Replies

1. 
   WillGeorge | Sep 03, 2008 02:42am | #1

   I'd say to little information on what wood or the size..

   I'd think creak is crack but then again I can't speels either! AND.. I majored in English and passed with a good grade! LOL at myself..

   Could be some hidden stresses in the wood and it happened! Wood is wood.. You will NEVER know beforehand what it will do.. Been there did that! Many times..

   Sort of like life.. You never know what the next moment will bring...

1. 
   sapling | Sep 03, 2008 04:19am | #2

   The table wobbles a little. I know that has a lot to do with it. But how do you know ahead of making it that the table won't wobble. Is there a formula that says legs must be no smaller than x wide?

2. 
   flairwoodworks | Sep 03, 2008 04:33am | #3

   Easy solution:  Call the creak character and name the piece accordingly.  Make it a selling feature - a novelty.

   I think that if the joints are strong enough and the material ridgid enough, there should be no creaking.  However, joinery can only be so strong and wood only so ridgid.

   To avoid creaking if the future (if desired!), you can rely on experience, common sense to a degree, and mock-ups.  I don't know of any formula.

   Chris @ www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com

    - Success is not the key to happines.  Happiness is the key to success.  If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer

3. 
   [email protected] | Sep 03, 2008 06:56am | #4

   You have a loose joint somewhere that is moving.  Wood in flexure doesn't typically make noises until it has started to break. 

   And, that noise isn't typically one that would be described as a creaking noise. 

    

4. 
   RalphBarker | Sep 03, 2008 06:26pm | #5

   I would also suspect a loose joint somewhere on the table. With the legs not being precisely even, adding the weight is probably torquing the structure, causing the loose joint to creak (I'm hearing a loose floor board sort of creak in my mind.) If the legs are vertical, as opposed to slightly angled, I'd bet that the creak would go away upon equalizing the leg lengths.

   As to assessing sturdiness in advance, my approach would be to consider the design and dimensions versus the intended use. That is to say, will the intended use likely cause the components, as designed and dimensioned, to flex, and, if so, where? Following (imagining, really) the lines of force will point out potential weaknesses in the design, or might suggest the need for heavier stock.

   
   

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   Edited 9/3/2008 11:37 am ET by RalphBarker

1. 
   jimbell | Sep 04, 2008 09:02am | #6

   Dear Poster,

   To get more help with this, you have to give responders more details--particularly how you constructed the table. The squeak probably comes, as it does in floors, when two pieces of wood are moving and rubbing together.

   (so, for example, if you used mortise and tenon joints with the aprons going into the legs and glued with yellow glue, I'd know that that was not the problem--unless your joints were sloppy (yellow glue does not bridge gaps) or you had trouble gluing up (yellow glue has a very short open time). that's the kind of info needed to answer the question without crawling underneath the table--which would be fun)

   JIMBELL