Dowelled butt joints strong enough?

Mistral001

The back board needs to be deeper to give adequate stability as others have said.  I am a big fan of K/D knock down fittings (plastic blocks screwed to the wood and connected together with nuts and bolts).  I have used them a lot to make office furniture such as bookcases and computer-related furniture.  They would work perfectly for what you propose in my view. No glue needed and you can dismantle the piece of furniture you make anytime, or reuse the boards and the fittings if you no longer need the item and want to make something else.   

jennifernil

greensalad said:

It's a nice looking table but not quite what I'm, after. I want something with a melamine top surface as well, so was planning to buy pre-veneered wood. MDF makes it very cost effective, and then I was planning to finish with ply edge banding as I love the look of ply furniture but it's a lot more expensive than MDF and doesn't paint as well. If I could figure out if it's possible, I'd make the whole thing in beech ply and have only the tops be veneered, with the rest left as raw beech. 

What I like about the wood veneered blockboard, or plywood, is that you can stick pins in it without it showing.  I think melamine may well  soon show damage.    That table of mine has had a lot of use over the years, and is now about 45 years old.