I want to build a table that looks like those in the Apple store (see: http://www.oobject.com/items-to-buil...y-fetzers/952/)
They're made of plywood, but there's a twist.
The tops of the legs have a slice of end grain on top of what is essentially a tall plywood box, but I can't figure out how thick that slice of end grain is because they have veneered all four sides with long grain veneer to give it the appearance that the legs are solid.
Clearly the plywood box that is the legs has a flat surface on the top to which the slice of end grain was adhered before the veneering was done on the long sides of the leg. The question I have is, how thick should that be to keep it stable and keep it from splitting. If I have nicely dried wood, can I simply take a very thin slice of end grain (maybe 1/16 of an inch) and make sure it is uniformly and solidly glued to the plywood below? Will that keep it from cracking up? Or should that slice of end grain be thicker to keep it from splitting? My concern about attaching a thick slice of end grain is that it's going to move underneath that plywood at a different rate than the plywood slide and that may split out the veneer at the corners and also I have to attached the legs to the table with the typical bolt, going into the corner of the leg. If the slice of end grain is very thick, it will make it a little more tricky to place that bolt in a way that it will be strong.
Thoughts?