Updated tutorial on how to build a 70″ Round Dining Table that seats 8-10 people.

This was one my second time building a round dining table and I decided to adjust my plans to make a more solid, professional looking dining table, and the adjustments are 100% worth it!

Things I learned: it’s WORTH the extra time to go to a lumber yard and have them run your wood through a jointer and a planar, and even more impactful to pick a nice hardwood like maple, oak, walnut or alder!! I couldn’t stress this enough. I did not do this the first time, I instead bought 2×6 lumber from Home Depot, and didn’t cut off the woods rounded edges and… lets just say that makes a HUGE difference in the overall finish.

Tips

A few tips I learned from Ana White as they redesigned their round table plans is:

1. You want your base to be sturdier and heavier than your top.  A way to do this with such a LARGE table surface is to make the table top of out 1” (0.75”) material.  
2. Create a thicker edge by layering the edge with wood in the form of an octagon.  Big tip would include the material starting at 6” or more in width.  This is where I made big mistake making my width at only 3.5”… and I ended up accidentally cutting a lot of the surface off when I went to make my table round. (If this sounds confusing I promise as you scroll down it’ll make more sense. 
3. Invest in a corded circular saw or a router with a long straight bit.  These are the two tools I recommend using as you cut your table town into a circle.  The circular saw has a lot of powder to help cut down a lot of the excess.  You can also use it to make your table round. See the video for how Ana White did this, here.   
   
   The next and probably most practical technique is to use a router.  Be sure to watch what direction your router cuts as most only cut in one direction.  Secure it TIGHTLY to your jig boards so it wasn’t wobble side to side, and only cut 1/4” deep at a time.  Any deeper and its too much strain on your router tip and it’ll break (I learned this from experience).  

I’m going to include BOTH versions on how to build a table top here in this post.
1: the technique I would recommend which is the thinner, nice wood version.
2: And secondly would be a big box store lumber using 2×6’s.  

Click here for all my tips and tricks on how to shop a lumber yard for beginners! I promise with these tips you’re anxiety and timidness will be gone and you’ll feel confident to ask questions and get some GORGEOUS wood. 

Version 1: White Oak Dining Table

This is a materials list of what I left the lumber yard with. Yours can vary if you choose to use thinner or wider planks of wood. 

70” table top Material List:

(10) 0.75 x 7” White Oak 8’ lengths
run through the jointer for 2 clean edges and planed to 0.75”

Base Material List:

(5) 4x4x8′ Douglas fir Lumber
Base follows Jen Woodhouse’s 60″ tutorial exactly except with altered dimensions to make it larger and accommodate a 70″ table top.

CUT LIST:
(4) 4×4 @ 26 inches, 10 degree angle (legs)
(1) 4×4 @ 42 inches, 10 degree angle (lower post)
(2) 4×4 @ 19.25 inches, 10 degree (lower cross posts)
(1) 4×4 @ 59 inches (upper support)
(2) 4×4 @ 26 inches (upper cross supports)

 

How to build a round table ANY SIZE

1: First lay out your boards to the desired grain and color pattern.  
2: Find the center of your middle board and insert a scrap piece of wood (about 4” in width) into that center point with a wood screw. This becomes your jig.
3: Move the jig around like a circle and make sure you have 3-4” hanging off at all times. 
4: Using a circular saw or miter saw cut boards down from their 8’ length saving the scraps to later. (Keep scraps as long as possible will come in handy as you build the octagon). 

Mark and Attach

5: create dash marks every 8-12” where you will create your pocket holes and attach the boards with screws.  I alternated these pocket holes to spread out the tension on each board. 

6: Pocket holes.  If you are using 0.75” thick wood like I did you will want to set your Kreg Jig guide and drill bit to 3/4” and use 1 1/4” pocket screws. 

7: Wood glue the entire seam of BOTH boards, spreading the wood with a brush, roller, or your finger so the glue is even on the entire joint. Line the two boards up and clamp them so they are tight and touching, but also so the two boards are flush with one another. While clamped insert your 1 1/4” pocket screws.

8: Glue in phases. I glued a maximum of 4 boards together at a time and allowed for those boards to firmly set with clamps for 24 hours before proceeding onto the next set of 4.   Use a combination of cauls (straight pieces of wood), and clamps to apply firm pressure in all directions. End goal we want the joints to be tight together so there Arne’t gaps between the wood, but MOST importantly we want the table to be FLAT. So if you are only applying clamps to get the boards together and not allow applying down pressure to make the table flat…it will start to fold up like  a taco. And no one wants a taco table 😉

Create an Octagon

9: This is an optional step, but if you are looking for a thick edge table without the table being SUPER heavy this is the way to go. make sure your boards are 6″ wide (this image shoes 3″ wide boards which is incorrect). Each board is cut to 22.5 degrees on each end and 30″ long.

Each board will be cut at 22.5 degrees to create a trapezoid.
Calculation is: table circumference ____ x .41421 = length of each board
70″ x .41421 = 29.999″ per board, round up to 30″ per board with 22.5 degree angle on each side.

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Cutting the table:

10: Attach circular saw or router to jig. I suggest attaching it 1/2” or 1” bigger than the table top you are trying to create in case you run into issues and need to trim it down smaller.  

How to determine your jig length:

Grab a scrap piece of wood that is 6” longer than your radius.
(Radius = 1/2 the width of your table.)
70” table = 35” radius.
60” table = 30” radius.
Then ADD 6” to that distance.
35” Radius + 6” = 41” board. 

Attach one end of the jig to the CENTER of your table.  Router: create a 1” hole on the other end of the jig board. This is where your router bit will dit and cut your table. Measure the distance from the center of your table to where your route bit is sitting. This distance is your radius!

Mount the router onto your jig board with some spare screws. Be sure the screws don’t go through the jig board otherwise that’ll catch and scratch your table. 

Circular saw: Mount saw with some screws through the metal plate so the blade sits 35” away from your center screw. 

 

https://youtu.be/exkYkZ4lTu4

Base Stain & Top Coat

Since the Douglas fir in its natural state doesn’t match natural white oak I needed to stain the legs. Here’s the combination I used.
1: Apply White Wash Stain, let soak for 1 minute then immediately wipe off
2: Allow white wash to dry for 10-15 minutes
3: Apply light coat of Early American, then wipe off immediately
4: let dry then assemble the base following Jen Woodhouse’s Plans.
5: Seal with a top coat of General Finishes High Performance Satin

Version 2: How to Build a Table from 2×6 Lumber

• Table Top
  • 11x     2 x 6 x 10′
  • 2-1/2″ Pocket Hole Screws
  • Clamps and a Kreg jig 
  • x1 2x6x10
  • Five at 75”
  • Two at 68”
  • Two at 65”
  • x2 64” and
    x2 40”

Materials & Tools Needed:
Full list & sources to my favorite tools click here.
Kreg jig
Kreg jig clamp
pocket screws
jig saw
wood filler
sander
tack cloth
wood conditioner
weathered grey stain
Early American
Dark Walnut Stain
Polyurethane Satin

CUT LIST:
(2) 2×6″ @ 65″ inches
(5) 2×6″ @ 75 inches
(2) 2×6″ @ 68″ inches
(2) 2×6″ @ 54 inches lastly, (2) 2×6″ @ 42 inches

Round Dining Table:

1. Take the 6×10” pine boards and cut them down to the above lengths.
2. Lay them out to know what sides of the woods you want visible and what side will be the under of your table full of pocket holes
3. With the boards laying in a circle start drawing lines or arrows to indicate where you are going to put your pocket holes.
4. Take each board one by one with your kreg jig at the correct settings for your 2” thick wood and start creating pocket holes.
5. Once all the pocket holes are drilled started with the two center boards. Apply wood glue to the seam and clamp the two boards together and drill pocket screws into the two boards making sure the top is as flush as can be.
6. Once the two middle boards are attached take the next middle board and glue the seam and secure it with pocket screws.  Continue to alternate always working from the middle out.
7. Allow the wood glue to sit over night.

 

so many pocket holes to attach this round dining table

Cutting the Circle

Jig for creating a circle.

Take a pencil and a scrap piece of wood the length of the radius of your circle (half the size of your circle, 35”)  

Draw a circle around your entire table which will be your cut line.

There are a few different techniques I found for cutting the circle. 

Different Methods for Cutting a Round Dining Table

First is to use a jig and a router and do small depth passes over and over again until you are through the two inch wood. This will get you a perfect circle.

Second is to use a jig saw and follow your drawn line. And then sand the edge until it’s to your liking. This is what I did because I didn’t have a router. And it ended up pretty round, with a little character 😉 after a GOOD amount of sanding.

Third is a new technique recently shared by Anawhite. I’ll link the video here because I was blown away with how they did it. Basically you create a jig and take a table saw and go around the table several times cutting straight lines and when all the straight lines are combined it will equal a circle. (I know. Crazy. But it worked).

Moving Table Top

Once it’s all built get an extra set of hands… or two to help you flip it over onto what will be the table top side. You think the hard part is over but you are just getting started on sanding this beauty down as smooth and level/even as possible. Hopefully you learned from my mistakes and used a jointer and a planar and the boards are pretty even. Next step is to sand smooth with 120 then 220 followed by stain.

The Stain:

I used a combination of weathered grey, American, and classic walnut. Because I chose to use pine and pin pulls yellow I used the grey as my first stain in hopes it would rid some of the yellow. I wanted it to be lighter in color but still rich. In fact I stained the entire table and it was pulling too grey that I sanded it back down and stained it over again. ALWAYS ALWAYS use a wood conditioner especially with this less expensive wood. This is allow the wood to take the stain more evenly and look less grainy and splotchy.

Personally I love the character of the one piece that is striped darker, but if you are concerned about boards looking more uniform you can always stain them prior to cutting and assembling the table so you can truly see what combination of boards you like best.

I also did not fill the pocket holes on the underside with wood filler. How many people look at the underside of your table ;). I did however fill the pocket holes on my base prior to staining.

The Base:

And for the base I used jenwoodhouse’s tutorial. I like this tutorial because it’s pretty straight forward and has clean simple lines. It is also inexpensive which is always a positive 🙂 plus she has a downloadable PDF which is super helpful. (I downloaded the 60″ set of plans and it worked for my 70″ table).

 

Enjoy and comment below if you have any questions of DM me on instagram @honeybuilthome

Don’t forget to head on over to my online course, DIY Beginner Basics, where I will teach you, and walk you through all you need to know to start DIYing. Use code: HONEYBUILT10 for $10 off.