On 1/8/2023 at 6:12 AM, 4DThinker said:

You're right in thinking the glue would have held but the board would have split.  I don't know how old the table is, but I've lived long enough to see old glue break down and become why old furniture comes apart at the joints.  

It can't be too old, those are pretty modern bisquits they are using in that glue up. Old meaning, it's not early 20th century or 19th century for sure. The fellow who made it has very young kids, and I am assuming it's a recent article? 4D, I had nothing better to do just now, but think of this stuff. 

15 minutes ago, John Morris said:

It can't be too old, those are pretty modern bisquits they are using in that glue up. Old meaning, it's not early 20th century or 19th century for sure. The fellow who made it has very young kids, and I am assuming it's a recent article? 4D, I had nothing better to do just now, but think of this stuff. 

Anything is possible.  I'll change my vote to a poor gluing job. Of course that newish domino'd joint may have been glued up with old glue. I've got some glue way past it's shelf life still haunting a cabinet I can't get to right now in my garage.  Too much piled in front of that that cabinet.  Previous owner left it in that cabinet along with every other toxic can of paint or finish he had used at one time or another between 1980 and 2000 when I bought the house.  

Had a (potential) repair at the furniture bank this morning.   Here is a classic example of near miss.
 

A mistake I see all the time in posts and even in production furniture when I had a furniture repair business: Not allowing for wood movement. Wood will move with humidity changes. You might slow it down some, but you won't stop it. Wood expands and contracts in three dimensions:

1. Along the growth rings (known as tangential) this is the most change

2. From the center of the tree out (radial) this moves about half as much as tangential

3. Up and down the length of the board (linear) - this is hardly any and can be ignored

Plywood is more directionally stable and veneer can usually be constrained.

So, quarter-sawn wood (growth rings perpendicular to the surface) will expand the most in thickness, where it rarely matters. Flat sawn wood (growth rings across the width) will expand/contract and warp the most. For 12" of width, you might expect 1/8" to 1/4" of change, depending on the grain orientation and moisture content when bought and what environment the piece resides in.

When you put boards at right angles to each other like on a breadboard end or wrap boards with a mitered or rail-and-stile frame the linear grain is keeping the other direction from moving. Something is going to give and result in a crack or open joint. You make breadboard ends so the field can move by only securing the middle and making enlarged holes on the edges. It's why raised panel doors you don't glue in the panel but let it "float".

When you secure a table top to aprons all around, the top is going to move and the perpendicular apron is not going to want it to. So you add fasteners that allow the top to move.

Today, I saw a "nice try" by someone. They put in tabletop fasteners that allow movement, but put the screw in the wrong slot and to make matters worse, put in glue blocks. The joints were doweled but had a poor glue job and they split apart about 1/4"

 

 

 

an article showing how wood expands and contracts with moisture change.  Even if you don't read French, the pictures are enlightening.

 

https://www.lairdubois.fr/trouvailles/1238-deformations-du-bois-a-prevoir-au-sechage.html

 

My furniture shop teacher when I was in college had a humidity scale.  It was made from a strip of short thin side grain pieces of wood on top of another long strip with the wood grain running along the length.  Fastened together on one end, but left free to expand/contract atop the back strip.  He had marks on the back strip with the position the top strip stretched/shrank to during each month of the school year.   He had made it as visual aid to show students just how much wood could expand/contract over seasons as the humidity changed.  As I remember it there was about 1" of difference between the November mark and the June mark.   

 

4D