In article ,
Greg Guarino wrote:
For now this is just curiosity; I haven't got a specific project in mind.

If you build a table top from solid wood boards and you want to cover
the end grain with other (narrower) boards running perpendicular to the
"field" boards, how do you fasten the ends?

I think I get that you can't attach them rigidly, but how do you allow
for some play without there being obvious play? Tenons on the ends of
the main slats with extra length in the mortise on the ends? Then just
screwed in on the bottom in oversized holes?

Google "fastening breadboard ends" and you'll find a multitude of ways
to do this. The problem is, with a solid wood table top of any significant
width, the change in width with humidity & the seasons means that for
much of the time the breadboard ends will be either longer or shorter
than the width of the table. IMHO it is better to leave the exposed
end grain showing. (On a plywood top, this is not an issue, plywood does
not expand/contract the way solid wood does, and the breadboard ends or
edge banding can be rigidly fastened.)


--
There is always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat,
plausible, and wrong." (H L Mencken)

Larry W. - Baltimore Maryland - lwasserm(a)sdf. lonestar. org