My friend asked me to help her make a bread shaping table because the small kitchen from which she runs Revelry Bread didn’t have counter space at a good height for kneading.

She had an great 74” x 24” hardwood IKEA table top and just needed a study frame so I built one out of some premium pine.

The design

I wanted to practice my CAD skills so I whipped up some plans in Fusion 360.

Since the table was going to be very wide I thought it was important to make it collapsible. I designed the frame to be held together by screws going into the end grain of the short stretchers after traveling through a sort of half lap / mortise and tenon joint connecting the legs and long stretchers.

The Pieces

I started by making a trip to my local hardware store and getting some wood. Then I cut everything down to size based on the designs I made in Fusion 360.

Legs

The legs are created from three layered boards. The middle of those three is a board’s width shorter than the rest in order to create a half lap / mortise and tenon joint with the runners. After those were glued up I ripped the sides to clean up the glue and make them square.

Stretchers

The long stretchers are two layered boards with room left on one of them to create the tenon which inserts into the legs’ mortise. The short stretchers are screwed in by going through the leg and the tenons of the long stretchers.

Shelf

The ladder pieces of the shelf are perpendicularly screwed into a board that runs down the middle and aligns them all.

Assembling

After dry fitting everything I brought it over to my friends house and assembled it in her kitchen. I attached the table top with “L” brackets and dropped the ladder shelf into place.