panel. This keeps the edge of the panel and the strip both with matching grain to where it is being added, since the two edges were the same wood and once touching each other before the saw cut. Do this with all four edges and the joint between the added pieces and the glued up panel will become almost invisible in the final assembly. Of course, you will need to trim the end pieces slightly to fit tightly between the long side pieces, but when you finish, the grain of all of these pieces will match the grain of the part of the panel that it is now glued to. Not only will all edges expand and contract without breaking, but you will have made the edge of the upper and lower wood match each other, making the joint between them almost invisible.

A glue-up where the grain of the pieces cross each other will break because they don't expand and contract in the same direction. A glue-up where the grain of both pieces being glued together run in the same direction with each other will not break when glued together because they both expand and contract at the same rate, if they are both the same or similar kinds of wood. Cutting these pieces from the edges of the original wood panel will not only keep the grain running in the same direction, but can also maintain a very close match between them to make the glued joint almost invisible. You will end up with a glued up panel that is 2X as thick around the edges as the panel that you started with, except the center area of this panel will be 1/2 the thickness of the edge area.

I hope I didn't loose anyone with this explanation.

Charley

[Aaron Rosenthal]

Thank you Charles. I was looking at this problem myself and your explanation cleared the air.

[Eddie Ormerod]

I'll have to re-read that several times. 😂