Getting the table all wrapped up the evening before...

Arrived at our friends' house (pre-stay-at-home order!), ready to heft it from the van into their dining room...

Unpacking and assembling the legs back on...

Turning it upright and setting in place...

A happy, godly family; worth it all!

"And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him."
(Col 3:17)

Sola Deo Gloria

Pre-finish prep for the top: block planing & scraping edges to remove scoring marks.  Sanding at 120 & 220 grit, then burnishing with a maroon 3m pad (to help the stain absorb a little lighter)...

Staining with GF Antique Oak stain, with help from two skillful wiper-downers :) ...

Applying 6 coats of GF HP Flat water based topcoat, buffing between coats...

Installing tabletop fastener clips to attach the apron to the underside of the top. Re-fabricated some extra-long z-clips for attaching at the ends...

And that's it - the farmhouse dining table is all finished!  All glory to the Lord!

Next up: the delivery!

Sand, sand, sand with 120 and 220 grits:

Stain with General Finishes water based Antique Oak stain (with a lot of help from my daughter :)  ):

Apply 5 thin coats of General Finishes water based High Performance Flat topcoat:

Test-attach the apron and legs:

Next up: sand-stain-finish the top; assemble; done!

Did 5 hours of fussy sanding, 120 grit and 220 grit...

Applied General Finishes Antique Oak water based stain. The parawood legs didn't take stain very well, even after all the fine sanding and using pre-stain conditioner; but my friends like the character of the blotchy appearance...

Applied 5 thin coats of General Finishes High Performance Flat water based topcoat...

Finished!  :)

Next up:

Same process on the apron assembly.

Fabricated the four corner brackets that will hold together the aprons and legs.  Lots of little fussy 45 degree cuts...

Cut some dados into the apron pieces...

Assembled the aprons, corner brackets, and legs...

Used the biscuit joiner to cut slots that will accept the clips that will hold the top to the aprons. Then drilled pilot holes for the clips...

And then - voila! The construction phase of the white oak farmhouse dining table is completed, praise the Lord!

Coming up next: LOTS of sanding, then stain and finish.   :)

For the dining table, it was time to do a little bit of old school 2D design work on the corner brackets that connect the aprons and legs, having to adapt a Woodsmith design to a different size leg...

Chamfered the inside corner of each leg:

Planed the aprons and corner braces to final thickness. Then laid out the legs and aprons, and braces for a reality check:

Routed a decorative bead along the bottom edge of each apron board:

Wrapping up the construction of the top of the white oak farmhouse dining table...

Installed the second breadboard end:

Rounded the corners with a rasp and sandpaper:

Filled some knots and checks with epoxy, and sanded them flush:

Routed a 1/8" roundover all the way around, top and bottom edges:

Next: getting ready to start on the leg & apron assembly. Praise the Lord for some progress! :)

After getting the table top re-joined, flattened, and trimmed to final length, it's time to start installing the breadboard ends.

Not only do breadboard ends add some aesthetic beauty to a table, they serve a structural purpose. Done correctly, the breadboards help prevent the top from cupping across its width over the long-term. What's interesting, however, is that the fixing of one problem using a breadboard introduces another problem - that of wood movement (expansion and contraction from changing humidity) across the width of the top conflicting with the cross-grained breadboards attached to the ends. What to do? Utilize "floating" mortise and tenon joinery (that allows the top to expand and contract) and "drawbore" dowel pegs (that keep the breadboard pulled up against the end of the table).

Using the Festool Domino XL to cut all the mortises (holes) into both the end of the top and the mating side edge of the breadboard...

Gluing the 140mm (5.5") long Dominos (tenons) into all the mortises in the end of the top...

After drilling dowel holes through the breadboard at about half the mortise locations, I test fit the breadboard onto the tenons, and use a bradpoint drill bit to poke through the dowel holes and make a mark on the top face of the tenons. I then remove the breadboard, use an awl to move each of the marks on the tenons about 1/16" closer to the end of the top. I use those new marks to hand drill holes through the tenons. Those holes are now offset from the holes going through the breadboard by 1/16"...

Next I put glue on the center tenon only, and I push the breadboard back onto the tenons and clamp it in place. I then hammer dowel pins through all the holes in the breadboard and tenons. The holes in the tenons being slightly offset, it has the effect of drawing the breadboard tighter up against the end of the top.

After letting the glue dry overnight, I flush-cut the dowel pins and sand to make sure the top surface of the breadboard is flush to the table top.  You might notice that I have cut the breadboard to be slightly longer than the width of the top. This being winter with low humidity, the top is a little bit contracted across its width. Once summer arrives and the wood absorbs some of the higher humidity, the top will expand again and be a closer match to the  breadboard on its ends.

Whew, thanks to the grace of God that's done! One more breadboard end to go...