How to Build a Table With Interlocking Plywood

Making the Interlocking Slots

• 1

  Lay a piece of 16-by-24-inch, 3/4-inch plywood on your work area. Measure halfway along one 24-inch side and mark a line that is 3/4 inch thick and 3 inches long. Repeat this with another piece of 16-by-24-inch plywood. These are the marks for the slots on the legs of the table.

• 2

  Lay a piece of 5-by-44-inch, 3/4-inch plywood flat on your work table. This is the undercarriage of the table. Measure 6 inches in from each end of the a 44-inch side of undercarriage. Mark a line that is 2 21/64 inches long and 3/4-inch thick and angles inward at 70 degrees. You should have a line near each end of the undercarriage, and they should angle toward one another.

• 3

  Cut out the lines you marked on the legs and the undercarriage using a jigsaw or hacksaw, and remove the waste wood from between the cut lines to reveal the slots.

Finishing and Assembling the Table

• 4

  Apply your chosen wood finish to the undercarriage and the legs, as well as to the tabletop, which is a 24-by-48-inch piece of 3/4-inch plywood.

• 5

  Drill a hole that is 1/4 inch wide and 1/2 inch deep every 10 inches along the top edge of the undercarriage, which is the 44-inch edge without the slots cut into it. Insert a 1-inch-long, 1/4-inch-thick dowel into each hole.

• 6

  Slide the slots on the legs into the slots on the undercarriage to lock them together. The legs will be standing at an angle, and the undercarriage will be hanging between them. The dowel pegs will be standing upright in the top of the undercarriage. Center the tabletop piece of plywood over the top of the legs and undercarriage, and mark the positions where the dowel pegs touch on the underside of the tabletop.

• 7

  Lay the tabletop underside-up on the work table and drill a 1/4-inch-wide and 1/2-inch-deep hole at the dowel points marked. Return the tabletop over the legs and undercarriage, inserting the dowel peg ends into the holes on the underside of the tabletop to finish your interlocking plywood table.