Combining some of the best features of Shaker and Country styles, this trestle table will be a delight in any dining room – whether set for a weekday dinner or a holiday feast.
When my wife and I were ready for a new dining table, we knew we wanted something that would seat six comfortably and allow space for a sideboard and cupboard in our modest dining room. We liked the beautiful proportions of Shaker trestle tables but wanted to incorporate ornamental turning and scrollwork frowned upon by Shaker religious doctrine. In spite of our admiration of Shaker furniture, some Country Style fanciness was exactly what our dining room needed.
Trestle tables have certain construction characteristics that should be considered. One of the best features of a trestle table is that there are no table skirts to pinch your fingers when you pull an armchair up to the table. However, because the top isn’t pulled flat against four table skirts, it needs additional structural support to prevent cupping. This support can take the form of cleats or breadboard ends. The top is narrow compared to four-legged tables to minimize stress on the leg-to-main-beam joint, but the side-to-side space allowed for each person is a comfortable 30".
In a small shop, I believe the most efficient work is accomplished using a combination of power and hand tools. As an instructor, I emphasize hand-tool methods partly because these are the methods most in danger of being forgotten, but also because they’re often the most efficient choice for the average woodworking hobbyist. I encourage dedicated power tool users to try some of the hand tool methods described here. You may be impressed by your increased efficiency and accuracy, and pleasantly surprised by the added enjoyment.
Getting started
The top carries the greatest visual impact, so select your stock carefully. I chose 4/4 quartersawn red oak for the tabletop primarily for its beautiful flecked grain patterns. Quartersawn lumber also resists warping and twisting with humidity changes. If you don’t like quartersawn grain, you can achieve similar stability with rift-sawn oak. Figured cherry or maple would also make a good choice, but whatever you choose, get the straightest boards you can find.
Crosscut the boards for the top to a length of 84" in widths that, when placed side by side, span a distance of at least 32".
Place these boards aside for now.
The base is poplar, which shapes easily with both hand and power tools. Along with basswood, pine and maple, it accepts a painted finish extremely well. You can glue up the thick stock from smaller boards, but because it’s painted you don’t have to worry about abrupt changes in grain showing at the glue joints.
If you have a source of 4x4 stock, you’re good to go for the legs. If not, you’ll need to glue up thinner boards to create the leg and feet blanks, as I did with a quantity of 6/4 material. Cut the two 4x4 leg blanks to 24".
Likewise, if you have access to thick working stock, creating the two foot blanks is just a matter of cutting them to 21/4" x 6" x 25". If not, you’ll need to glue them up before cutting them to size.
For the main beam, thickness a 51/4" x 72" board to 13/8" thick. Label it as the main beam and place it aside for now. The crossbeams also come from 13/8" stock, and should be cut to 5" x 22".
The only additional materials needed to complete the table are some 3/8" dowels and figure-8 clips to connect the top and base.
From the top down
Place the boards that will become the top side-by-side, trying several combinations before deciding on their best orientation and marking the boards with a triangle (Fig. 1).
To create butt joints when gluing up the top, cut the edges of the boards square to the face. You power users can do this on the jointer. To do it by hand, clamp each board in the bench vise and use a jointer plane to cut each board square with its face (For additional tips on doing this task by hand, see “Panel making basics” on page 30.)
Dry-clamp the boards together and inspect the joints. If all is well, apply glue and clamp them up, alternating the position of the clamps above and below the top. Use four boards clamped across the top to help maintain flatness during the glue up (Fig. 2). Waxing the boards prevents them from adhering to the top.
When dry, scrape off any dried glue in preparation for flattening the top. A wide belt sander, portable belt sander or power planer are common power choices for flattening, but I used a No. 7 jointer plane to shave at right angles to the grain, removing any ridges between boards. Again, refer to “Panel making basics” for details on how this is done.
Dovetailing the breadboards can, of course, be done on a router table, but once again I’m going with hand tools. The breadboards are made of two 5/8" boards with a portion of the socket cut into each of them with a dovetail plane. Set the plane’s fence to cut a dovetail 1/2" wide. Set a marking gauge to cut a gauge line 5/16" into one of these boards, clamp it to your bench and plane to the gauge line with the dovetail plane (Fig. 3). Clamp the other 5/8" thick board to your bench, and plane the remaining portion of the socket into this board. This second board doesn’t need a gauge line, because you will plane until this portion of the dovetail socket intersects the existing edge of the board.
Start cutting the dovetails onto the ends of the top by first extending the nicker cutter of the dovetail plane to score across the grain in front of the main cutter. Clamp the two boards that comprise the breadboard together and set the pins of your mortise gauge to the widest part of the dovetail socket (Fig. 4). Set the fence of the mortise gauge so that when the breadboard is installed, it will stand proud of the tabletop by about 1/16". This will ensure that the breadboards are trimmed flush with the top and not vice versa. Cut two gauge lines into the endgrain of the top, making sure to reference the fence of the gauge against the top surface (Fig. 7). Without adjusting the fence setting of the dovetail plane, cut the dovetails into the ends of the top until you reach your gauge lines (Fig. 6).
Dry-clamp the breadboards in place, and verify that they’re tight against each other and that the dovetail fits the socket tightly. Trim either the dovetail or the inside surface of the lower half of the breadboard as necessary to create a good fit.
Apply glue to the inside surfaces of the breadboards and wax to the dovetail and socket to ensure that the dovetail will float within the socket. After the glue dries, use a pencil and square to define the final length of the breadboard and cut it to length (Fig. 7).
Leave the breadboards protruding 3/8" from each side if you’re building in dry weather and about 1/4" in humid weather. This will allow the top to expand as humidity rises without extending past the ends of the breadboards. Center the breadboards with respect to the top, then drill a pilot hole at an angle for a nail that will secure the center of the breadboard to the top. Drive this nail into place (Fig. 8). Trim the outside surface of the breadboards with a plane until they appear to be one board.
In his book “Illustrated Guide to Shaker Furniture,” Robert F. W. Meader writes, “Breadboard ends seldom were flush with the sides of the top – indeed, seldom should have been. Wood, even long and thoroughly seasoned wood, always moves, expanding in damp weather and contracting in dry … These ends should never be trimmed flush with the sides of the table, however great the temptation on the part of the tidy-minded.”
I use a finely tuned and freshly sharpened Stanley No. 41/2 to remove thin shavings in the direction of the grain of the top to remove the scalloping left by the jointer plane and across the grain of the breadboards to flush them up with the rest of the top. I then use a Stanley No. 80 cabinet scraper cutting in the direction of the grain to further smooth the top (Fig. 9). If your plane causes tearout, switch to the cabinet scraper for final flattening. Finally, I sand the top with a 5" random orbit sander starting with 150-grit and ending with 220-grit.
Legs
My turning skills are beyond beginner, but far from expert – I’m a cabinetmaker who occasionally turns, not a turner who occasionally makes cabinets. I simply don’t practice turning enough to maintain the competency I’d like. Highly experienced turners will likely wince as they read the sections on turning, but beginners and intermediates will find methods that work even if they aren’t technically the best methods.
Before turning the legs, it’s easier to cut the cheeks of the bridle joints while the blank is still square. Lay out the lengths of the bridle joint sockets with a pencil and mortise gauge, with the distance between the pins set to 1". I cut the cheeks of the bridle joint sockets using an eight-tooth-per-inch ripsaw. Saw on the waste side of the gauge line, and be sure to stop shy of your marks (Fig. 10). Leave the waste between your cuts so that the lathe centers can support the legs as they are turned.
Shape the blank on the lathe with a 1" roughing gouge. I find it helpful to create a story stick to lay out the turning with pencil lines (Fig. 11). Use a parting tool, calipers and a steel ruler to turn the major and minor diameters of the leg and to establish length. When using calipers with a lathe, be sure to grind the tips into a rounded shape so they don’t catch into the wood and come flying at you.
Use a 3/4" skew to peel away waste wood before cutting the coves, then a 3/4" gouge to turn the cove in several cuts moving from the large diameter of the cove to small diameter center of the cove. Alternate cuts so that you start from the left shoulder then the right shoulder of the cove, each time ending in the center with the gouge on its back.
Use a 3/4" skew chisel to peel the waste wood in preparation for cutting the bead. I’m not as skilled as I’d like at rolling beads using a skew, so I use a 1/2" round-nose scraper to shape them.
Begin turning the vase shape of the leg by first turning the area nearest the smallest diameter using a 1" gouge until reaching the depth established with the parting tool. Then line up the tool rest with the desired taper, and grip a 1" gouge so that the index finger of your left hand rubs the tool rest throughout the cut (Fig. 12). I turn the bulb portion of the vase shape with the 1" gouge (Fig. 13) and refine the transition between the bulb and the cove with a 1/2" round-nose scraper.
Remove the tool rest and sand the legs to 220-grit, then cut them to final length by removing the remaining nubs of wood from the ends.
Firm footing
With a combination square, pencil a centerline onto the foot blank. Mark the center of the waste portion of the bridle joint socket of the leg, and place it onto the foot blank. Line up the center marks, and mark the thickness of the foot onto the leg (Fig. 14). Use a square to extend these lines along the leg, and a marking gauge to cut a line indicating the length of the flats you’ll cut into the leg (Fig. 15). Saw several kerfs into the waste and split off as much of the waste as possible. Create the flat on the legs using a wide chisel (Fig. 16).
Place the leg onto the foot blank, and square the flats across the top. Mark the distance between flats onto the foot blank (Fig. 17), and use a square to extend these marks. Adjust the fence of the mortise gauge so the pins are centered on the foot blank maintaining the distance between the pins set earlier. Cut gauge lines between the pencil marks. Use a square and marking knife to cut lines across both faces of the foot blank using the pencil lines you have made as starting points (Fig. 18). Use a chisel to cut a groove into the waste side of your knife lines for the backsaw to follow. Cut down to the lines with the saw, making a series of saw kerfs. Use a chisel to break and then pare as much of the waste out as possible (Fig. 19). Smooth the bottom of the groove with a router plane or wide chisel.
Lay out the depth of the bridle socket into the leg, and use a coping saw to cut across the waste. Then chisel to the gauge line (Fig. 20). Remove the top of the bridle joint by making saw kerfs and paring out the remaining waste (Fig. 21) so the joint can close completely (Fig. 22).
Lay out the pattern of the foot onto the blank (Fig. 23), and cut the shape on the bandsaw, or with hand saw, chisel and rasp. Use a mortise gauge to lay out the thickness of the toes of the feet to 13/4" (Fig. 24) and a hand plane to remove the waste and taper the thickness of the feet (Fig. 25).
Round over the top edges of the feet using a rasp and sandpaper, but don’t round over the edges where the feet meet the leg. This will reveal the flat cut into the leg and spoil the illusion of a coped foot.
Main beam and crossbeams
Joint one edge of the main beam square to the face, then cut it to a length of 69". Set a marking gauge to the depth of the bridle joint socket cut into the top of the leg and gauge the width of the main beam. Rip and plane the main beam to this width. Trace the shape on the ends of the main beam using a paper pattern, and cut the profile with a jigsaw or with hand saw, chisel and rasp.
The bridle joint connecting the leg to the main beam is cut exactly the same way as the bridle joint connecting the leg to the foot.
Lay out the lap joints for the crossbeams onto the main beam, and use a backsaw to make the two cuts establishing the overall dimensions of the joint. Use a coping saw to remove most of the waste and a chisel to pare to the gauge lines (Fig. 26). Cut the lap joints into the crossbeams similarly.
Test fit the crossbeams blanks, and use a paper pattern to trace the shape of the crossbeams. Shape them using a saw, chisel, mallet and rasp to your lines.
When designing the main beam, I wanted the legs to fit into a lapped bridle joint to add visual interest to the base. However, a plain bridle joint is much easier to cut and fit, so I cut it as a bridle joint and then added filler pieces to give the appearance of a lapped joint. If the stock used to make the filler blocks is slightly thicker than the main beam, they can be planed flush after the glue dries.
Dry-fit the crossbeams, then place filler blocks into place and mark them for length. The two blocks on each end of the main beam will have scrollwork that blends into the existing scrollwork (Fig. 27). After the glue dries, plane the filler blocks flush.
Drill a pilot hole for a 4" screw through each crossbeam, and secure them to the main beam. Drill four stopped holes into the crossbeams for the figure-8 clips that secure the top. Attach the clips to the base with screws. Locate the centerlines for the 3/8" dowel holes on the main beam and drill. Insert dowel pointers into these holes (Fig. 28).
Place the top on your bench upside-down, and position the base onto the top. Carefully center the base, and tap it with a mallet to mark the dowel hole centers on the underside of the top. Remove the base and drill dowel holes 5/8" deep into the underside of the top at each dowel mark. Glue the dowels into the holes in the base leaving 1/2" protruding. Place the base back onto the top until the dowels fit into the holes, and use the figure-8 clips as guides to mark pilot holes into the top. Drill the pilot holes into the underside of the top making sure not to drill through.
Finishing
Remove the top from the base, and put it aside for now. Dismantle the base completely and sand to 220-grit. I painted the base with a half-and-half mixture of Lexington green and black milk paint, then applied clear acrylic as a topcoat. Dry-assemble the bridle joints. Mark the centerline of the 1/2" dowel hole that will pin the leg to the main beam with a marking gauge. I use a 1/2" brad-point bit to drill these holes, starting first on one side of the leg and finishing by drilling through from the other side. I line this up by eye, checking that the bit enters the wood at right angles both horizontally and vertically. Then I chamfer the leading edge of a 1/2" dowel to prevent tearing out the exit hole, and gently drive it through the hole. Don’t glue the dowels; someday you may need to repair or replace the leg. (In fact, I now plan for this eventuality since mischievous pugs in my house have been known to bite into furniture.) Cut the ends of the dowel so they protrude about 3/16" from the leg, and shave the pin with a chisel so it stands proud of the leg by 1/16". Flip the base so that the feet are sticking into the air, and pin the foot to the leg similarly.
I applied an oil-based golden oak stain to the top and sprayed it with several coats of satin lacquer. Then I polished it lightly with 0000 steel wool, cleaning the surface thoroughly between coats. Attach the base to the top with 3/4" long wood screws.
Panel making basics – doing it by hand
Making larger panels from individual boards is one of the most common tasks in furniture making. Doing the task entirely with hand tools requires some specific techniques.
The first step is to joint the boards that will be glued up into a panel.
Initially, keep the plane centered on the edge of the board as you begin planing the edge (Fig. A). Check the board several places along its length with a square. When planing any non-square areas, cheat the plane to one side so that the crown of the blade is directly over the high spots (Fig. B). This will trim only the high spots and bring the edge square to the face. Where the edge is square with the face, keep the plane centered. When the edge of the board is square to the face along its entire length, take all subsequent shavings with the plane centered.
Well-jointed edges should be slightly concave along its length. Convex edges are difficult to keep aligned when clamping, and place stress on the ends where changes in humidity are likely to cause joint failure. Cutting the edge of the board into a subtle concave curve along its length is sometimes called “springing the joint,” because two concave boards placed edge-to-edge and clamped together mimic the compression of a spring. Cut this joint by taking three or four shavings starting about 1/8" in from one end of the board and finishing the cut about 1/8" from the other end of the board. Beware of cutting too much of an arc since closing the gap with clamps would require too much force.
Once the panel has been glued up, remove the clamps and scrape off any dried glue, then use a jointer plane to shave at right angles to the grain removing any ridges between boards (Fig. C). Planing across the grain minimizes tearout because cross-grain shavings break before they can cause an uncontrolled split ahead of the cutter (the primary cause of tearout). At this stage of flattening, it’s normal for the crown in the cutting iron to leave subtle scallops in the wood. Use a marking gauge referenced to the side you just planed to cut a gauge line on all four edges of the top, indicating the finished thickness. Flip the top over and plane to this gauge line.
It’s now a simple matter to bring the top’s center to its final dimensions. Plane one edge of the top straight with a jointer plane. Place a pencil line parallel to this edge to define the 29" width of the top and plane to this line.
Use a large square and pencil to define the length of the panel (Fig. D). Use a crosscut saw to cut slightly proud of the line, and a sharp jointer plane to remove the saw marks (Fig. E).
George Huron
As the owner and instructor of a woodworking school specializing in traditional hand tool methods, George Huron spends most of his time teaching, designing new classes and performing live demonstrations. He is also currently producing, filming and editing woodworking videos.
Tools used in this project:
Table saw, clamps, jointer, bench vise, square, No. 7 jointer plane, dovetail plane, marking gauge, mortise gauge, drill, hammer, block plane, No. 41/2" smoothing plane, No. 80 cabinet scraper, random orbit sander, sandpaper (150- and 220-grit), ripsaw, lathe, 1" roughing gouge, parting tool, calipers, steel ruler, 3/4" skew, 3/4" gouge, 1/2" round-nose scraper, wide chisel, backsaw, router plane, bandsaw, rasp, coping saw, mallet, 0000 steel wool.
Materials
Milk paint
Stain
Clear acrylic
Satin lacquer
4" wood screws (2)
5/8" flathead screws (8)
3/4" wood screws
3/8" dowel
1/2" dowel
Specialty hardware
Figure-8 clips (8), #130216,
$3.99 (pkg. of 10)
Woodcraft Supply
(800) 225-1153
www.woodcraft.com
