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Yeah, I didn't think about that. There was so much research to do and eventually I just built the thing knowing I probably made mistakes.

Thanks for the feedback; I didn't know it was called breadboard ends, and now I can research how to properly do that. If this ends up cracking in a few years, I'll just build another one!

The Woodwright's Shop is one of my favorite shows for learning techniques like this. He uses all hand tools, so you get a better understanding of the theory without getting too wrapped up in what tool to use. This project has a lot of breadboard ends: http://video.pbs.org/video/2365004559/

New Yankee Workshop is also a great show for learning woodworking with power tools.

I absolutely adore this show.

My grandfather was a master shipwright then carpenter and while I inherited none of his skills there is something uniquely relaxing about watching a craftsman work.

Congrats on diving in and doing it. You made it, it's done, it works. That has to be satisfying to use every day. If it cracks, it cracks. You can always repair it, distress it further, or just live with it. It will still hold the computer up!

This is how I end up doing a lot of programming. I'll start learning a new library, concept, or approach and I'll be reading and reading, then eventually I say "man, I could read all day, but I just want to bounce my brain off some code"

Course; probably a little more expensive to do that with woodworking :)

One of the most interesting aspects of these types of DIY projects to me is making (and learning from) the same mistakes that others have made. Sure, it'd be nice to get it all right the first time, but nothing really drives home the point like learning firsthand why something is done a particular way.

It's like your observation about the aprons: you start out by wondering why you can't just slap four legs on a tabletop, and you proceed to find out exactly why. If someone had told you to put aprons on there in the first place, you probably wouldn't have nearly as good a feel for their impact on the sturdiness of the table. The way you learned it is more effective. More time consuming, of course, but the experience is the whole point.

"Sometimes trades do have semi-secret techniques evolved from dealing with the same damned issues over and over and over again."

Where "the trades" means any and all activities, not just blue collar occupations. I'd estimate that atleast one quarter of the stories on HN are about "semi-secret tech secrets," eg "How I do X with vim/rails/AWS/ubuntu." That being said dealing with the expansion and contraction of wood is hardly a semi-secret of joinery. Expansion and contraction of wood is a fundamental concept in joinery and cabinetmaking. Any decent introduction to joinery/cabinetmaking book will discuss this basic property of wood as early as possible.

A good mental model for water and wood is inserting and removing a bunch of marbles into the business end of a broom. The broom will not get longer as marbles are inserted, but it will get wider/fatter as the marbles take up space in between the straws of the broom.

It is also worth pointing out that when you arrange the boards the end-grain should create a "wavy pattern" in order to mitigate cupping; one board will cup up and the next will cup down. My ascii art is failing me but here is a best effort:

  Good: |\\\///| |///\\\| |\\\///|

  Bad:  |\\\///| |\\\///| |\\\///|

Good: unu

Good: nun

Bad: uuu

Bad: nnn

(For those who struggled with what the above was showing.)

Alternatively, buy quarter-sawn wood !

Good: III

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Ce...

sometimes trades do have semi-secret techniques evolved from dealing with the same damned issues over and over and over again.

This is the thing that keeps me from building my own tables, chairs, whatever. I know with many categories of things, even if building my own is 20% cheaper, I will still require 3 revisions to get it right.

I can understand that, though the excitement and feeling of accomplishment more than makes up for cost and angst of possibly having done it wrong.

not to mention the experience! It really helps you learn a lot, and it can come in handy in the future...

We are so used to tailoring one-off solutions in software that we can't imagine just taking some boring old woodworking plan and using it as is to quickly gain experience and produce a solid first result without R&D headaches. But in woodworking you really can just take someone else's design and build it. Most likely the designer already made all the mistakes before, so the thing will just work. You'll learn the techniques, and by asking why often enough you will trace back to the problems solved by various design elements. You will have a better idea of what to innovate yourself next time. Besides all the learning, you'll have a functional thing that you can keep, sell, or give away. (Says the guy who had to design his own banjo, still isn't done, and could have built two or three in the same time by copying instead of analyzing every feature from the ground up.)

Where can I get plans?

Woodworking magazines, woodworker supply shops, fine woodworking forums. Start digging around for what you're interested in and you'll find them.

Try Popular Woodworking. They have some of the most accessible projects. For a really interesting/exciting small publishing company take a look at Lost Art Press. LAP is sort of the Pragmatic Programmers of the joinery world.

Accessible, indeed. PW makes things look so easy. I have a few projects on the TODO list thanks to them. Fine Woodworking has nice stuff, too, like this workbench: http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/18985/still-dont-have-a-....

If you're feeling adventurous, carry a tape measure and check out the size and shape of furniture around you.

If you really start getting in to designing furniture "The Measure of Man and Woman" (http://www.amazon.com/Measure-Man-Woman-Factors-Design/dp/04...) is full of useful measurements and ranges that tables and chairs should satisfy for average, 1 percentile, and 99 percentile humans.

Wood is actually pretty forgiving. You can prototype the size of something in cheap pine, and remember, it's always easier to cut off another inch from those table legs then it is to add one!

It also depends on your tolerance for not 100% correct. I've got a ton of stuff i put together that's functionally perfect but doesnt look like it belongs in a showroom anywhere (unless its abstract art!)

I will still require 3 revisions to get it right.

Good summation of my efforts remodeling my house.

I've been thinking about making a kind of greene and greene inspired side table for my front entry... of course arts and crafts styles in general have a lot of the breadboard ends. Do you have more information on techniques to avoid cracks?

Greene and Greene?

My favorite style, bar none!

You'll find these two books quite useful.

http://www.amazon.com/Darrell-Peart/e/B001JS36Q2/ref=ntt_ath...

> Do you have more information on techniques to avoid cracks?

1) alternate the growth rings of the flat table pieces: one cupping up, next down, next up, etc.

2) keep breadboard ends in line with the plane of the tabletop by using splines

3) pin or glue the breadboard ends only in the center.

4) start reading Fine Woodworking magazine.

Darrell has classes: http://furnituremaker.com/Greene_and_Greene_class.htm

Oh man, I can't believe the school (I grew up in Port Townsend) both offered a Joint Stool From A Tree course earlier this year and didn't get enough signups for it: http://www.ptwoodschool.com/joint_stool_from_a_tree.html

I would absolutely love to do that. The book is a great read -- the basic premise is that you can build furniture from green wood in such a way that the drying of the wood will lock your joints and strengthen the stool: http://www.lostartpress.com/Make_a_Joint_Stool_from_a_Tree_p...

The strength of green wood furniture also comes from the fact that the wood grain is left intact because it is split along the grain. Peter Follansbee is awesome, he was on the two most recent Woodwright episodes.

I enjoy arts and crafts style furniture, I only consider true breadboard ends if they are mortise and tenon jointed on. When doing this you can design for the movement of the wood.

Also quartersawn white oak is most used, a wood that does not have as much expansion going on.

This is how I did it for my A&C style coffee table: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejschmitt/9053576208/in/set-721...

Final shot of the coffee table: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejschmitt/9115541399/in/set-721...

Quartersawn oak is one of the most used woods in A&C furniture. Quartersawing any wood is the best way to produce dimensionally stable stuff (I love that stuff is actually joinery jargon albeit somewhat archaic).

Beautiful work, thanks for sharing.

Please forgive my trouble googling this, but what is "A&C style"?

Arts & Crafts style. Made popular in the US by Gustav Stickley's furniture design.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_movement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Stickley

Look into the wood whisperer. He has done a lot of Greene & Greene projects in fantastic detail:

http://thewoodwhispererguild.com/members/

The Wood Whisperer was one of the major reasons I got into wood working, and his end-grain boards were the first project I ever made. Makes me miss spending time on those projects :(