making a dining room table for my mom....

goldeneagle76

Trying to decide between oak or pine. It will be a farm-style plank table that will be 30" W x 72" L. This will be my first table so I'm not sure which wood will hold up better. The planks I am using will be 1"x10x6 whichever I choose. Any help is greatly appreciated. Oak is about $40/plank and pine about $22/plank.

matwor

JMHO and I know nothing about furniture, but 30"W seems kinda narrow.

D1

I'd use pine and stain it whatever she wants. Oak would hold up better being a hardwood and all.

Radar

Pine looks better but it will ding easy.

Survivalist86

Cinder blocks and 2 x 4's!

fishkiller41

OAK!! How could U think of anything but HARDWOOD? Oak or ROCK-MAPLE, maybe laminated Hickory, like a "butcher-block" style.

searcher5

Oak. Pine is easier, but won't last. Your great grandkids will be eating off of that table if you build it right, and build it of oak.

yoshmyster

I always liked the look of those old Eglish long tables. The dings and nicks a table gets from day to day use the table gets to tell a story.

I think the 1" plank of pine would be too flimsy at that length. 2" or thicker in pine would be the way to go. I suppose if you framed the 1" plank and ran runners with thicker outer boards it would give it the stiffness. But it just doesn't have that same look.

Jacob2008

Pine wood is very easy to tear up with very little effort doing so, Spend the extra and go with Oak- Is it worth buying pine now for cheaper, and doing the labor again down the road, or buying the oak now, doing the labor once, and having it last a life time

hooch31L

Might want to check this out. Might save you some money.
http://forums.gunbroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=374945

goldeneagle76

quote:Originally posted by hooch31L
Might want to check this out. Might save you some money.
http://forums.gunbroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=374945


a little bit if a hike from where I live. Would have been nice though.

slipgate

How about cherry or maple? I got more than enough for a table in 6-8 foot lengths, 4"-10" wide.

Alpine

Definitely a hardwood. Tables made of softwoods don't last to long. Unless you put a very hard thick finish on them.