The kitchen table is the same age as the kitchen itself. Probably even older than this: in the sites and settlements of primitive people, large flat stones were found near the hearths, which served as cutting, distribution and dining tables; they contained remains of food and food. In this article we will look at how to make a kitchen table with your own hands completely at home. This will not only allow you to save a certain amount (in general, not ruinous), but will also provide an opportunity to acquire initial carpentry skills, which may turn out to be much more significant in the future. The most common types of furniture joints are used in kitchen tables, but its design forgives rather serious flaws in work. There are also great-looking types of kitchen tables, for the manufacture of which it is enough to be able to saw off a piece of board and tighten a screw.

A table in the kitchen also provides considerable opportunities for creative self-expression: much less skill is needed here than imagination, and failure will not ruin the entire interior. The samples of original kitchen tables in the photo below are quite accessible for making with your own hands, but first you need to get a feel for the design and material at a basic level, which is what we will try to help the reader with.

There are at least 15 different ways to make a kitchen table, including artistic forging and casting from homemade artificial marble. However, firstly, we will limit ourselves to kitchen tables made of wood, as a material that allows us to obtain the desired result with the least amount of labor, Money and time.

Secondly, we will deal with tables with rectangular or rounded corners. A round table requires 1.6-2.2 times more usable space than a rectangular table for the same number of eaters. Moreover, the first meaning refers to the case when the hostess is deprived of a free approach to him and must be served over the shoulder of the person sitting. This already falls into the category of parodies of the rules of good manners. Like, how should you tilt the plate when finishing the soup: towards you or away from you? Answer: depending on what you want to pour on yourself or the tablecloth. In addition, the round table in small kitchen stronger than a rectangular one of the same capacity is wedged into the so-called. functionality triangle, see below.

Dimensions and ergonomics

The height of the kitchen table is normal, 700-780 mm, counting from the floor to the top surface of the tabletop. For people of average height, the optimal table height is 750-760 mm. But with the dimensions of the kitchen table in plan, the situation is more complicated.

The essence is in the same triangle of functionality: refrigerator-sink-stove. Ideally, it should be rectangular isosceles with legs of 1.2-1.6 m. However, the ergonomics of the kitchen is spoiled much more than a slight deviation from these proportions by wedging the dining area into the hypotenuse. Simply: the hostess bent over the sink or stove and pressed her seductive forms against her husband’s cheek just when he brought the spoon to his mouth. Therefore, it is advisable to make the table in the kitchen, especially of economical layouts, smaller, as long as it is comfortable for the eaters.

The minimum acceptable dimensions of a family kitchen table in plan are considered to be 600x900 mm. For single people, let's say a table is 450x750 mm, like in railway cars. In this case, in a “micro-kitchen” or kitchen area of ​​a small-sized one-room apartment, it is also permissible to make it a wall-mounted folding one, see below. But the optimal dimensions of a kitchen table top are considered to be (650-800) x (1100-1400) mm, depending on the available usable area and the size of the users.

Which one to do

Traditional kitchen table - on the base, pos. 1 in Fig. The underframe is the supporting frame of their boards placed on edge - the tsar. The drawers can be tightly fastened to the table legs, and the tabletop can be placed loosely on them; those. its fastenings only prevent horizontal displacement. This kitchen-sized table is simpler in design and stronger, but it is more difficult to bring in/take out, especially if the passage to the kitchen is narrow. The second option is that the drawers are tightly fastened to the tabletop, and the legs are detachable. In this case, the tabletop needs to be durable and not made of anything suitable for use. case, the material, and the design is more complicated. But there are no problems with bringing in/out. Both of these options for a classic kitchen table will be discussed in more detail below.

The table on the base can also be artistically designed, pos. 2. Making an artistic kitchen table is not as difficult as it might seem. The basis of its design - turned shaped legs - can be easily obtained from commercially available railing balusters (see below). For a novice craftsman who knows how to use a jigsaw, a figured sawed-off drawer does not pose a problem. What remains is a molding - a shaped chamfer on the lower edges of the drawers. You can rent a manual one for it. milling machine with a cutter of the profile you like, with it the work itself on setting the molding takes less than an hour plus 10-15 minutes of training on some kind of cutting.

No less common in kitchens are tables of beam construction, pos. 3. Even in their simplest design (see 2 options below) they are more attractive than tables with a base. However, to complete them in a high-end design (item 4) requires well-equipped carpentry and solid manufacturing skills. Beam tables require more material, but their undeniable advantage is that they can be made completely collapsible without tools (also see below).

Tables with a load-bearing tabletop without an underframe (item 5) are also very often found in kitchens. In a factory-made version, this is perhaps the cheapest type of good quality kitchen tables. A set of legs for such a table + a postforming tabletop (see below) will cost about 2,500 rubles, and assembly will take at most half an evening. But when completely self-production With such a table, a beginner will encounter some significant nuances, see below.

Tables-books, they are also tables-pedestals, pos. 6, initially created a sensation due to its compactness when folded and the ability to be used in a half-fold version, but then there was a period of some disappointment. Firstly, no matter how you sit at such a table, your legs feel uncomfortable. Secondly, in the first samples, the rotary support lock was the simplest, consisting of a pair of 50x20 bars, attached with a gap equal to the thickness of the support to the underside of the tabletop. The outer faces of the bars were often removed with a wedge so that the support would not cling to them when unfolding the table. However, if you accidentally pry the tabletop with your knee, the lock is immediately released. Therefore, such tables could not do without a hodgepodge of cutlets and mashed potatoes on the trousers and the floor, and a reliable and easy-to-use mechanical lock turned out to be very complex and expensive. Nevertheless, both amateur craftsmen and serious manufacturers are improving this, in principle, very promising design, which will be the subject of a special section in this publication.

Wall-mounted folding tables (item 7) are rarely found in very tiny kitchenettes. Most often - among busy bachelors who are accustomed to doing everything while standing, even sleeping on the carpet in front of their bosses, because... have all the disadvantages of book-tables with virtually no room for improvement. Serving tables (item 8) are used much more often on the farm, but this is a separate class of furniture with its own specific qualities and manufacturing technology, so here we will limit ourselves to just mentioning them.

Technological subtleties and innovations

The kitchen table, firstly, is made from wood species or materials that are little or not subject to shrinkage when dried: oak, hornbeam, wenge, laminated chipboard, MDF. Ordinary industrial wood in a kitchen atmosphere with its fluctuations in temperature, humidity and organic vapors in the air begins to warp and crack after 5-7 years, even if impregnated and varnished. On the other hand, the dimensions of the kitchen table are small. This leads to some features of its manufacture, which ultimately make it possible to simplify the work.

Tabletop

This is the main detail of any table. For homemade table In the kitchen, the best option is to buy a ready-made countertop made of postforming; they are available in a wide range of colors, textures and sizes. Postforming is a profiled laminated chipboard with rounded edges, finished to look like wood or other material. The advantages of postforming in relation to a kitchen table are as follows:

Postforming is good technologically for simplicity and speed of work. But countertops made from boards, the so-called, look much more solid. solid wood or furniture panels. Joining boards into an array is quite delicate and painstaking work; for this purpose, special devices are used - clamps. If you want to try your hand at making furniture from solid wood, we offer a selection of videos:

How to assemble a furniture panel with your own hands:

How to make a panel top for a kitchen table:

How to make a tabletop from wood end cuts:

In the last video, the material is junk, but you can achieve the look - cool oligarchs will salivate.

Dowels, confirmations and dowels

Traditionally, wooden furniture is assembled on dowels. The dowel connection is invisible and cheap; Just in case, let us remind you what it is and how it is done, see fig. To connect wooden parts, wooden dowels are used, which dry out along with the connected parts; The laminated chipboard, which practically does not dry out, is connected with plastic dowels. Corner plastic dowels are rarely used, because... often break. Connections with wooden dowels are usually glued.

It is often difficult for novice craftsmen to achieve accurate markings for the dowel connection. Tricks, such as marking with bitten nails (item 4 in the figure), do not always help, and it is impossible to remake an incorrectly marked dowel connection; both parts go to waste. Therefore, it is better for beginners to assemble their first products using Euro-furniture screws - confirmed ones. This is more expensive, but does not require special skills, because... the confirmation hole in both parts, compressed with a clamp, is drilled in one go, see fig.

Parts made of laminated chipboard or dense thin-layer wood, connected with confirmats, last for many years. All the designs described below can be assembled both on dowels and on confirmations. However, in the latter case, the following rules must be observed:

• Use furniture grades for wood, not plumbing grades for plastic. They differ at first glance: furniture slots have a hexagon slot, and plumbing slots have a Phillips screwdriver.
• The diameter of the body of the confirmat without thread when attached to the end should be no more than 1/5-1/3 (as an extreme case) of the thickness of the attached part.
• The height of the confirmation neck should correspond to the thickness of the main part.
• The penetration of the threaded part of the confirmat into the attached part must be at least 5-6 full diameters of the confirmat.
• The hole (blind hole) for the confirmat is drilled to its full length with the head.
• Use only a twist drill for wood.
• The main drill must be inserted into a mandrel that exactly matches its diameter and screw size.
• Drill holes for confirmations with a main drill of a diameter equal to the diameter of the confirmation by thread.

In practice, it is not difficult for even a perfect “teapot” to fulfill these conditions:

1. Based on the thickness of the part, we determine the diameter of the body of the confirmat without thread;
2. There is a lot of information on confirmatories on the Internet, from which you can, knowing the diameter of the screw body, the thickness of the main part and the drilling depth, determine the required standard size. It is better to immediately open pictures for the request “furniture screw (or confirmation) drawings dimensions”;
3. We are looking for a retail outlet where the seller, when asked to show furniture confirmations, shows them exactly;
4. We say: “I need so many of such and such a standard size and a drill with a mandrel for them.” They may offer a solid drill just for this confirmation, it will be cheaper.

And a little more about dowels. It is best to place a detachable (freely applied) tabletop of a classic kitchen table on them. Incl. and for such purposes, plastic dowels with a round head or dowels with a head and different types of corrugation on the long recessed and short protruding parts are produced, see fig. on right. Thick tabletops are attached first, approx. from 20 mm; the second ones are thinner.

Various tables

Classic

Classic tables on the underframe along with the legs (item 1 in the figure) are traditionally connected (assembled) using tongue-and-groove joints, which is quite complex and labor-intensive. A modern tool - a drill with a twist drill for wood and a screwdriver - in combination with legs, the section of the heads of which is not less than 60x60 mm (for balusters the heads are usually from 100x100 mm), allows for a kitchen table with plan dimensions of up to approx. 750x1500 mm can be made by connecting with wood screws at an angle, pos. 3. In any case, the outer sides of the drawers must be separated from external surfaces the heads of the legs by 1.5 cm, this is necessary for overall strength. The minimum permissible height of the kitchen table drawers is 120 mm; thickness – 30 mm.

It is highly advisable to reinforce the connection with oblique screws with diagonal ties in the corners (item 4, above) from the same board as the drawers. If the tabletop is not intended to be removed unless absolutely necessary, then the labor-intensive installation of it on dowels can be abandoned. Then, at the corners of the finished supporting frame, scraps of the same board - crackers - are cut into the drawers and the tabletop is attached to them from the bottom with self-tapping screws, pos. 4 below.

The tabletop of a classic table with detachable legs should be at least 24 mm thick (chipboard, plywood) or 30 mm thick (solid wood). Countertops made from other materials, e.g. artificial stone, suitable for tables on the base along with the legs, are not applicable here. Due to the large difference in thermal expansion modules between them and wood, the table will soon become loose.

Next, the drawers are attached to the tabletop with long confirmations right through the end, on the left in the figure, with sizing with wood glue or PVA. It is difficult to achieve accurate assembly using ordinary wood screws, because... they are without a neck to keep the joint from moving.

The next point is that jibs in the corners (also in the figure) are required, wooden mortise ones or ready-made steel overhead ones. The legs at the corners are attached in the usual ways, on the right in Fig.

Desk drawer

A drawer is a classic structural module of a classic kitchen table. The guides for the table drawer are the same as for the drawers of the bedside table, chest of drawers, and closet. Since a large weight load is not expected in this case, but the smooth movement of the drawer and the possibility of its full extension of great importance If they don’t, you can use inexpensive roller guides on which keyboard boards on computer desks run.

The structure of a furniture box is shown on the left in Fig. It is not necessary to assemble its tray the old fashioned way on a box tenon (on the right in the figure); you can use self-tapping screws into the ends of the boards. The thickness of the boards for the drawer sides is 12-20 mm. The plywood bottom is often fastened with a furniture stapler, but this is not entirely reliable. It is better to attach it with self-tapping screws through the cranial bars along the contour of the bottom. The front of the drawer can overlap the front side of the table or fit flush into it, it doesn’t matter.

To install the drawer in the table, an opening is cut out in the longitudinal front drawer according to the cross-sectional dimensions of the drawer tray, plus allowances on the sides for the guides (indicated in the specifications for them), plus another 3 mm along the contour. Then the side support boards are installed to secure the guides. They are attached to the longitudinal frames from the inside using backing bars. There is no need to fasten it to the tabletop; it will become loose. Next, assemble the box, attach it to it and to support boards resp. the guide parts push the drawer into place, that's all.

Quite simple

A completely simple but good-looking kitchen table with a classic look can be made on a supporting frame made of boards, see fig. on right. Its length, if the drawer section is at least 120x20 mm, can be increased to 1100 mm. Tabletop – any weight up to 15 kg. The angle of inclination of the legs from the vertical is 15-20 degrees, this is one fundamental point in this design. The second is transverse ties made of 50x15 timber, they give the entire structure the necessary rigidity. So, although this table looks classic, in fact it is already a beam table.

Beam

Drawings of a pair of kitchen tables with a beam structure are given in Fig. Above - completely collapsible without tools. The tabletop is structurally any, placed on dowels, although the style of this table (rustic) is fully consistent only with a tabletop made of solid wood. A variant of its fastening from the underside without dowels on cranial bars is shown in the inset in the center on the right.

In this product, a beginner may find the bottom bandage (longitudinal tie) with a beveled through groove for the wedge to be a stumbling block. In fact, everything is very simple: the bottom bandage is assembled with glue from 3 layers of 10 mm plywood or boards. How to make beamed kitchen tables of this type, you can watch the following video:

Video: DIY table by components

The table, drawings of which are shown below, has 2 features. First, all material is boards with a width of 120 mm, timber is not used. The second is that only a tray is provided for the tabletop, and it can be made of glass, plywood with a mosaic of tiles or its fragments, etc. The gap between the board of the tabletop and the frame of the tray is prone to clogging, but removing the tabletop for cleaning is also easy. So whether it’s rustic or modern, whether it’s a kitchen table, boudoir or coffee table, you decide for yourself.

Without table support

Factory-made kitchen tables without bases are usually produced with postforming countertops, pos. 1 in Fig. Those who want to make something similar on their own wooden table top will face the following tricks.

First, a table stand is still needed, because wooden beam from 50x50, pos. 2. The fact is that mechanical stress in boards always flows to the corners, where they are distributed very unevenly. But the wood under all 3 fastening points of the leg frame must be tensioned approximately equally, otherwise the fastening will loosen on its own. Timber piping expands the fan of stress in a given place to an acceptable value, but it is impossible to replace continuous piping with corner pads; they will be of no use.

The second is the material of the countertop. Standard threaded sockets for mounting leg frames (item 3) are designed for laminated chipboard or dense, fine-grained wood. If the tabletop is made of pine, etc. layered rather soft wood, then the nests can, having torn the layers, crawl back out already during the installation of the clips. And the probability that this will happen when someone accidentally pushes the table is close to 100%

And the third is the leg clips themselves. In cheap sets of parts for tables without tabletops from “alternative” manufacturers, they are most often made of silumin, pos. 4. And silumin, as you know, is very, very fragile. In general, if you like such tables, it will be easier to buy a ready-made one with a guarantee. Most likely, and cheaper than assembling a kit for self-assembly at retail.

Books and Cheburashkas

The disadvantages of the table-book of the original design (see figure on the right) have already been mentioned above. In Fig. Below is a drawing of the design of a table-book (conventionally, only one rotary support is shown without the wings of the tabletop), which eliminates them in an amateurish, but effective manner. Simply, the width of the rotary support is reduced by more than half compared to the wing span of the tabletop (350 and 720 mm, respectively). Now the support rotates 90 degrees, so you can sit comfortably as you wish. The support, located in the working position along the longitudinal axis of the tabletop, holds it even better than an oblique one, and in order to lift the tabletop until the upper support bar comes out of the simplest clamp (see above), you need to raise your knees so that it will be very uncomfortable for yourself. Overall stability is ensured by the legs of the cabinet section, which must be made as long as possible, but not less than 600 mm. Otherwise, the swivel supports must be brought down in height to the floor level.

A fundamentally similar solution was used in the wall-mounted folding table (items 1 and 2 in the next figure), but here the bevel of the hanging corner of the support contributes to operational reliability. Which is quite applicable in the previous one. case: there are no contraindications for performing that support in the form of a trapezoid converging downward.

A proprietary solution to the problems of a book-table is removable legs stored in the cabinet. Placing them is not much more troublesome than catching the latch on the tabletop with a rotating support. Such a table-book is, of course, more expensive, but its operational reliability is complete: there is no latch, because it's simply not needed.

The next step in the evolution of the book-table is a design with a larger cabinet and one leg on each wing of the table top. There are half as many legs, which means the whole table is cheaper. Its stability has only increased due to the expansion of the cabinet, it is generally comfortable to sit, and there is more space in the cabinet (which is always in short supply in the kitchen).

Consumers liked such kitchen tables so much that they were already given the nickname - Cheburashka table. Probably, remembering from the cartoon: “Here, we built, built, and finally built it.” A folding kitchen table as it should be.

Alternative

If your kitchen is combined with a living room or you plan to combine them, then you don’t need to think about a kitchen table; it’s better to replace it with a column. You can not only drink at the bar counter, you can also eat there. The point of such a replacement is that at least half of the dining area goes beyond the kitchen, and the rest is used sporadically and does not wedge itself into the functional triangle. Result? See fig. It’s more convenient to work and dine in a 5-measure kitchenette with a bar counter, which separates the apartment’s zones, than in 8-9. meter kitchen Brezhnevka Don't believe it? Let's do the math.

The kitchen table does not stand on its own. To plant the eaters, you need to add 400 mm along the contour, and another 300-350 for the approach. As a result, a 900x600 mm table requires approx. 2.5 sq. m of “living space”, and the table is 1200x700 mm and all 3.5 sq. m. It is very, very difficult to push such a thick piece into a kitchen of normal size without crushing the soft-boiled functional triangle. Here, even if two people sit at the counter from the kitchen side, the functional triangle is not disturbed, and the hostess is within easy reach of everything.

One of the famous chefs once said: “The kitchen is conservative, as digestive tract" Here, of course, he bent and overdid it. Something like a stove, refrigerator, food processor and the microwave is not found in our stomachs, although the kitchen is really conservative. But even in the most conservative sphere, at some point there comes a time that requires fundamental changes.

As you know, a table is needed in every home. Currently in stores there are very a large number of different options:

• dining;
• kitchen;
• garden (for a summer house or private house);
• transformer;
• big;
• small;
• round;
• rectangular;
• square and so on.

However, many people want to make this piece of furniture themselves, especially since simple models require minimal tool skills.

Before you start working directly, you should prepare some
tools, as well as select materials. Let's take a closer look at these very important points. If you are planning to make a simple wooden table, then in this case a regular carpentry set (plane, chisels) and several saws (bow saw, for veneer cutting, tenon saw, hand saw) and a hacksaw will be quite sufficient. More delicate work with elaborate shapes will require additional tools. This is, in particular, an electric jigsaw, Sander, milling cutter In order to facilitate the process of corner cutting, you will need a miter box.

It is also important to choose the right material. In the absence of serious work experience, it is better to take cheaper wood, since you will need some supply “just in case.” For the manufacture of countertops, characteristics such as strength and moisture absorption are of particular importance. The best option here would be larch or pine with a thickness of at least 3 centimeters. However, if funds allow, the tabletop can also be made from oak. For compact tables, slabs made from wood - OSB, chipboard, and so on - are quite suitable.

Birch is best suited for making legs. The thing is that this wood has a very good performance strength at a relatively low price.
However, you definitely need to take care of moisture resistance - we’ll talk about this a little below. The most optimal parameters for the legs are a cross-section of 5 by 5 and a length of approximately 76 centimeters. Dowels are best made from acacia. When choosing boards, be sure to inspect them carefully. Those that have a wormhole, falling knots, cracks or rot should be immediately rejected.

The structure will not be strong without reliable fasteners. Therefore, their choice must also be approached with full responsibility. Let us warn you right away - nails are not suitable in this case. Firstly, when using them, it is very difficult to place the leg strictly vertically. Secondly, the nail easily pricks dry wood, and for making furniture you need to take exactly this kind. Thirdly, such a product will be very difficult to repair, because dismantling fasteners is almost always accompanied by damage to adjacent parts.

Therefore, to make a wooden table you need to use dowels set with glue or self-tapping screws. If the structure requires additional reinforcement, then the best option would be corners, brackets, and metal strips. If a collapsible structure is planned, then it is better to connect it with drawers.

It should be noted that the table should not only be reliable, but also practical. Of no small importance is its appearance. Therefore, you should also take care of these points. In particular, it is possible to protect the table from rotting with the help of used machine oil. This product is not only effective, but you can also get it completely free. It’s also a good idea to use a natural product – flaxseed oil. It protects the table well from fungus and mold. These are not all options. Acrylic varnishes or water-polymer emulsion will protect your product well.

To give the table an attractive appearance, you can use paint. Just make sure when purchasing that you intend to paint the wood. Another very common option is stains. The choice of these funds today is very wide, so there will be no problems with purchasing. Tables covered with tinting varnish look very nice. Generally speaking, you can give the table any shade. In this case, you can even conduct several experiments, taking some kind of rejected board.

The next stage is to decide on the design of the table. It is simply impossible to describe in detail all the possible options here, so we will focus on the simplest. We are talking about a regular stationary rectangular table. All parts here must be fixed rigidly - this ensures the required strength. You will need to make 3 main parts - a tabletop, a base and 4 legs. First, of course, you should decide on the size. If the table is small, then it is quite appropriate to take a solid tabletop, cutting it out of an OSB board.

The underframe is a wooden frame. It is to this that we will attach the legs. The latter are easiest to make from timber having a square cross-section of the required size. That is, you will only need to cut 4 legs to the required length. After this, all that remains is to connect all the elements of the table together. At the final stage, take care to protect the structure made by your own hands, and also give it the desired color. As you can see, there really is nothing complicated here.

Well, in conclusion I would like to give some advice. In particular, if you plan to assemble using self-tapping screws, you will first need to make holes in the wood with a drill of a slightly larger diameter. When using an abrasive, first take the coarse one, and then the fine one.

You need to be prepared for the fact that multiple sanding will be required. Here, a lot depends on the type of wood and the quality of drying of the material. Chips and cracks can be easily removed using putty. Wood dust after sanding is removed with a vacuum cleaner. After this, it is recommended to wipe the product with a damp cloth. Well, the most main advice The idea is that you need to move on to making complex products only after you can confidently handle simple ones.

Poorly designed ones are best remembered. dinner table. One that is too low or too high, one that does not have enough legroom underneath, one that has too little space. To help you design a table that will be remembered only for its attractive appearance, we will provide basic standards here.

TABLE HEIGHT. Distance from the floor to the top surface of the cover. Usually it is 68–76 cm.

SPACE ABOVE LEGS. The distance from the floor to the bottom edge of the drawer is the vertical space for the legs. Minimum distance– 60 cm.

KNEEL ROOM. The distance from the edge of the table to the leg is the space for your knees when the chair is pulled up to the table. The minimum distance is from 36 to 40 cm, the optimal distance is 36–46 cm.

SPACE ABOVE HIPS. The distance from the seat to the lower edge of the drawer is the vertical space for the hips when a person sits on this chair, pushed towards the table. Minimum – 15 cm.

ELBOW ROOM. Side space on the table for each person sitting. The minimum is 60 cm, but 75 cm is much better.

HAND DEPTH. Front space on the table for each person seated. Less than 30 cm will not be enough, and more than 45 cm will be too much.

SPACE FOR A CHAIR. The distance from the edge of the tabletop to the wall is sufficient to move the chair away when getting up from the table. Architects claim that a minimum of 90 cm is needed, and 110 cm would be the best option.

Table with king belt

When you hear the word "table", don't you think of a flat panel with four legs? Don't you think of just such a table as the one pictured here? Yes, this design is the most original of the original ones. In the simplest version, the table - a typical design - consists of only three types of parts: legs, drawers and a lid (tabletop). The legs and tsar belt form a strong, yet open, support structure. In a structural sense, many tables are tsar tables, although we rarely call them that. Much more often they are called by functional purpose or their location: dining table, kitchen table, bedside table, desk. As you look further through the book, you will come across the original designs of different tables, and many of them will return to this “basic” table. This type of table can usually be found in the kitchen or dining room. Its massiveness creates the impression of strength. Although the legs are quite massive, the chiseled profile visually reduces their massiveness. In addition, the reasonable dimensions of the legs make them ideal for strong carpentry joints. Despite the simplicity of the design of a table with a tsar belt, many variations are possible. The table can be round, square, oval, rectangular. Its legs can be square, turned, tapered or carved. Even the drawers can influence the appearance of the table.

Design options

For example, a round table with the same turned legs as the base table looks completely different. The square tsar belt with the round lid gives it this distinct look. Despite the elegant cabriole legs of the table in the Queen Anne style, the massive drawers make it a work desk. The cut-out drawers at the third table make a significant visual and practical difference, making the table appear lighter and taller and creating more hip room for the occupant.

Country style table

This table is called by different names - country style table, retro style table, bar table - and presented in different ways. Furniture researchers usually describe it as a simple, low, oblong table on a massive base with turned legs and legs. This characterizes it quite accurately: a table with a drawstring belt and legs. Legs, especially those as strong as in the picture, significantly increase the durability and rigidity of the structure. With intensive daily use, the legs can increase the service life of the table by years. The terms "country" and "bar" are definitely associated with the 17th-18th centuries, when such tables were widely used in hotels, taverns and bars in rural areas and towns. Surviving examples of such tables actually have massive legs - although they are heavily worn out by many feet. The table shown here is equipped with one middle leg instead of two longitudinal ones, to make it more comfortable to sit at the table. However, many early tables had pro-legs around the perimeter. The design is simple. The drawbars and legs are cut into the legs with spikes and reinforced with wedges, dowels, etc. The table cover is a wide panel “at the tip”.

Design options

The easiest way to change the design of a table is to change the legs. Our “original” table has round legs - turned - and the shape of the turning can be changed endlessly. Just remember that you will need a flat, rectangular surface for the frame-to-leg joints. On a country-style table, you can also change the legs - depending on the appearance,
and by their configuration, as shown in the figure below.

Table with drawer and drawer

The name “table with a tsar belt” refers not to the style, but to the design. This type of table is the base for kitchen tables, library tables, desks, etc. Even a workbench. A drawer or two increases the functionality of the table as the tools that go into using it can be stored in these drawers. In some cases, a small box is enough, while in others you need the largest one possible. There are only a couple of ways to incorporate such a box into the design. The simplest approach is to simply cut out a drawer opening in the drawer frame. For a relatively small box and a fairly massive drawer, it is quite suitable. If the opening turns out to be so large that it creates a danger of destruction of the board, then it is better to replace the drawer with box bars. The bars can be rotated 90° so that their width matches the thickness of the leg. Tenon joints provide rigidity. A design with two bars - supraglottic and subgular - is preferable, since the upper bar will prevent the legs from moving inward.

Design options

Installing a drawer in a round table is quite possible. But if the drawer belt has a square or rectangular shape, then you must be prepared that access to the inside of the box will be limited. If the drawer belt is rounded, then the front panel of the drawer should be made in such a way (for example, a layered bent or block-glued structure) so that its shape matches the shape of the drawer.

An alternative to a table with a leg in each corner is a table with one central leg. Its tabletop is attached to a central post mounted on low legs that diverge to the sides. Here, drawers are not structurally required, but some single-support tables have them. At first glance, a table without legs and drawers gives unlimited legroom. However, while it does have plenty of knee and hip room, its "creepy" legs tend to get in the way of the sitter's feet. This is the price of stability: the projection of the tabletop should not exceed the support area by more than 15 cm. A little more and you risk knocking over the table by leaning on the edge. Critical to this design is the strength of the center post and its connection to the base or legs. The table shown here has an oval tabletop and - in accordance with the major and minor axis of the oval - two pairs of legs of different lengths. The legs are connected to the racks that taper downwards, and the racks are connected to the tabletop brackets with double tenons into the lugs. These intermediate assemblies are in turn glued onto a square core lath to form a central support that flares upward.

The pedestal table appeared in the 18th century as a small coffee table with a three-legged base. To make a dining table, carpenters combined two single-legged tables or placed an oblong tabletop on two three-legged supports. Modern models range from the simplest utilitarian to multi-rack. The structural advantage of multi-post supports is their increased resistance to tilting. Although the support area may be noticeably smaller than the projection of the tabletop, a large table with this type of support can be quite stable due to the mass of the support.

Place a wide board on the trestle and you have a table. This is the ancestor of the trestle table, which is perhaps the very first type of table. Since ancient times, its form has been significantly improved, but it remains an easy-to-make collapsible table. Its elementary form remains a panel or sheet of plywood on free-standing trestles. And when the trestles are no longer free-standing, that's when the assembly becomes a table, because they must be connected to each other, to the tabletop, or both. In the table shown here, each half of the trestle consists of a fairly wide post, embedded at the bottom into the leg, and at the top into the tabletop bracket. The wider the goats, the better table resists swaying from side to side. There is a long, massive rod embedded in the racks. The tabletop is attached with screws to the trestles, and the structure becomes one whole. Although there is enough space for your feet under the tabletop, you should not forget about the footrest so that when sitting at the table you do not get bumps on your shins. Also, the ends of the tabletop should protrude beyond the trestle by 35–45 cm to provide sufficient space for those sitting there. Many trestle tables are designed to be collapsible. Common methods of fastening parts of a collapsible table are shown on the next page.

Design options

Thinking about the shape of the trestle posts and legs is the easiest way to change the appearance of this table. Several examples are shown here. The original sawhorses were similar to sawhorses, and the X-shape was quite popular in medieval Europe. Pennsylvania Germans and other Germanic settlers brought this form to America, and it is still often found around picnic tables. Today the most common is the H-shape. Shakers (sectarian shakers), who made many trestle tables, usually used graceful legs with “high rise”

The familiar dining table can be expanded with an additional cover board. Then regular table for a family, it can be increased to receive guests. At first glance, it may not be noticeable that this is a standard table with a drawstring belt, cut into two parts and reconnected using special runners. The runners can be bought ready-made or made together with the table. Each table cover must be at least 60 cm – optimal location per person sitting.

Design options

The design of an extendable table can vary, as usual, by changing the legs and drawers. The shape of the drawers and tabletops has virtually no effect on general design. If we're talking about about a table with drawers, then with the sliding version they work as usual. As the extension range increases, it may be necessary to add an additional leg to support the middle section. And don’t forget about the importance of small details - for example, attaching drawers to the table top

Extendable table on one support

A table with a single support is a basic form of table that has some advantages over a table with a tsar belt. If you need a folding table, do not forget to consider this form. Such a table can easily have a sliding, folding, or hinged lid, which will expand it. The most common option is a sliding lid with an insert section. As shown on the next page, the lid is divided into two and its halves are connected by special sliding runners. Thus, these two lid panels can be pulled apart and an additional board inserted between them. What to do with the support is a key question for the master. For the table to be stable, the size of the lid and the support area must be close. In the example shown, the support is vertically divided into two parts, each of which is attached to a corresponding cover panel. When the lid is pulled apart, the support also separates.

Design options

The basic form has a support that separates when the table is extended. This is not the only option. If a relatively small expansion, say 30–40 cm, is acceptable, then the extendable table can be made on a non-dividing support. Another option is to make a table on two supports. A table with a support for each sliding half can expand by 90–120 cm.

When choosing one of the types of folding tables, one of the most interesting designs is a system with sliding sections. It is easy to make and use. There is nothing unusual about the basic structure of the table. The only difference from the usual underframe made of drawers and legs is the presence of slots in the end drawers. The difference lies on top of the drawer and legs. Instead of attaching the table top to the drawer belt, its side sections, attached to long tapered runners, are laid on the drawer leg assembly. The runners correspond to the slots in the drawers. The existing central board separating the side sections is secured with screws to the frames. The table cover is placed on top of the central board and side sections, but is not firmly secured. When unfolding the table, the side section simply slides out from under the lid. The skids have stops that prevent the section from being pulled out too far. When pulled out, the lid will tilt slightly at first, but when fully unfolded it will be flush with the side section. Since the pull-out sections are part of the design, you won’t have to search through closets and closets for them when you need to lay out the table before guests arrive. You simply pull out a section or two – even if the table is already set.

Design options

The system with retractable sections is compatible with any type of table support, provided that drawers are available. Thus, a trestle table or a two-legged table (as in the picture on the right), equipped with drawers, can have pull-out sections to increase the number of seats. However, the system is not well suited for countertops with shapes other than rectilinear. When folded, the side section is retracted under the lid and its edges remain (or should remain) visible. If the shape is different from the shape of the lid, then the table will probably look quite strange when folded. For example, a semicircular side section located under a square or rectangular lid will create a gap between the lid and the drawers.

Double-support table with extensions
sections

A table with a sliding folding lid (tabletop) is relatively rare. Despite its low prevalence, this is an excellent system. The table has one additional section - a duplicate of the “main” lid; this section is connected to the lid using hinges and, when folded, lies on the main section (lid). To unfold the table, the “double” tabletop is moved to its extreme position (up to half of the underframe), and then the additional section is folded back onto the underframe. The upper edges of the drawers should be covered with felt or felt to facilitate the sliding of the lid. Making a sliding mechanism is not difficult. Each runner has a ridge that fits into a groove in its guide. The disadvantage is that during periods of high humidity the ridges may become stuck in the grooves. The basic version is usually configured as a side table. When unfolded, the edges of the tabletop are quite far from the tabletop, which creates sufficient space for people to sit under the table. The Y-shape of the legs will provide sufficient space for the legs of those sitting at the ends of the table.

Design options

When folded, this table looks like a somewhat strange dining table. To limit the overhang of the tabletop over the underframe (ensuring stability), the size of the base part should be close to the size of the folded tabletop. Therefore, a folding tabletop should be used on a type of table that does not look strange with a small tabletop overhang. Good options for this use include a side table (as a base table), a sofa table (shown here) and other tables and tables special purpose. When folded, these tables can be placed close to the wall. Folding tops are commonly used in traditional card tables, but without a sliding mechanism. However, the sliding mechanism will work here too.

A table with a folding board (or boards) is practically a “generic” name for all tables in which sections of the tabletop are connected to each other by hinges. It is a common species and has been present throughout American history. In any style of furniture, from William and Mary style to modern, you will find a table with a folding board. This table has folding boards as part of the design. When not in use, they can be lowered into a vertical position, saving space in the room. There are many ways to keep the folding sections in the raised position. The example shown here uses pull-out holders - you lift the board and slide out the support brackets from underneath it (much like a drawer). For some other support systems, see a table with swivel frame supports, a table with swivel legs, a book table, and several card tables. The main thing to think about for this type of table is the width of the folding boards, which can be optimally supported by retractable or swivel/hinge arms. Make the folding boards relatively narrow - say, no wider than 38 cm. For wider sections, see options with swivel frame supports or swivel legs. A long folding board, like the example shown here, will require more than one bracket. Incidentally, this example received an interesting name in the 20th century, which applies to a relatively long, utilitarian table with hinged lids. This name, which can be translated as “suffering,” creates in consciousness a picture of a decomposed large table", stocked with food for hungry seasonal farm workers during the harvest season. Regardless of what we call it now, the people who sat at such a table in 1840 or 1880 probably called it a clapper table or a folding table.

Design options

While a basic dining table is quite long and relatively narrow, with a rectangular top with sharp corners, a drop-board table can be of almost any size, proportion and shape. The table top (tabletop) may have folding boards of a round or slightly rounded shape. On a shortened or square base, you can install a round, square or oval tabletop. You can round the corners of the folding sections or make their outer edges curved.

Book table is the Russian name for a table with rotating frame supports, which are hinged to the frame-leg-leg assembly. The support post is connected to the rotating post by an upper and lower crossbar. The entire support can be rotated so that the raised folding section (board) can be placed on it. The swivel support became the predecessor of the swivel leg. It contains many structural elements that reflect the state of carpentry in the 16th century when it appeared. But like any well-made frame, it is structurally rigid and makes an excellent support for a folding board. Although the first such tables usually had two frame supports (one for each folding board), there were often tables with one folding board and one swivel support, and it happened the other way around - there were several leviathans with 12 swivel supports. When folded, tables were usually very narrow and saved significant space. A large table with two swivel legs on each folding board can be made so that the legs swivel both towards each other and away from each other. If they turn towards each other, then when the folding boards are lowered, the supporting posts of the frames will be located next to the main legs, visually making them more massive. When rotated away from each other, the support posts will be positioned side by side, creating the appearance of a table with six legs. The first tables were usually made in the Baroque style, with a complex turned profile of the legs. However, the example shown is completely modern in style.

Design options

A significant advantage of the book-table is the ability to support very large additional sections. Reliable support under the folding board makes the table very stable even with one section raised. Thus, it is difficult to make a very narrow table with wide folding boards. When folded, the table takes up very little space. When unfolded, it has a huge tabletop

This table can justifiably be called a table with folding boards, but the swivel leg sets it apart from others of its kind. The swivel leg is a descendant of the frame swivel support (see page 158). If the swivel support is attached to the table frame, consisting of a drawer, legs and a leg, then the swivel leg is attached only to the drawer. The result is a lighter appearance. It is the size rather than the assembly of the swivel leg that characterizes this table. The tabletop diameter of only 107 cm will be quite comfortable for four. The swivel leg is used in card tables with small folding tabletops. During the Queen Anne period, a smaller version of the table shown here was called a "breakfast table" and was used both for actual breakfast and for games and tea parties. Larger tables will likely need additional swivel legs to provide better support for the tip boards. A hinge joint—essentially a wooden hinge—makes a swivel leg feasible. A fancier version than shown here makes the connection look like a metal loop.

Design options

The design of a rotating table leg with folding boards appeared in the first half of the 18th century. Although we chose a Queen Anne style table as our “base”, the swivel leg has been used in many different styles of tables. The profile of the leg will generally be an indicator of style. Chippendale style swing leg tables often have cabriole designs, but always with a claw-and-ball finish. Square shaped legs are also used in Chippendale tables. During the federal
Hepplewhite style tables had tapering legs, as shown here, and Sheraton style tables had turned, often embossed, legs.

The unfolded folding boards transform
rectangular table to square

The advantage of a table with a frame swivel support over a table with a swivel leg is the stability created by the additional legs. When the folding boards are raised, they are supported by additional legs. A table with swing legs also has this advantage over a table with swing legs, but also has one advantage over a table with frame swing legs. Like the swing leg table, this table has an additional leg for each folding board. But only a narrow crossbar connects the leg to the table. These crossbars are placed in a cage of two guides installed between the longitudinal drawers, and are pulled out through the cutouts in the drawers. The leg is attached to the crossbars. Raise the folding board, extend the leg and lower the board onto it. You have a leg under the folding board and still have four legs under the stationary table top. This structure can support very wide folding boards.

Design options

Here are two very different tables with extendable legs, each of which has excellent stability thanks to the additional leg (or legs) when unfolded. When the card table is folded and placed against the wall, the additional leg is not noticeable. By unfolding the gaming table and extending the additional leg, you will have support at each corner of the tabletop. Perfect. Extendable legs are also a great addition to a long table with folding boards. If you make two extendable legs for each board, the table will not lose stability when someone leans too hard on it.

The table-chair owes its appearance to medieval practicality. In the Middle Ages, dwellings were small and drafty. Any furniture was expensive, everything was done hand tools. And if a piece of furniture could perform more than one function, well, so much the better. The table-chair is clearly universal. With the lid down, it's a table. With the lid raised there is a seat. And as with most universal things, its functionality is far from perfect. With the development of the furniture industry, the table-chair became more advanced in design and elegant in appearance. The product shown here has legs and armrests attached to the sides of the seat with tenon-to-socket joints. The pronounced end of the shoe-shaped legs makes the chair more stable and the armrests more comfortable. The chair even has an under-seat drawer for more sophisticated storage than a box with a lid. The table top is attached with a dovetail mortise.

A table - an integral attribute of every home - can be made of different materials, have a simple or intricate shape and carry out different functions, but it is absolutely impossible to do without it. Not everyone understands why make a table with your own hands, if such an ordinary item can be easily bought at any furniture store. Indeed, not everyone dares to make furniture with their own hands.

But the daredevil who thoughtfully gets down to business will certainly enjoy the process and the excellent result of his labors. Some come to this wanting to save money, especially if they need something simple. Others, obeying a creative impulse, want to have in their home unique item interior that will improve your mood and self-esteem. In addition, a table created with your own hands always has ideal proportions and matches the interior style of your particular home.

Product shape and design

A wooden table is an environmentally friendly, aesthetic and durable product that will fit well into both an apartment and a country house. Moreover, there are options for special garden tables. It can be light, portable, or solid and massive, have different models and shapes:

• Angular;
• Oval;
• "Book";
• Folding;
• Sliding;
• Transformer.

Transformers are perhaps the most interesting category of tables. When folded, they are very compact and look like a small bedside table. If you put it against the wall, it will take no more than half a meter. A table of this shape is indispensable in conditions of limited space, when it is not possible to hold a large dining table for a dozen people. Hinged tabletop covers are attached using a hinge system. Transformers are usually rectangular, but there are also round models.

Before you get started, decide what configuration and size you need. Below are general recommendations from professionals:

• A handmade table must match the room for which it is created, both in size and style;
• When creating an outdoor option, it is important to think in advance how many people will use it at one time;
• A folding table is an excellent option for hospitable hosts. This product will be used assembled for family dinners and will be a godsend when receiving guests;
• For a comfortable feast, the space at the table allocated for each guest must be at least 70 cm;
• The children's model should be designed in accordance with the age and height of the child.

Manufacturing will cost some effort and time, but the result will please you. After all, a product created with my own hands, will be inexpensive and fully consistent with your ideas and desires. If you wish, you can make an entire furniture set, but this will require special skills and dexterity.

Before you start making a table, you should carefully read the drawing so as not to waste materials.

Tables can be divided into the following design types:

• Made from solid wood;
• Prefabricated (from terraced, tongue-and-groove, unedged boards);
• Glued;
• Made in the form of a “shield” of lamellas.

Furniture made from solid wood is considered elite and has a fairly high cost. The remaining options are simpler and can be used either in pure form or in combination. Glued board tabletops look very nice different breeds wood made with epoxy is a resin-based adhesive. Natural wood grain and different textures create an incredible effect. Products made using this technology very durable and resistant to deformation.

Material selection

The most popular material for making tables and other garden furniture is a tree. This is easily explained, because wood has a number of significant advantages over other materials, such as metal or concrete. The tree has the following advantages:

• Ease of processing;
• High aesthetics;
• Resistance to different climatic conditions;
• High depreciation;
• Possibility of restoration;
• Wide possibilities in the field of processing and painting;
• Safety for human health;
• Low cost of certain categories of wood;
• The beauty of natural patterns.

Natural wood– a material with a beautiful natural texture, quite inexpensive, environmentally friendly and durable. It is moisture resistant if specially processed, malleable for carpentry tools, and therefore excellent for making home furniture and utensils.

The appearance of the finished product and its characteristics will depend on the type of material and its preparation, so you should start with the selection of wood. Each type of wood has its own hardness. The most popular tree species can be identified:

• Spruce, pine and cedar are softwoods. An easy-to-process material, but prone to deformation, drying out and cracking;

• Oak, beech, larch and birch are representatives of hardwood. Beautiful and noble types of wood. Moisture resistant and durable. Power tools will be required to process oak and other hardwood products;

• Superhard materials - yew, hornbeam and acacia - have an extremely dense internal structure and are highly durable materials. Requires professional industrial processing.

To make a wooden table you will need edged board or timber. A table made from slabs will have a brutal look and fit perfectly into Vacation home in hunting style. A wide slab can serve as material for an entire tabletop. Another material for creating a tabletop is a cut from a trunk. First, a trunk of the required diameter is selected, then an even cut is made and varnished. This technology generates a large amount of waste.

The durability of the product depends not only on the wood processing, but also on the choice of wood species. Hardwoods are not always a good choice. Under conditions of temperature changes and high humidity, the tree swells and crumbles. The best option for a street or country tabletop is elastic wood. Characteristics such as hardness and elasticity provide resistance to deformation. Spruce, aspen, larch and linden boast such properties.

Before starting carpentry work, the wood must be sanded and treated with an antiseptic, and finally it will need varnishing. In addition, stain will give the product a finished look.

Preparing tools

If you are inspired by new ideas and decide to make a wooden table with your own hands, You will need to prepare the following tools for work:

• Reismus;
• Saw;
• Jigsaw;
• Hacksaw;
• Jointer;
• Milling cutter;
• Screwdriver;
• Drill;
• Grinding device;
• Clamps;
• Pencil,
• Roulette,
• Square.

In order for the work to proceed, consider the shape and size of the product, prepare drawings. The size of the product will depend on the area allocated for it, and the average height is 70 cm. Here is a list of materials needed for work:

• Antiseptic;
• Sandpaper of varying degrees of grain;
• Boards;
• Beam or slab;
• Paint and stain;
• Glue.

For a standard family of four, a square-shaped table with a side width of one meter is suitable. The size of 120 by 90 cm will accommodate both owners and guests.

Construction of a drawing

The drawing is a diagram that clearly describes the sequence of actions, following which the expected result is guaranteed. If a unique design is conceived, then you will have to work on the diagram and drawings yourself. To do this, you can use a computer program, then print out the resulting documents so that you have a visual guide.

Manufacturing of parts

The step-by-step process of making a wooden tabletop can be described as follows:

• Select the required amount of materials. For a standard width you will need 6-7 boards 3 cm thick. Only perfectly flat, jointed boards are suitable. Knots are not a hindrance.
• Treat the wood with antiseptic treatment and dry thoroughly.
• Lay out the boards in the shape of an even rectangle. Align the joints.
• Place a block on both sides and cut straight.

• Screw the timber to the boards. On the back of the tabletop, in the center of the boards on each side, drill a hole for the bolt through the block 2/3 of the way through. Make the recess on the beam wider so that the head of the bolt sinks.
• Round the corners.
• Attach the board diagonally from the bottom with self-tapping screws coated with glue.
• Sand the surface first with coarse sandpaper, then with softer sandpaper.
• Cover the product with stain and varnish. If desired, the table can be painted.

Homemade table top made of laminated wood

Tables made of this material have a smooth and uniform structure, without joints or crevices. Another argument in favor of this technology will be its resistance to deformation and cracking. To make a table, you will need 4 boards with smoothly planed edges, having the following parameters - 1x1.5x0.5 m. The operating algorithm is as follows:

• At the ends, at a distance of 10-12 cm, make holes measuring 8-12 mm. They are needed for attaching dowels and dowels. Holes in the two side boards are made on one side only.
• Fold the boards correctly before applying glue.
• Sand the boards and coat them with glue.
• Insert dowels and fasten the boards.
• Align the ends and make sure each board is in the correct position.
• Place the finished tabletop on a flat surface and press tightly with a clamp.
• Leave to dry.

Making a round table

To bring to life the idea of ​​​​creating a round table with your own hands, you need to have the following materials:

• Square timber (width – 100 mm, length 750 mm – 4 pcs;
• Boards 100 by 20 mm, length 750 mm – 2 pcs;
• Boards 250 by 40 mm, length 2000 mm – 4 pcs;
• Boards 100 by 20 mm, length 800 mm – 2 pcs;
• Boards 100 by 20 mm, length 1600 mm – 2 pcs.

Step by step instructions to creating a handmade round table:

• Stack four long boards tightly together.
• Draw a circle.
• Cut along the line with a jigsaw.
• Make a rectangular frame and fasten the circle with screws.

• Attach the legs to the frame.
• Check stability and then disassemble.
• Sand the wood with sandpaper. First hard, then soft.
• Cover with stain and varnish.

At first glance, it seems that the most important detail of the table is the tabletop. However, do not underestimate the legs of the product. After all, they are the ones who decorate the table and give it a certain style. The legs must correspond to the basic style of the model and the necessary parameters.

The paradox is that the more complex and elaborate the table legs are, the less they will last. The most reliable will be simple wooden, stable and lightweight supports. You don't have to make drawings for them. Stages of making table legs:

• Selection of four equal length (85 cm) bars;
• Installation of bars in the corners of the tabletop;
• Connection on each side with boards or beams: two equal to length, and two – width;
• This design is glued to the table and left to dry.

The table does not always have standard four legs; sometimes craftsmen resort to creating a table base from a frame and one or two legs. Glue can be replaced with furniture corners, which are fastened with self-tapping screws, or for reliability, use both options. You can create an unusual fantasy model by evenly attaching the tabletop to ornate and fancy wood roots. This will be a stunning piece that only you will have.

Assembly Features

Holes are drilled in each element of the product, then the parts are connected with bolts, which makes the product truly durable. You can enhance the effect using fixed with good glue. Self-tapping screws are screwed in from the inside at an acute angle relative to the board. If the finished product is noticeably wobbly, use special belts with clamps. This will help make the structure more reliable and stable.

For the legs are taken wooden blocks, which must be processed with a planer in the shape of a cone. Carved balusters, which you can either buy or carve yourself, are also great for this. lathe. By doing the construction with your own hands, a person gains skills in working with wood, so if the need arises to repair the product, it will not cause difficulties. You will already have all the necessary arsenal of tools. In addition, you will need wood and means for restoring old wooden products.

Treatment

Getting a good and solid result is not so difficult. The main thing is to comply with everything the necessary conditions. After carrying out the main work, the time comes for the final, but no less important stage - varnishing the product. In order to carry out this operation correctly, follow the following rules:

• Sand the edges of the tabletop by hand;
• Apply a high-quality varnish to the entire product. In addition, painting some parts of the table with paint will look very decorative;
• Flaws in the work are well masked with putty that matches the color.

The most popular option for decorative finishing of a wooden table is to cover its surface with a transparent or colored varnish, which will highlight the natural wood pattern and provide its protection from the influence of external factors.

In order for a product made by hand to serve for many years, remaining the pride of the owner, It is recommended to follow simple rules:

• Avoid direct contact of the product with open sun and do not leave it outside in the rain;
• Keep the surface clean;
• Treat with polish;
• In winter, keep the table indoors so that the varnish coating is not damaged.

Before assembly, each wooden part must be treated with fire retardants, which will serve as protection against rotting, increase moisture resistance and fire resistance.

Exterior decoration and design

The most enjoyable stage of making furniture with your own hands is, of course, the decorative finishing, which each craftsman performs in his own way. In order to get an original model, you need to think about the external design of the product. Sections of medium-sized trunks, decoratively laid out on the tabletop, will come to your aid. Wood carvings are also a wonderful decoration. Carved legs and table top will give the product elegance and lightness.

Many people prefer to decorate the tabletop with glass. This option is suitable if the table is located indoors. A hand-painted table is unlikely to go unnoticed by guests. This product will add a special touch to any room.

For those who are not good at drawing, suitable option transferring a design through a stencil. This is, indeed, extremely simple, but there are some nuances: it is recommended to apply a pattern acrylic paints, since when they harden, they form a thin film and therefore do not spread.

Allow the previous coat to dry before applying a new coat of paint. You can work with either a brush or a roller.

The frame around the edges of the tabletop always looks decent. Painting tape will help create a perfectly straight line. Cover the finished drawing with varnish. The simplest and most proven option is to play with the color of the boards. Using paint, stain and sandpaper you can create the effect of aged wood. Products of “noble antiquity” always look impressive and expensive.

The decoupage technique is simply a godsend for creating the decor of a new wooden table or restoring retro furniture. This method involves attaching a paper picture to the surface of the product using furniture varnish. The choice of design is made according to the taste of the owner. These can be images of nature and animals, rhythmic patterns, black and white graphics, and even photos from family archive. Materials can include napkins, newspaper clippings and vintage postcards.

A new table can be easily enhanced with mosaic tiles. Today, construction stores offer a wide selection of it. It is advisable to use one set of tiles so that there are no inconsistencies in height and do not create unnecessary relief, which can damage the pattern and make the table uncomfortable to use. In addition to the mosaic, you need to purchase glue and grout. Briefly, the process of creating a countertop with mosaic masonry can be described as follows:

• The surface of the countertop is degreased with alcohol;
• Then it is processed with sandpaper;
• Start laying out from the outer edges;
• Secure the elements;

• Leave to dry for a day;
• Dilute the grout to the desired consistency;
• Carefully coat the seams;
• After an hour, remove the remaining grout;
• Let the product rest for two days, then wipe with a cloth with added vegetable oil for shine.

Budget option mosaic decor will be table decoration with eggshells. It is necessary to crush the shell into medium-sized crumbs, then place it with tweezers on the surface of the countertop, previously greased with PVA glue. Try to leave the gaps between the shells minimal. If desired, the shell can be painted.

Tabletops with decorated with gold leaf. Potal is a thin sheet of metal alloys that imitates gold. This material can be purchased at art stores. The required pattern is applied with special glue to the surface of the table; after 15 minutes, cover it with a sheet of gold leaf, carefully smoothing it out. Then you need to walk over the surface with a soft brush and admire the result.

Glowing table– an excellent design solution, and also quite simple to implement. The finished product is equipped with special lighting - small lamps or a strip with LEDs are built in, providing the most different variants backlight: from simple to colored.

Modern kitchen sets often do not include such an essential item as a dining table, and if it is included in the basic package, it is usually made according to a standard design from cheap pressed wood. Of course, such products are not famous original design and strength. Such tables are usually inexpensive, but it’s still better to abandon an unsuccessful purchase in favor of a homemade wooden dining table, which any beginner in home carpentry can create.

Physical labor associated with woodworking (sawing, planing) usually brings great pleasure to novice craftsmen, and a successful result will not be long in coming.

It is important that the activity associated with independent design and assembly of wooden models is a very creative process. It’s rare that someone tries to completely replicate a model they like from a store. Usually the design of the model is taken as a basis, and the remaining parameters are finalized by the master according to his own inspiration. On the veranda or in the country house, utility rooms It is better to choose transforming designs:

• Folding,
• Hiking;
• Hanging;
• Garden;
• Level.

Tables for stationary use are made in constant sizes:

• Coffee;
• Massage;
• Writing
• For laptop;
• For the bath.

The assembly of such products is very durable, the parts are held together tightly, and there are no hinge joints.

Tables for a garden or terrace usually have a standard rectangular or round shape. However, there are craftsmen who manage to make a table in rustic style in the form of a stump, and the bench in the form of a log, which looks very impressive. This ensemble is easily complemented by stools made from sections of logs in the same style. As you can see, making a wooden table yourself is not a difficult job.

If you follow the instructions exactly, correct selection high-quality materials and suitable tools, you are guaranteed to get a durable and beautiful table, which will fit perfectly in terms of parameters and style into your interior.

A table is the second item after a stool that a novice amateur furniture maker should take on. The design of a simple table is no more complicated than that of a stool; an unpretentious, comfortable table for the country house or for a picnic can be built in half a day using a hacksaw, hammer and drill. But a table made using the same technology and slightly refined can look great at home, on the left in the figure, instead of an expensive one. However, the table also gives greater freedom of creative expression; it can be meaningful and even key element interior design, it is not for nothing that artisanal furniture makers are called carpenters, and not sofa makers, cabinet makers or nightstand makers. Having become proficient in carpentry, you will eventually be able to take on exclusive tables and other positions. right there.

This article discusses how to make tables from wood. Wood is an environmentally friendly, affordable and easily processed material with remarkable aesthetic advantages. In utilitarian products, it forgives beginners quite serious mistakes, but delicate woodwork requires high skill. Having learned how to make wooden things, it will be much easier to master glass, metal and plastic.

Tool and workshop

To make a table with your own hands, you need a separate living rooms production area: woodworking is notoriously dusty. In addition, such good means of tinting and protecting wood as stains emit harmful fumes during the staining process; nitro varnishes too, although to a lesser extent. Therefore, home carpentry should be well ventilated, or better yet, with forced ventilation. You can use the garage, but there will be a lot of sawdust, and it will not be good for the car. Better to work in a barn; if it doesn’t exist yet, then you can build it, and it will be useful for a lot of things on the farm.

An ordinary carpenter's tool, on the left in the figure, will be enough for a start. But the work will go much faster, and the result will be better, if you attract help from modern achievements, on the right there:

• Rotary miter box, pos. 1, allows you to make cuts exactly to size and angle in 2 planes. It is advisable to take it with a complete bow saw, so everything together will be cheaper and the work will be more accurate. A miter box is a universal device, it will always come in handy and it is better to buy it.
• Also universal is a manual jigsaw with a tilting shoe, pos. 2, which allows you to cut at an angle to the vertical plane.
• Disc grinder, pos. 3 and 4, gives a beginner the opportunity in 5-15 minutes to obtain the surface of a wooden surface, which would take an experienced carpenter with sandpaper in hand at least an hour to achieve, and a tape one, pos. 5, also process ends quickly and efficiently; is there some more belt sanders for grooves and recesses with a protruding working element. These are already specialized tools, unsuitable for other work, and quite expensive, so it’s better to rent them first. True, craftsmen still successfully brush with grinders, i.e. They artificially age the wood, but this is delicate work.
• It is also preferable at first to rent a manual wood router, pos. 6, with a set of cutters. They process shaped edges and select holes and grooves.

In general, a universal household woodworking machine (UBDS) of various modifications is very useful on the farm. It is compact, fits on the table, power supply – 220 V 50/60 Hz 380-500 W. UBDS combines circular saw, jointing, wood turning machines and a set of cutters. True, you can’t just turn the table legs on it; the reach of the tailstock caliper is too small. But the caliper itself is just a steel round pipe; it’s not difficult to lengthen it. The cutter stop remains standard, it is movable, the leg and the long support are sharpened in one setting.

How to choose a tree?

A wooden table can be made from any wood of average resistance to decay, except for the softest species: poplar, aspen, alder, willow, ailanthus. Domestic ones include:

The breeds are listed in order of availability. For example, timber harvesting of horse chestnut, plane tree and juniper is not carried out at all: the former are too valuable for landscaping in the southern regions, and juniper is endangered and is protected. Industrial harvests of elm are almost entirely used for shoe lasts, weaving shuttles, etc., and rowan berries are used for weapon stocks; There is no full-fledged plastic replacement for them yet. Stone birch grows very slowly, in limited places, and does not renew itself well, so its harvesting is strictly regulated, and its wood is expensive.

Note: Walnut is especially valuable for furniture - its wood combines high hardness with excellent toughness; the most delicate carvings on walnut do not chip. And walnut wood from burls - large growths on the trunk - is not inferior in texture to Karelian birch.

At the beginning of a carpentry career, it is better to limit yourself to pine, birch, oak, acacia and boxwood. The countertop will be pine or oak; birch - on the legs of a pine table; in the countertop it warps a lot from spills. Acacia and boxwood make excellent dowels, see below.

For a pine tabletop made from boards, you can and even should use low-grade cheap boards - knotty, twisted ones. But, of course, without falling knots, cracks, wormholes and traces of rot in the form of spots of unnatural color: black, gray, blue, green, in general, not similar to this tree. For example, traces of rot on black (ebony) wood may be whitish or yellowish.

Why is there substandard quality on the countertop? Perhaps also unedged, which needs to be finished using a circular saw and jointer? And after skillful processing, they turn out to be layers of remarkable beauty, on the left in Fig. Manufacturers do not like such wood: the production cycle is delayed and waste increases. But for yourself, doing it yourself is not so scary compared to the result.

Wooden pot

Commercial pine has a clearly defined wood zonation in the form of annual growth rings; other conifers and many deciduous species also have it. On the cut of the board, the rings form the so-called. hump in the form of thin concentric arcs. If the top of the tree is directed across the face of the board, as in Fig. in the center, then when joining the shield for the tabletop (see below), the boards are oriented with their humps alternately up and down, from below in Fig. If the humps are directed towards the end of the board (on the right in the figure), then the boards are placed in the shield with their humps in one direction. These subtleties are necessary so that during operation the tabletop does not crack or warp.

Varnishes, paints, impregnation, glue

A free way to protect wood from rotting is used motor oil, but for what you eat, this is not the best option. Impregnation with water-polymer emulsion (WPE) twice, with a break of 3-5 days, would be optimal; it will provide protection to the table for the entire duration of its life. Even birch plywood impregnated with EPE is suitable for furniture front panels: coated with varnish on top, it does not delaminate.

Old furniture nitrocellulose varnishes NTs-218 and NTs-2144 with solvent No. 647 are gradually going out of use: they are superior in all respects to water-based acrylic varnishes; In addition, they are safe to use. Also, glues, bone carpentry and BF-2 with alcohol are inferior to PVA; True, to obtain a high-quality seam, the latter requires applying glue to both surfaces, keeping them touch-free before joining and keeping them under pressure for 1-3 days, but in home production this is acceptable for yourself.

Wood for furniture can be tinted in advance and protected with stain, which allows you to make beautiful typesetting parts; an example will be given below. To tint the assembled units, you can use paints based on the same varnish and artistic (not painting!) dyes: oil in tubes for NC varnishes and acrylic water-based for the same varnish.

First, prepare the “painting”: take 30-50 ml of varnish and squeeze 1-1.5 cm of paint into it while continuously stirring thoroughly with a painting brush. The paint is stored in a tightly closed bottle and added to the varnish to the desired tone; a test for it is made on a piece of wood, the tone is determined by completely dry varnish Colored varnishes based on NC and oil paints can be mixed according to the mixing rules oil paints for painting; acrylic - no restrictions.

First steps

The country table is the first of the homemade ones. If there are 1-2 brick pallets left from the construction site, then a table made from pallets will be the first of the first. Not only because it is extremely simple, but also because it is very useful on the farm.

From one pallet, sanded, impregnated and varnished, it turns out garden table like a magazine one, on the left in the figure. If you have a pair in stock, you can make a wall-mounted work desk-rack out of them in literally half an hour, in the center and on the right. You can also weave chains for it yourself from soft wire, covered with a PVC tube or, better, heat-shrinkable. To completely raise the tabletop small tool placed on the shelf of a wall pallet.

With a little more work, a prefabricated cutting table for the dacha is made from one pallet, allowing you to move the summer-autumn harvesting campaign outside without littering with husks and without trampling on stalks. For the winter, this table is assembled into a compact package. The design is clear from Fig; Place a bucket under the hatch in the countertop.

The next in order of complexity is the well-known country trestle table, in common parlance a goat. Its structure of 40 mm boards is shown on the left in the figure, and in addition to it is a bench of the same device. And on the right is a country folding table based on the same principle. It has articulated joints (M8-M12 bolts, washers and nuts with locknuts); in the place marked in green, a stop boss is placed on nails between the crossbars of the table top. When folded, this table fits in the trunk of a car, so it’s also suitable for going on a picnic. If this is not expected, or the trunk is larger, the table top can be made longer.

Finally, a gazebo table also does not require any special tools or skills, see fig. below. The material is the same magpie board and some inexpensive fasteners.

One step closer to art...

To advance in table building, you now need to learn some of the basics of carpentry. A table, in general, consists of a table top, its supporting frame, possibly with niches and/or mechanisms, or simply a plate - a base - legs, and the nodes that hold everything together. Let's go through them starting with the connections along with the legs, because... their fastening is the weakest point of the table.

Connections and legs

At first, we need to master the connection on dowels - round wooden bosses, see fig. Dowel joints are assembled using quick-drying glue that does not require curing: wood glue, BF-2, acrylic. Sometimes, to connect thin boards, instead of dowels, nails with bitten off heads are used, pos. 4, but this is bad: the wood dries out, but the metal does not, and over time the connection becomes loose.

For dowels, use thin-layered wood that is stronger than both parts being connected, i.e. the hardest rocks. A pine table on birch legs can be connected with oak or beech dowels. There are ready-made round sticks for cutting dowels on sale; Before use, the edges of the dowels are chamfered. Plastic dowels are also sold, but they are intended exclusively for detachable connections, e.g. inserts in sliding tables.

The legs are attached to industrial tables with detachable drawers, see fig. on right. The item marked in yellow is the simplest, cheapest and worst. Buyers of Shiroptrebov Soviet furniture are well aware of its shortcomings and complete lack of advantages, let it remain there. Reliable, holds well, except for the legs, and the boards of the underframe, drawers with mortise jibs, “green” pos. They also demand least cost, but are quite labor-intensive, so they are rarely used in industry, but just right for an amateur. The drawbar with a shaped steel jib, at the top right in the figure, is even stronger; In this way, you can attach round-headed legs or any legs in general, but you will need purchased shaped parts made of high-quality steel.

Note: The legs are attached to the round table as shown below in Fig.

Detachable legs are needed not only for ease of storage and transportation. IN small apartment With narrow corridor a table with legs is often simply impossible to fit into the living room, no matter how you turn it. Modern apartments more spacious, and in 1-story private houses the table can be brought in/out through the window, so in such cases the strength and durability of a table with tightly secured legs comes to the fore.

For tables on a rectangular base, the heads of the legs for blind fastening must also be rectangular, pos. 1 in Fig. By the way, the drawers can also be one-piece: then the legs have dowels that pass through a mortise wooden jib. From the inside, the dowels are cut flush and wedged with dogwood or boxwood wedges inserted across the grain of the jib wood. Assembled with glue, such a connection is so strong and durable that you can fight with these 200-year-old tables by grabbing the legs.

Sufficiently high-quality tables with turned legs are simply assembled on dowels, pos. 2. For simpler tables, the legs are made of timber and fastened with self-tapping screws after attaching the tabletop to the tabletop, pos. 3. Even simpler and lighter are the legs from a pair of boards each, pos. 4 and 5. To prevent them from clinging to the floor, you need to put thrust bearings on them below or put the table on wheels.

Tabletop

The easiest, but not the cheapest, option is to order a countertop made of laminated chipboard (chipboard, laminate). Laminated chipboard for countertops is produced in the form of so-called. postforming - 3.6x1.2 m slabs 20-60 mm thick with a decorative coating. The upper edge of the postforming plate is rounded, the lower edge has a drip tray, see fig. Modern furniture laminate is completely environmentally friendly, no matter what those who don’t want to forget the furniture, which stank of phenol for months, gossip about.

Postforming is well purchased by small furniture enterprises. They always have his waste; They will gladly cut your tabletop to size for you at an affordable price if the company has a jig cutting machine. Perhaps such an order will be accepted by a single individual entrepreneur if he is sitting idle. The finished slab will be edged, i.e. cover the end of the PVC with edging (edge). If you do the edging yourself (sometimes they ask for an absurd extra payment for edging), then keep in mind:

• The upper and lower flanges of the edging have different profile, see on the left in Fig. Mix it up and there will always be a dirt edging on the table.
• The edging must be taken exactly according to the thickness of the slab. You can put a 24 mm edging on a 25 mm slab, but it will soon slide off.
• The groove for the edging ridge must be selected using a manual disk cutter; No one seems to have done it properly with a saw yet.
• Before installing the edging, a thin layer of silicone sealant is applied to the surface of the end and the “sausage” is squeezed into the groove; in this case, the silicone will also act as a lubricant, without which the edge ridge may simply become wrinkled.
• The comb is inserted into the groove with light blows of the mallet, gradually moving along the contour. The tabletop should lie face up on the support; squeezed out excess silicone is immediately wiped off with a clean rag lightly moistened with table vinegar.

Plank tabletops are held together in plank frames with wedges and spacers - wedges. It’s quite possible to make the vamps yourself; You need 3-4 per tabletop. The boards (cheeks) of the weim are wrapped in polyethylene so that the shield does not stick to them. In Fig. for example, the process of making a round tabletop; The rectangular one is put together in the same way, only cutting it to size is easier. The shield is attached to the tabletop using glue and dowels (see below); if the boards are tongue-and-groove, dowels are not needed. When rallying on PVA, the next plot is kept until the applied glue comes off before installing it in the clamp.

Often, countertops are assembled without bands on a plaza - a flat surface covered with plastic film. It will not be possible to assemble a good board panel on the plaza: either it will come out cracked, or the boards will stand on end when assembling it. But in the right hands, stacked tabletops made from fragments are simply wonderful. For example, at pos. 1-3 fig. – tabletop made from sawing waste, tinted with stain. And at pos. 4-5 The base of the tabletop was the platform itself, made of thick plywood. The tile and its chips are glued with tile adhesive, then the depressions are filled with grout, the surface is varnished and the outline is outlined with a wooden strip edge.

Note: These examples do not illustrate all the possibilities of making inlaid artistic tabletops with your own hands.

Underframe

The table base with non-removable legs is a simple wooden frame, on the left in Fig. Niches and parts of mechanisms are not involved in the power circuit. If the table is longer than 1.2 m, or the tabletop is removable/extendable, or large operating loads are expected (for example, a work table), the underframe is reinforced with stiffening ribs in the center. If the legs are attached with drawers, then the underframe is made integral with the tabletop to create a single power circuit, on the right in Fig.

Without frame

Tables without an underframe are also known, in which the tabletop and legs work in a single supporting system. Very durable, e.g. plywood table on the left in the figure; its connections are dowel. Unfortunately, this is not an economical design for an amateur: the sidewalls cannot be assembled from pieces, they must be solid. In mass production, the waste is not very large, but a sheet of plywood with a thickness of 24 mm or more will be used in one piece for large sidewalls, and another 1 piece for smaller ones. The table on the right is quite possible to make with your own hands: load-bearing frame made; connections - in a tenon with a tightening bolt and half a tree. However, the tabletop in this case should be round or square, with rounded or right corners.

... and we find ourselves in the kitchen

Exactly. The kitchen table is the next in order of complexity after the simplest country tables. It should already meet the requirements of apartment ergonomics, dimensions - 75 cm in height for people of average size; the width of the place for 1 eater/rider is 60-80 cm, depending on its corpulence, the width of the tabletop is at least 70 cm. The aesthetic appearance is very desirable, but is not decisive: suddenly you messed up with the decoration, that’s why the tablecloth. The countertop should be easy to clean, durable, and resistant to spilled heat from hot dishes.

All these requirements will be satisfied by a table made of laminated chipboard on metal legs; They are also sold separately in sets of 4 pieces, with fasteners, on the left in Fig. Factory-made table legs are usually equipped with height-adjustable heels. A table, the manufacture of which will be reduced to screwing the leg sockets with confirmatory screws, will cost 30-50% less than a completely purchased one, and in appearance it will not be inferior to it, on the right in Fig.

If you are not too lazy to put your hands to it, you can make steel legs with your own hands. This is not only a cheaper, but also a more durable option: the sockets of the branded legs are cast from rather fragile silumin, the fastenings weaken over time and need to be tightened. You can cut out the nests yourself from good steel, and weld the very legs into them.

In a larger kitchen, there may be room for a larger table. In such a case, follow up. rice. Rustic style kitchen table plans. This table is “rustic” not only in appearance: it does not have a single nail or metal fasteners at all. Just wood and glue. A connoisseur, seeing this, nods his head in understanding and approval, and the design is simple and accessible to a beginner. True, in addition to the tabletop, you will also have to assemble the panels for the sidewalls, but in this case the extra work is worth it.

Kruglyashi

A table with a round top is appropriate in any room, if it fits there. But a tabletop made of boards in this case is not the best the best option: due to the presence of sharp corners, it is without a frame, which is very complex and labor-intensive, and is susceptible to splitting. Composite countertops made from small fragments, like the one described above from waste, are free from this drawback; Unlike laminate roundels, they are decorative, stylish, unique and practically free.

There are even more sharp corners in a finely-set countertop, but here the “broom law” comes into play. Not the American Senator Venik, who loves democracy in Russia to the point of complete oblivion about it at home, but that broom that is used to sweep away trash. As you know, it is impossible to break it (the broom, not the senator) when tied, but even a child will break it twig by twig. So here, thanks to the ease of distributing loads between small fragments, a table top assembled from them works like a solid slab, and after assembly you can cut it even “Zu”.

Note: The idea of ​​the senator-broom, sorry, Broom, was brought to mind by the statement of his compatriot Samuel Clemens, world famous as Mark Twain: “I assert, and I undertake to prove it, that Mr. Cooper has no more imagination than a bull. But not the bull that moos in the pasture, but the one that supports the bridge.”

How to make a semi-folding round table is shown in the figure; On the right there are the tabletop dimensions and assembly order. And in Fig. above right - small round table for the hallway, according to the old classification - business card. Its feature is the minimum number of connections; assembly with glue. Any round piece will fit on the tabletop, from a cut tree stump to a cardboard one, made according to the method of making cardboard shelves, but the underframe must be durable, made of wood (two-hundred-piece board) or laminated chipboard.

Let's go further: to the living room

The table in the main room of the house should suit the whole house. At the same time, with the modern desire for laconic design (which also saves costs on living space), the table should, for the time being, not be conspicuous and occupy smaller place. Therefore, one of the most popular pieces of furniture these days has become a transforming table.

The simplest transformable table, which, despite all its transformations, remains a table and does not turn into a closet or bed - a table-bedside table; It is quite possible to make it yourself “from scratch”. There are 2 options that are most common here. On the left in Fig. – the table is unfoldable, it has a record ratio of occupied space in expanded and collapsed form. These are most often placed in studio apartments perpendicular to the wall on the border of the kitchen and living areas. With the tabletop wings lowered, it will serve as a bar. By lifting the wings one at a time, you can get a kitchen or everyday dining table, and when fully deployed (in the center), it will provide space for a fairly crowded banquet.

For a bachelor living in a small apartment, a folding table-bedside table, on the right in Fig. It's basically 2 small round ones. folding tables, described above, connected by a rectangular insert. You can have lunch with one folded one, because, unlike the previous option, there is somewhere to put your legs. And when you turn it around, spend a romantic evening with a beautiful stranger or intimate gatherings with friends.

All the above qualities are combined in transforming coffee and dining tables with a mechanism. The variety of transformation mechanisms is great, but for tables, which are always tables, they mainly come down to 2 types: elevator (pantograph) and book. How they both work, see the video:

Theoretically, a book is more stable than an elevator, although a lot depends on the quality of execution. Book lovers are more popular because a book-like mechanism can still be made independently, but an elevator outside production conditions is unlikely.

How the book-table unfolds is shown step by step in Fig. on right. To make it yourself, you need to know that the key unit is the damping-balancing elastic link. Quite expensive branded designs use very softly operating gas dampers (gas lifts), but for an amateur it is better to opt for a spring damper, and not because gas lift is much more expensive.

The fact is that the gas lift must be coordinated within fairly narrow limits with the kinematics of the lever system, the weight of the tabletop, underframe and the dead weight of the levers. If the balance of the entire system does not fit into its characteristics, the mechanism simply will not work. And the spring can always be tightened/loosened; as a last resort, replace it. In general, an unsuccessful homemade transforming table with gas lifts can rarely be “brought to fruition,” but a spring table almost always does. If you still decide to suffer with a homemade acrobat table, in Fig. – drawings of the spring transformation mechanism.

Without the availability of drilling, turning and metal milling machines or access to them, most parts of the transformation mechanism will have to be ordered. Then its production will cost a little about $40, and you can buy a good ready-made one for $50-$60. A factory-made transforming coffee table rarely costs less than $200, so even in this situation the savings are significant.

The transforming table is made to fit the mechanism. One of the most popular are Mazetti transformation mechanisms, due to their good quality at a moderate price for this class of products. In addition, Mazetti mechanisms are produced in a supporting frame (inset in the center in the figure), which greatly simplifies installation. Other pos. in Fig. show the structure and dimensions of the table for this mechanism.

For a strong feast

Whatever you say, a normal family with children, friends and relatives cannot do without crowded gatherings at the table, and here a transforming table will not always help out. However, we will leave more or less full banquet tables for the living room, as they say, for later: these are products of a higher order of complexity; primarily due to the sliding mechanism.

By the way, the good old “sliders” with wooden guides and wooden sliders of the tabletop halves (item 1 in the figure) are quite convenient and reliable when properly executed; in addition, you can make them yourself, but such a process requires a special detailed description. Modern mechanisms extension with telescopic guides for full extension, pos. 2, allow you to use not 1, but up to 3-5 inserts, which increases the table capacity by 6-10 people, respectively, but they are quite expensive, and their installation requires a description no less voluminous.

There are banquet tables with folding inserts, pos. 3. In elite models, when moving apart/sliding the halves of the tabletop, the inserts lift, unfold and put in place or put back into the underframe, a very complex mechanism, but it manual options available for making at home.

As for banquet tables with retractable individual tables, arranged like a keyboard stand in a computer desk, they cannot be called popular: by leaning forward (and how can this be avoided if the house has no servants?), we get the board back into the table and our portion of the treat - for festive clothes.

But let's not talk about sad things. Let us remember that the table is not always moved apart, and you can use an extension, but a solid table is in any case more reliable. Therefore, in the series of pictures below there is a way to make a very durable and inexpensive dining table, and see how it looks “alive” on the left in the picture. at first.

In addition

You often want to paint a table, or any furniture, in more than just stripes or paint it artistically. To protect the design from external influences and to ensure the possibility of refinishing the varnish if necessary, the paint should not be applied, but rather rubbed into the wood before varnishing. The technique of painting by rubbing paint in layers is called glazing. So in conclusion, we offer a master class on glazing wood.

Video: master class on wood glazing