Marble Top on Maple

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Bob Compton

Active member
Question --  Should I be concerned with wood movement with this design?
I need to build a small pedistle table with a marble top (14" Diameter --customer provided) on a solid maple sub --14 1/2" Diameter. I was thinking of using silicon to fasten the marble to the Cherry sub. --
 
Not sure what the period furniture solution is for this, however, I have a marble-top table in the period style that has two wooden pegs in the wooden part of the top that project no more than 1/4 inch.  There are matching holes in the bottom of the marble top that line up with the pegs.  This positions the top and prevents movement.  The pegs are slightly smaller than the holes in the marble, permitting some movement of the wood.  If you knock over the table, the top would fall off.  However, if you want to move the table, removing the heavy marble top makes moving the table a lot easier and reduces the possibility of knocking it over.  In any case it is important that the base is large enough or heavy enough so that the table is not top heavy.  Otherwise to marble may not last long.
Chris Hazard
 
I have seen tables in England in which the marble was set in a recess in the top about 1/3 of its total thickness and then puttied like a window with a whitish clay that dried hard. The putty was flush with the subtop and given the color of the marble very unobtrusive. I am certain it was NOT  modern grout
 
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