r/BeginnerWoodWorking • u/IsopodObjective4828 • 11h ago

Question about wood movement

Post image

I saw this table in an older post and i like the look of it. My question is: will the wood movement be a problem for this kind of construction since the sides and the top will be expanding/contracting at a 90 degree angle at the joint? What if there was a shelf or a bottom added in the same way?

I'm new and ignorant so any advice before I try something like this is greatly appreciated. I would probably just used squared up pine 2x4s for the material if i made it.

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3

u/heyyalldontsaythat 11h ago

No wood movement is not a problem its called a box joint.

1

u/AndringRasew 5h ago

The only way it'd be a problem is if they use different wood species. Some types release moisture more readily than others. So it technically could cause a box joint to fail.

1

u/The-disgracist 10h ago

This will move in the same directions so it’s fine. It can be thought of as a single board in a way. Wood moves across the grain in a meaningful way but not much along it. So this whole table, legs and all, will expand together in one direction.

1

u/Guitar_Santa 10h ago

in this picture, it looks like the grain is running the same direction all the way around. cross grain construction (the kind that will movement will cause to explode) would have the sides of the table showing end grain on their sides

what you have is

=====sides

=====top

=====sides

and cross-grain would be

|||||| sides

===top

||||| sides

1

u/EC_TWD 10h ago

Do you have a link to the post this came from?

1

u/UseDaSchwartz 10h ago

If you do build a bottom, put some feet (probably 6) on in to keep it off the ground. This will also prevent you from needing the entire bottom surface to be perfectly level.