how to: Child's Train Table	how to build a low, simple, table for placing a train set or other game on     Read the details here...

Project Description The train table is made using solid oak sides and legs. The top is made using 5/8" MDF. The oak sides provide for a 1" lip around all sides to keep things from falling off the table. The legs are bolted on using 2 1/2" bolts with washer and nuts and can be removed for transporting the table. All of the parts are rounded over using a router and then sanded smooth as well.

The supplies The supplies that we'll be using consist of some 1x6 and 1x4 oak boards, 8 sets of 2 1/2" long x 3/8" bolts with washers and nuts, and two 5/8" MDF boards.

Oak Sides To make the sides of our train table, we first cut 4 pieces of the 1x4 oak.

Making Dovetails Next, we'll cut through dovetails to join each corner.

Nice looking too The dovetails are not just nice to look at, but are also one of the strongest joints possible.

Assemble the Frame Once our four sides are assembled, we can check it for squareness by measuring diagonally from corner to corner. Then add some glue, clamp it up and set it aside to dry.

The legs The legs are made from our 1x6 oak. We start by cutting them to length.

Smooth the legs We then round over all the edges using our router and a round-over bit.

Finish the legs The legs are now ready for some final sanding before we move on to attaching them to the frame.

Attach the legs To attach the legs, we drill some pilot holes and use our bolts, making sure the washer and nut side face to the inside of the table.

Attaching the Top After attaching all the legs, we stand the table upright and attach some quarter round mouldings for our MDF top to rest on. We made sure that we left about 1" spacing when we attached the legs and now can use that spacing to line up the mouldings.

MDF Top Now we can cut our MDF to fit on our rails.

Finishing the Top To hold the MDF top in place, we are using more quarter round oak strips. This time, we are mitering the corners and placing these on the top side of the table. Nails them into the side rails and not the MDF itself. This allows for the table top to be changed at a later date by simply prying off the top rails.

Supporting the Top Because our table is so wide, we have to provide some support for the center. We do this by using some 1/2 OAK plywood (some scrap we had in the workshop) and glue and tack it to the bottom. The support this gives the table is surprising as there's no bounce to the top anymore.

Masking for Finish Prior to applying the polyurethene finish, we mask off the MDF. We don't want any finish on the MDF.

Tough Poly Finish We are using semi-gloss oil based polyurethene to finish the table. After sanding to 220grit, we will apply 4 coats, sanding lightly between each. The finish really brings out the dovetails.

The Finished Table The finished table, ready for the trains.

Some tools we used: