Throwback: Knockdown Tabletops Using Dovetails

Originally published in Fine Woodworking #20

For storage or shipment it is often advantageous for a tabletop to be quickly removable, while in daily service the top should be fastened securely enough for one person to be able to shift the table within a room. Here’s a pair of construction methods that require no hardware—one for tables with apron frames, a variation for pedestal frames.

Apron frame

This method uses dovetail pins cut at the tops of the legs and dovetail housings with escapements chopped across the grain of the underside of the top. To assemble, drop the top over the pins and push it across the frame to lock the pins in their housings. To disassemble, push the top from the opposite side until the pins register in their escapements, and lift the top away. Properly dimensioned, the system is invisible when locked up.

When sawing the legs, leave extra length at the top…