Maple Craftsman Dining Table Build

Brent,
Don't know on how you want to glue up the top but I'd glue 2 board up first and 2 more, let it dry then glue the third board to one of the glue ups then when thats dry glue the two remaining pieces together. This will make it easier to keep them aligned.

That's definitely the plan. I'm going to make up some glue up rails to hold the clamps in place. But definitely 1 joint at a time. I'll work on getting all of the edges jointed first, then glue it up a bit at a time.

Thanks for confirming I'm not crazy doing it that way! :thumb:
 
I dont plane down to final thickness anymore before I glue up.
If I want 7/8th thick top, Id plane to one inch, then glue up 12 inch sections of the top, 3-4 sections lets say.(if the top is 30 inches, Id glue 3 ten inch sections, if its 40 inches, Id glue 4 sections, keeping it no more than 12 inches wide so its fits in my planer)
Then after I have the few sections glued up, I run them all thru the planer same time to get final thickness. Then I only have 2 or 3 alignments to worry about. Just my way of doing it, gives me nice straight tops.
 
Good idea, but even one glue up won't fit through the planer.

Smallest width on the boards are 6 3/4" > 13 inch planer width.

Couple of them are 10 inches wide.

I'm way more worried about jointing the boards correctly for the glue up at this point than I am getting the table top flat.

Figure I get all 'NeAnderThal' and the table top with planes and scrapers. :eek:
 
brent unless your real comfy with a plane i would look for a place to use a drum sander for your top. you will be done sooner and wont be tired

Well, Nothing quite like the sound of a deadline that goes whooshing by, and I could use the exercise! :rofl:

Good advice Larry. I might call around and see if I can find a place.
 
Brent just a thought but when i glued up my bench slabs i used dowels pretty succesfully to glue the slabs together and keep then in position. I had thought of biscuits as well but my experience with them on prior occassions was that of a loose fit so i decided to try dowels all registered from the same edge.

I just did a stupid thing when glueing up (in a hurry again) and pulled them out of flat when clamping. Had i read a post here first and listened to Vaughn (who it was at the time ) suggesting i look to use some cauls i would have been way better off. I did not get the movement between each slab, i got it on the overall flat.

Woods looking good though. Aint nothing like that table going to be available in the stores.:thumb: I love it. Boy you put a beermug down on that slab and its going to be great. You wont feel like it will break.:D

All the best :)
 
I was kind of looking at using biscuits to help with the registration of the pieces. I do have a dowel jig I could use with dowels, but biscuits are just so darn easy to use.

I will be using some cauls as well.

Just went out into the shop right now. Temp is about 30, so I'll wait for it to warm up a bit this afternoon to get out there and get busy.

Going to whip up a few cauls later today and take a stab at finalizing the arrangement of the planks.

Aint nothing like that table going to be available in the stores. I love it. Boy you put a beermug down on that slab and its going to be great. You wont feel like it will break.

It will be one solid table top, thats for sure! And from what I've seen, it would't look out of place in some peoples shops!
 
Hey, Remember this ole thread!

Well, got the garage cleaned up a bit tonight to assess where I am with this project..

All I can say is I've learned a lesson. I had let my lumber sit in the garage stickered for a while before I milled it up. I took out the cups and bends, and that was about it.

So now today, many months later, I finally put the wood back together and wouldn't you know it, one of the slabs has warped a nice little curve to it.

Looks like my schedule for the weekend is to get the planer sled out, flatten that board (the middle one if you must know) and then plane every thing down a bit.

And that's ok, the wood is thick as can be, and shaving a bit off will help to make it a little more manageable as a table top.

Looks like Allen finally shamed me into trying to finish this project... :rofl:
 
you know I waited a long time for you to continue so Id get some idea how to handle this heavy thick build.
I leave the thick pieces after each planing process to see if it will remain flat and I wont have trim it down again. I guess I let it rest a day or two, then glue up.
Wait till you have to move it around, youre going to have a blast.
 
Yeah, and My shoulder still hurts from my bike wreck.

But I said to my self, 'Self, If Allen can do it, then get off your fat lazy but and git'r dun'!

Bout time.

Once I get things flat again, I'm still going to bump up against the thing that stopped me last time, which was jointing and gluing.

but I figure I'll just forge ahead. Once I get the top glued up, the rest should be a piece of cake...
 
brent, you should use your moderator magic powers and move this thread into flatwork section.
Have you started any of the support parts yet, legs, aprons, pedestals?
Is it all going to be 100% hard maple?
 
Yeah, Everything will be maple.

Once I get the the table done, I have a few more project planned. Some benches and chairs outta maple as well..

Hmm, Moderator powers... Let's see what damage I can do...
 
Well that was confusing...

I started to try and move it and lo and behold there it was before I even did nothing.

Thanks Don!
 
Well got back at it today. The real question is can I get it done in under a year? Allen got his done in 1 day, if I recall correctly.... :thumb:

So, The reason this whole thing stalled, was because I couldn't get the boards jointed properly. Kept fussing over it, then Don posted his review of the Freud glue line rip blade. I picked one up last week and put it to work this week.

Now I gotta get the base built, and figure out how to get the top leveled off...

attachment.php


Shop dog on Duty.

attachment.php


Glue up glueing up, glueing uppers....

attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • table_01.jpg
    table_01.jpg
    48.3 KB · Views: 188
  • table_02.jpg
    table_02.jpg
    36.8 KB · Views: 189
  • table_03.jpg
    table_03.jpg
    49 KB · Views: 190
Time to resurrect this old thread.

With BW this past weekend, Larry and Carol got me on the flat and wide to get the table top redone.

Dan Mooney took some pictures of us cutting it up, reworking it, and regluing. I've been told it's good to go now, so I've got to get going on it!

Here's a link to Dans Post http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?29491-Burning-Wood-2013&p=371406#post371406

I've taken the liberty of copying a few picts from Dans post and adding a pic or two of mine.

Here's what I should have done a few years ago before cutting the boards. Apparently, I did not have the boards jointed at exactly 90 degrees.

attachment.php



Got everything setup, and here we go. Cutting it in half on the bad joint line
attachment.php


Now we take the pieces back to the table saw and use the glue line rip blade to do it's job again.

attachment.php
attachment.php



Doing the glueup under the tutelage of the famous Carol Reed!

FWW-9340.jpg

Larry helping me make sure things are flat and tight!
FWW-9341.jpg

Thanks Carol and Larry! I kind of suspected this would happen, and I'm glad it did. Time to 'Git-r-dun', as they say.
 
Top