How to Attach Table Legs
how to attach table legs
Never use wood screws straight into your table
Purchase or build legs that will result in an overall table height of 30”.
For dining tables, position your legs 16-20” from the end of the table to allow for seating someone on the end.
Mark all of your mounting holes with the legs in place.
Remove legs and drill holes for threaded inserts.
Install threaded inserts with a dab of glue for lubrication.
Use furniture bolts to attach legs to table top. Don’t over tighten, just snug.
why we shouldn’t screw. legs to our table tops.
I hear the expression “wood is a living breathing organism” all the time. While that is far from true, what people are trying to say is that wood expands and contracts with the seasons. Meaning, it literally gets bigger and smaller seasonally. Wet/humid air causes the wood to expand, dry air causes the wood to shrink. There are lots of great articles on how to calculate exactly how much expansion based on the type of wood, how it was cut, the area you live in, and a number of other factors. Check out this great article by Popular Woodworking for a deeper dive than I am capable of. For the purposes of this blog, lets over-simplify it and say a wood table can expand and contract 1/8-1/4” yearly.
If we were to just screw our table legs directly into the wood without accounting for any movement the tops would likely crack and split as they moved while the legs stayed in place. There is mounting hardware out there to account for this type of movement. Figure 8 fasteners and Z clips come to mind as a great traditional method to securely fasten your a base to a top. I tend to use a lot of steel legs and bases though. There is no way to use a Z clip or Figure 8 to attach steel legs to a top. So what competent leg designers like Symmetry Hardware have done is to add slotted holes to their mounting plate. Since wood movement occurs primarily across the grain, the slots only need to run perpendicular to you grain.
Tools and hardware needed
Stop collar (optional)
Blue threadlock (optional)
Hardware for table leg attachment
I have tried a number of different attachment methods and found that steel threaded inserts and furniture bolts are my preferred process. I don’t recommend using the brass or solid zinc (zinc plated is ok) threaded inserts. Brass looks great, but the threads can strip out easily. Zinc looks bad, and can also strip out easily. So get a good steel insert with a Allen style head for installation. Not a screwdriver style head.
Most any bolt will do, so long as it matches your insert. However I love the low profile aspect of the furniture connector style bolts. They are black and have a thin, wide head. So there is no need for a washer. Which makes them next to invisible unless you crawl under your table. Much cleaner that a bright zinc button head with a stack of washers.
how tall should my table be and Where do I mount my table legs?
A dining table should be 30” tall. Make sure you order the correct legs based on your particular top. There is a big difference in a 1.5” top and 3” top when the same legs are attached. Many steel bases come with adjustable feet to give you a 1/2” or so of wiggle room.
Most people want the option to seat someone at the ends of the table as well as the sides. So I recommend a minimum of 16” from the end of the table to the front of the table leg to allow for a chair to be pulled up. If your table is over 96” you can push that back to 18-20”.
Marking your holes
I set my legs in place, taking a lot of time to get them perfectly centered and in the correct position. I then take a brad point bit and hammer/mallet and just tap the bit in the middle of each hole. The brad point bit is nice because it fits tight in your slotted hole. So you know the center of the bit will be in the exact center of the hole.
Installation of your threaded inserts
Do what I almost never do. Listen to the manufacturer recommendations when it comes to choosing the drill bit size. I tend to use a size too small if I don’t follow their instructions. This is hazardous because it makes inserting them very difficult for one. Second, you can actually crack your insert. Or worse, table top. So actually listen to the manufacturer. This time.
A brad point bit and stop collar make installation almost fool proof. Just try and drill your hole straight up and down. You don’t want your insert going in at a 30 degree angle. If you don’t have a stop collar, a piece of tape works as a good depth reference. Just drill all your holes at once. While not entirely necessary, using a countersink to bevel the top of the hole helps prevent any chip-out when installing the insert.
The Allen style steel inserts are very strong. So you aren’t too likely to strip them out. Unless you are putting them into a solid Ebony slab for some reason. I personally recommend inserting them by hand with a T-wrench. But I see a lot of people install them with a drill or impact driver online and it seems to work alright for them. I like to feel any resistance in my hand and have the option to back it out slightly, then continue forward slowly. Versus just slamming them into the slab. Also, I like to put a dab of glue on the insert to help it slide in, and give a little more staying power. I use wood glue, but epoxy or CA glue would actually be stronger. I’d like the option to remove them if I ever needed to, although I probably won’t need to.
Attaching the legs to the table top
Low profile furniture bolts are a nice finishing touch to the underside of your table.
Don’t close this tab just yet. You can still mess up this step. We didn’t go through all these steps to just torque our bolts down as tight as we can and have our top split the same as if we had just screwed it down.
You only want to get your bolts snug to your base plate. I go all the way tight, then back it off about a quarter turn. This allows the top to remain secure, but still move seasonally.
If you want to go a step further, you can add blue threadlock to your bolts to make sure they don’t wiggle loose. Paste wax or nylon washers can also assist in letting your bolts glide across the base plate.
check on them every so often
It is not a bad idea to check the torque on your bolts once a year or so. Just to make sure one or more haven’t gotten stuck in place. Negating all this hard work of ours. If you did everything correctly from they start, they will likely be perfect for years to come though.