Round table - plywood question

[Richard Cranium]

I'm looking to build a round table, without a racetrack. I'm trying to keep costs down and since I'm going sans racetrack, I want to use cheaper non-furniture grade plywood. It will all be covered anyway.

So my question - I believe I can get a 60" round by cutting 4' x 1' sections off a 4' x 8' sheet of 3/4" plywood and then glueing them back together using biscuits as shown in the diagram below. I'm actually looking to make a 54" or 56" round. Has anyone done this on their table? Are there strength issues?

Below - white and red together are a 4x8 sheet of plywood. Red is the area I would cut away, which then is glued back where the grey is.

That gives enough area to cut away a 60" circle, shown in yellow, or a 54" circle, shown in green.

Thoughts?

http://www.santapoco.com/images/plywood.jpg

[Richard Cranium]

Would it be stronger and a better idea to do it this way?

http://www.santapoco.com/images/plywood2.jpg

[Hemps]

I would think the 2nd option would be best (moving far left or right) as you would eleminate a joint and it would be a larger joint so you have more area for biskets and for it to hold.

[Guma]

Second option seems better to me since it would have less joints. If I were doing it like this, I would do two sheets and make sure the joints aren't lined up on top of each other.

I did a 10' table like, using 8' sheets of ply, and it was rock solid!

[Richard Cranium]

Well I'm thinking a raised rail, so I would need probably 3 sheets with circles cut like this. So i will stagger the joints.

[sunsetpizza]

My dining room table base I built is 2 sheets of 3/4" cut similiar to the first drawing - then the 2 sheets were laid perpendicular to each other. I biscuit joined the edges and put down a field of screws about 5" apart. It's rock solid and weighed a ton. the bottom sheet is birch since it can be seen when you look under the table - top layer is just regular ply. The table is 70" diameter.

For the top I laid travertine and 1/2" solid mahogany.

Here's some pics. I need to make I build thread if I can find the older pics. The round plywood disc sat in my garage for 2 years before it became a table.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj166/sunsetpizza/101_0152.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj166/sunsetpizza/101_0136.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj166/sunsetpizza/101_0202.jpg

[Doctor_XXX]

Does the second option allow for ONE of the red pieces to cover the entire joint? Meaning, are the red pieces "tall" enough to cover the entire "length" of the joint at that point in the circle, or are you going to have to join the two red pieces together (thus creating another, smaller joint in the process)? Without the actual dimensions, I **THINK** the second option will NOT allow one of the red pieces to cover the joint completely.

As a third possibility: Would dropping the circle all the way to the bottom of the sheet, and moving the joint closer to the center of the circle be a mathmatical option? (I don't have a graphic program here, but I think that makes sense.)

[we3girlsnaguy]

Brat, I think your best bet is to find 5'x5' plywood. I used two pieces for my table (with racetrack) and it was ~ $25 for the .5 inch thick and $30 for the .75 inch thick... they had less expensive grades, but I opted for one surface to be cabinet grade (which you don't need). The birch Europly boards that I got are strong and allowed for screws to be drilled at the edge without splitting.

I got them for our local specialty distributor... you'll just have to try and find one close to you. If you call the one I bought it from, they may be able to direct you to someone close to where you live. Good luck!

http://www.russellplywood.com/multiplypanels.html

[Guma]

^^^ That is an awesome price on 5 x 5 sheet of ply. The cheapest I can find around is here cabinet grade birch at $60+ a sheet.

[Richard Cranium]

I definitely would prefer going with 5' x 5' birch but whenever I find a sheet the price makes me think of trying other options.

[we3girlsnaguy]

^^^ That is an awesome price on 5 x 5 sheet of ply. The cheapest I can find around is here cabinet grade birch at $60+ a sheet.

I could be confused, but I remember only spending about $60 for the two sheets. Only one side of each was cabinet grade and the other side was rough. It was also over a year ago before gas prices, etc. went through the roof! I think part of it was that I was getting it straight from the distributor instead of it passing through a middleman first.

http://www.koppenhofer.com-a.googlepages.com/table.JPG

[mikeyinsd]

I definitely would prefer going with 5' x 5' birch but whenever I find a sheet the price makes me think of trying other options.

I thought about using 4x8 sheets for 5' rounds but when you consider your time being money then it's more feasible at least for me to pony up and buy the 5x5 sheets. less set up time and you know for a fact that you won't have any issues with glued up joints. just my $.02 ;)

[DoubleEagle]

I have made several round tables of 60" & 66" using your option 2. It is very easy to cut the strips and glue up the sheets in the width you need using biscuits. Be sure you have a couple of clamps long enough to pull the two pieces tightly together in order to get a strong bond.

The glued up sheets make rock solid tables.

[Richard Cranium]

I'll check around again for prices on the 5x5 to save the time but I'm probably going to do option 2.

[Richard Cranium]

Place I called had a ton of different thickness sizes actually, 1/8, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4...

5x5 baltic birch
1/2 in thick was $64 a sheet.
3/4 in thick was $75 a sheet.

[we3girlsnaguy]

Place I called had a ton of different thickness sizes actually, 1/8, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4...

5x5 baltic birch
1/2 in thick was $64 a sheet.
3/8 in thick was $75 a sheet.

FUCK! That's gotten expensive!

[Karpro]

thats real close to what both my local guys are at. of course with my limited skills i will probably spent the extra 20/sheet and go this route when i do a round.