Furniture and Furnishings - Putting a glass top on a wooden table

I am working on a charity project where I am taking an old round wood-topped table, refinishing it and putting a glass top on it with the intention of putting photos and letters between the wood and the glass. My question is: can I just get a thick piece of bevelled glass and plop it down or do I need to do something to keep it from sliding? Help?

Elbertina, Welcome to the DIY Forums.
In my OPINION, it would depend on how and where the table was used. If there is a chance of animals or children bumping it and the glass sliding off, I would use a few cork anti-slide "dots". These are thin pieces of cork in circle shape about 1/2" diameter. You wouldn't want much thickness no matter what you would use. A thick gap would possibly cause the glass to break if something heavy were to be placed on it. If the table is a low profile, you probably would not need anything to hold the glass as the lower the top is, the less chance of it being toppled. Good luck with your project.

A little tip with putting glass on a table is to make sure the finish is well cured before doing so.
If put on too soon the chemicals coming out of the finish might affect the photos and papers, leaving you with a real mess.

You might want to try a water based finish because of there being a milder chemical component in the finish..

My glass top coffee table has the dots MD spoke of, but they are "clear" (and sort of rubbery)
They are the only thing keeping the glass from sliding off
They work well, except when my sister-in-law stayed with us for 6 months and never moved from the couch with her feet on the table
About every month or two she'd shift it enough to knock it down
But there's no center to mine to hold up the glass when it shifted
She's gone now and no problems with the table...her butt impression is still in the couch though...

slickshift,

Perhaps if you turned the cushions over the visit will be a forgotten memory. :D

Did that today my friend, did that today
:)

speaking of glass tops on wooden tables, i want to put one on my maple dresser with pictures underneath the glass, so i can cover some scratches on the wood and have a nice lil look. wuts some inexpensive glass/plastic i can buy to put on top of the dresser?

Many hardware stores sell stock sizes of plexiglass and some cut it to fit. That's the most economical way to go.

Are you just laying the pictures on the table or do you intend to adhere them to the table?

Reason why I ask is cuz you have another option. If you are planning on making the cards and pictures permanently adhered to the table then you could poly the heck out of it making a thick shiny finish. Now you don't have to buy a beveled piece of glass, don't have to worry about it falling off and people could put their feet on it (if allowed of course).

If done it both ways and they've both came out beautiful. My Sister's is an octagone window with pictures in eache pane with a glass top on it and my mothers is a small trunk she takes with her on trip that's decopaged with pictures of us and the grankids at different ages. Since it was traveling I dipped it in a satin finish poly like 40 times and it came out great.

Caution! Depending on the size of the table you may be placing a lot of weight on it. Glass can be heavy. Make sure the table can support the weight.