Glueup Method

[Rolling Thunder]

What would be the best means to glue up some

1"X6"X60" boards to assemble a table top?

Use a biscuit joiner, tongue and grove, dowels, just glue 'em together or other?

TIA,

Thunder

[Leon]

Just glue them together.

[MikeG]

yes, plus some more.

[david zaret]

i'd use biscuits for alignment, and bunches of glue.

Roll> What would be the best means to glue up some

[Lawrence L'Hote]

I've found that you MUST prepare the edges properly. Biscuits, t & g and dowels only help with alignment and not much strength. Use cauls or clamps to keep the table top(field) flat while clamping. If you haven't done anything like this before, I would suggest you get some 1 x 6 pine boards(the cheapest) and practice your technique before you mess up some good cherry or oak... The glued up pine panel(s) can always be used for a shop assembly table or such.

Larry

[Phisherman]

The biscuits will help with the alignment and will help avoid steps at the glue line. Important step: Dry fit all the boards together and carefully inspect for any gaps.

[Andy Dingley]

Good jointing of the edges, then something like a Plano clamp to hold them flat and together as they dry. If you don't have such a clamp, sandwich them between a couple of straight bars with a light clamping force, and use long clamps to squeeze the boards together.

I'd probably biscuit them, because it doesn't hurt and I'm usually working single-handed to get them into the clamps. With an assistant I might not bother.

[patrick conroy]

Joint edges. Dry fit. Cut biscuit slots. Dry fit again. Apply glue. Assemble. Clamp and caul. Wait 15 mins - clean up squeeze out. Let glue dry. Remove clamps. Scrape and/or Sand. Add legs. Finish. Drag into kitchen. Apply dishes and flatware. Put spaghetti on plates...

... you get the idea.

[Stephen]

Something not otherwise mentioned which I have heard about, but not personnally experienced, was the table top being aligned with biscuits, and sanded / planed / smoothed and finished within a day or two after glue up.

Eventually little biscuit "dents" were showing up in the glossy finish along the glue line. The explanation posed was that the glue swelled the biscuits and surrounding wood which was then smoothed flat. Eventually the moisture was lost and the wood shrank back to it's original dimension (at moisture equilibrium) and the outline of the buscuits could be seen.

You will need Lots of clamps Lots of glue Lots of alignment tools (biscuits, splines, etc)

hope this helps.

[Swingman]

If "seeing" would be of any help, go to the page 5 of my projects journal on the web site below and slide on down to the trestle table section where there is a picture or two, and a description of sorts, that may shed some light on the process for you.

[jack]

I always use a glue joint on the edges. Seems to work well and you only need one cutter. I have a large shaper which makes it easy. I only use biscuits for shelf boards. Jack

[John McCoy]

Rolling Thunder wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Add me to the "just glue them" list. Unless one of the boards has a slight bend to it, and needs to be encourage to lie in plane with it's mate, in which case I'd use dowels.

As everyone else has said, you'll want to make sure they're jointed straight & square first. You'll also find it easier to glue up pairs, and then glue the pairs together, etc, rather than try to get several boards all clamped up at once.

John

[Preston Andreas]

Make sure the edges are straight and square. Then use bisquits for alignment, since the boards are fairly long. The other methods would work, but bisquits are much easier.

Preston