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Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge

Urban Salvaged Hardwood Slabs, Milled In-House from Rare Trees. Shop Unique Walnut Stock.

Apron problems

Posts

Apron problems

#1

Apron problems

Edward in Vancouver

>My Sister gave me a table to refinish. Looks about 60 yrs old, 1/4 sawn red oak pedestal base, and round top with fairly narrow 3 and 4" 1/4 sawn boards, shallow t & g joints, looks like it was glued with hide glue. Oak dovetail rails, leaves long missing. Apron is 2 pcs of steam bent(?) (no kerfs, anyway) oak about 3" high. But the apron was originally screwed on in about 6 places, and braced with oak angles. No cracking. Granted the apron has some "stretchmarks" or really light cracks, but nothing major.

I've taken the top apart, board by board, cleaned and jointed them and glued it back together. Some of the previous owners went nuts on screws , underside was full of hockey sticks screwedon, presumably to hold the table together as the T &G joints failed, lots of holes under there, stripped screws, rusted screws, etc.

Now I'm at the assembly stage. Don't want to screw the apron back on, but I also can't argue with 60 odd years of crack-free history.

Suggestions?

Re: Apron problems

#2

Re: Apron problems

Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI

>I would screw the two ends of the apron to the top, then use what is called a button in some books to hold the apron to the top. The button is kind of an L shaped piece that would slide into a mortice in the apron and be screwed to the top.

Re: Apron problems

#3

Re: Apron problems

bill tindall, E. TN.

>I can't see any reason not to screw the apron back on if the original screw holes can be used or fixed to be useful. Screws are a common way to hold these things on.

Re: Apron problems

#4

Re: Apron problems

Edward in Vancouver

>Most of the screw holes should be salvageable, very little cracking in the whole table top. Guess I just plain don't like those screws because I had to remove so many to rebuild the top. I had a choice of 5 different kinds of heads, stripped heads, and what appeared to be hammered-in screws. Felt more like a surgeon weilding a Dremel tool and screw extractors just so I could get it to a stage where I could pop the boards in my vice and take a jointer to them. Even then I had to be very carefull not to take too much off of the boards because of the frequent screw holes, another 1/16" or so and I'd have a top looking like a piece of Swiss cheese..

Oh well, It's looking pretty good now. I was thinking of a couple of coats of Tung oil and maybe some beeswax polish

Re: Apron problems

#5

What I did

Jim Reed @ tallahassee

>When I fixed the top on a 200 yr old tavern table--It had screws & nails from the top and was made from three wide cherry boards. I did not want the boards to crack again, so I affixed blocks to the underside. These small blocks were screwed to the underside of the top and fit against the skirt and the drawer side box on the table frame. This keeps the top in place but allows it to be removed for transport. I thought I might have to pin it down somehow, and would use Z clips for that if I had to. After almost 40 years, I have never gotten around to pinning it down. Seems the weight of the top and the wedge fit of the blocks keeps it in place. A similar setup might work for your top, which could be Z clipped to keep it from rotating.

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