tabletop

[Doug Mathews]

Hi All,

I'd like to build a small table. I'd like to build the top from edge-joined

1x8's or 1x10's (1x12's?). Should I edge-join these boards with a biscuit joiner or is there a better, stronger method? I want to closely match the grain of the boards so it will be difficult to distinguish the individual boards.

One other thing. I'm finding precious few planers that go over 12-13" capacity (without spending $2,000). Should I plane each individual board and then mic them to identical thickness??

Any pointers would be really appreciated.

Doug

[Charlie Self]

Doug Mathews asks:

I'd go with narrower boards to help prevent cupping. Biscuits provide all the strength you need.

Glue up as carefully as possible. Then check out the February '04 FWW review of Veritas #6 fore plane.

Otherwise, see if you can locate someone in your area who has a wide sander or planer. Many, but by no means all, cabinet shops will do such a job for just a few bucks.

Charlie Self

"Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal." Alexander Hamilton

[David Binkowski]

Alot of people just edge-glue boards, and they last forever. I usually add biscuits to the glue up for alignment, and that little extra peace of mind.

I'm going to get one of those lock miter bits for my router. Those are cool because you can also just cut the edges of the boards with them (one face flipped over) and then edge glue them (its like a finger joint - but with 2 large fingers instead of many smaller ones... Still seems much stronger than edge glueing alone.

[Mike G]

A lot of questions unanswered there. 1 x 8' or 1 x 10' what, pine, mahogany, ebony, balsa? How wide are these 8' or 10' boards? What are the intended dimensions of this small table?

Biscuits, no biscuits, from a strength point of view it makes no difference if the joint is a good one. Remember to use the proper face on each individual board when you cut the biscuits they will help in lining up that surface though.

.On a quick read of the question I expected to see 1" by 8 or 10" wide stock and started to answer as such but I caught myself and see you are talking length so it makes answering difficult. Things like how you are going to develop a reference face so you can true up the rest of the stock for edge jointing.

In any case, should you find a planer that will do over 13" wide stock without spending $2k you are probably better off passing it up unless you have someone really knowledgeable give it a good inspection.

Assuming you do establish a reference face so you can true up the other three sides and are ready to run them through a planer taking a micrometer to them is not all that necessary. What is necessary is that they are all straight, flat, and each is as close as possible to the same dimensional thickness of all the others. It really doesn't matter a whole hell of a lot if a table top is exactly 3/4" thick or a couple of 32/nds or even 1/16th's off. What is going to matter, to make cleaning it up after glue up a reasonably easy chore, is that they are all close to the same thickness whatever it is.

Always go a little over sized so you have some wiggle room for sanding, glue removal, and any slight missalighment..

.

[Tom]

What he said, use smaller boards, alternate the growth rings, and do your glue-up in steps of 12 inches. That way, you can run 'em through the planer to final thickness, do a final glue-up, then sand the remaining joins. Tom > Doug Mathews [e-mail]

Someday, it'll all be over....

[Doug Mathews]

Oh-oh. Sorry for the lack of detail. I was wanting to use 1"x8" or 1x10" to build a table in the range of 24" to 30" wide and perhaps 4 ft long. I would experiment initially with pine (cheap, available) and then switch to some nice hardwood after I have the technique down.

I'm not sure what hardwoods are good for this - any suggestions?

[CW]

[Paul]

I have done the same in a friends shop with several different cabinets (basically a table top on it's side) By the time they were all finish cut they were very close. After edge glueing and clamping it was simply a matter of a couple of sanding runs and we were finished. He ended up with a

24" thickness sander at one point which was a beautiful thing, as I was 99% of the time "the sanding guy". Small price to pay to play in a nice shop.

Good Luck

Paul

[Phisherman]

Tables are made from many woods. Common woods for tables include pine, cherry, oak, mahogany, buttternut, walnut, teak, hickory, elm, chestnut, beech, birch and maple. Depends on what you want, perhaps by what's available and cost.

[Doug Winterburn]

I hope it includes alder, 'cause that's what I got a commission to usi in a 6' x 6' dining table and a 3' x 6' side table that can be moved "next to" in place of building a "leaved" table.

-Doug

[Mike G]

Hi Doug

That's a bit better.

No suggestions as to what hardwood. What ever takes your fancy and fits the pocket book. Maple isn't bad. Hard, tight and straight grained it should give you minimum trouble in terms of wild grain, tear outs, that sort of thing. Soft maple, and no, it isn't all that soft, is going for a fairly decent price these days and has a nice figure.

Ok, now about these 8" and 10" boards. Your risk of having them warp increases as the width of the boards increase, it has to do with old growth wood and new growth wood, changing climates, etc, etc,.You are also going to probably pay a premium for wider boards. It's a supply and demand thing. .

First thing you have to think about is how are you going to face joint an 8" or 10" board so you can true up the other three sides? I'm fairly certain, from you comment about the planer, you don't have an 8" or 12" jointer handy. Hand plane maybe?

I usually rip stock to 6 inches or less for two reasons. One, to lessen the risk of warpage or at least minimize it though I'm lucky, my supplier has always been good and when I check the stock after letting it acclimate in the shop for a couple of days it's always down around the preferred MC of

8%. The second reason is I've only got a 6" jointer. I suppose if I had an 8" one I'd rip to that size but then again maybe not. I'm comfortable with the 6" figure.

You'll see some recommendations to alternate you growth rings and it has some merit but not enough to sacrifice the finished appearance of the job. If alternating the growth rings means you can't get a good grain match don't do it. Not much sense in making the thing if it doesn't look good and with properly dried wood and proper construction techniques the thing isn't going to go south on you.

Having said all that one thing you have to keep in mind. No matter what you do, no matter what precautions you take, wood has a mind of it's own and it will occasionally hand you a nasty surprise or two. No one is immune to it.

[Andy Dingley]

I'd skip the pine. Round here (UK) _good_ pine, suitable for furniture, costs as much as local hardwoods. It's also pretty nasty to work to a high quality. I'd look at a cheap hardwood - maybe ash.

Definitely go with the biscuits, depending on how the frame works. If you built a small table where one board overhangs the framing, then bending foces on it can crack a glue-only joint. Glue-only is fine for overall strength, but it's fragile for worst-case loads concentrated in one spot.

8" boards sound awfully wide too. You could do this, but you'd need really good timber to do it with. Most of the wide boards you see cheap (especially softwoods) will be from across the centre of a long and they're especially unstable.

-- Smert' spamionam