Repairs of the Dining Room Table

It’s been a couple of years since I built a dining table out of maple, it was actually one of the first big furniture projects I took on. One winter, we heard a big cracking sound in the house and thought a tree had fallen over. Turns out it was the table, the fluctuations in heat and humidity caused 2 pieces glued lengthwise to separate. Ever since it’s looked good, but not perfect with the ¼” gap between 2 boards in the top.

Then one of the angled supports fell off and we thought it was time to finally fix it. To start we took off the legs and I used a circular saw to cut off the 2 end pieces and to slice down the crack lengthwise. Using dowel joints this time, I joined the boards tightly back together lengthwise. 

Once that was dry, I put the ends back on, also with dowel joints.

Due to the 1/8” of loss from the circular saw blade when I cut along the crack and general shrinkage of the wood, the end boards was now ¼” wider than the rest of the table. This also got trimmed with the circular saw.

While the top was clamped waiting for the glue to dry, I made some changes to the leg design. Previously they detached from the table with giant bolts, but they proved hard to get out. Instead I screwed a board both sides of each leg and these will get screwed into the table top from below. 

Between the legs, where previously there were 2 angled pieces, I used one horizontal beam. To attach it, I drilled 5 holes through the center of the X into the new beam.

Once the screws were in place, I used wood plugs to fill the holes. I’ve never used these before but I think they are a good alternative to hidden joints when you want the strength of screws.

Finally I gave everything a light sand and 3 coats of clear polycrylic.

After it dried, we reattached the legs. 

Of course like always this was more involved than I anticipated, but overall I’m glad I did it. The table looks perfect again, the base is stronger and I got it done while it was still nice enough weather to sand outside.

And now we know: I had some issued with standard wood screws breaking off when I was trying to attach the pieces to the legs. I did some research and finally bought more expensive screws. I didn’t have high hopes, but they were amazing, even 4” screws went into solid maple like it was butter. Best screws ever.