Expert: Jamie Yocono - 7/28/2004

Question
Thanks Jamie, Yes I mean gluing them together with a perfect side-by-side fit. Then plane them all to a flat table top.



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Followup To
Question -
Hi Jamie,
Can you please give me a fail-safe method (and tools required) to join planks of timber side-to-side. Planing is time consuming and more of a hit & miss approach.
Many thanks,

Tony.
Answer -
Tony,

I'm not sure what you mean by joining planks side by side. Are you referring to gluing them together? Or laying them side by side with some sort of joinery to keep them in place?

And then- when you mentioned "Planing is time consuming and more of a hit & miss approach" - I'm not quite sure what this means. Are the boards going to be joined (glued) and then planed to level them out?

If you clarify, I'll try to help you out.

Jamie Yocono
Wood It Is! Custom Cabinetry
Las Vegas, NV

Answer
Tony,

There are a few ways to help glue up a table top to ensure it's relatively flat.

The first thing would be to start with wood that is all the same thickness. I would dry clamp them together, looking for any warped boards or ones with crowns (high spots) that might give you problems during the gluing procedure. The straighter the boards, the easier it is to get a good top.

Next, you can use a caul method for keeping the pieces level when pressure is applied by the clamps. Boards with glue on them have a tendency to want to squirt up, sort of like a wet watermelon seed between your fingers when you squeeze them together. A caul method would use 2 pieces of wood of wood roughly the width of the table top, clamped on the top and the bottom of the table top, so that as pressure is applied, the caul pieces of wood keep the tabletop wood from shifting or squirting up. Make sure you use paper between the caul boards and your actual tabletop, or you'll glue them all together!

As far as planing goes, I agree it's a somewhat time consuming and hit or miss effort, especially without the use of a wood planer. Here are some tips:

Try rough planing with a belt sander, using a very coarse sanding belt. Go across the table top at a 45 degree angle, and then when you've hit all the high spots, go the opposite direction at a 45 degree angle. This sort of "cross-sanding" tends to help you NOT put major dips into your tabletop. Once you've gotten rid of most of the high spots (and all of the glue) start using a scraper or a pad sander to eliminate those 45 degree sanding marks. If you use a coarse enough belt for the first part, like a 40 grit, you should be able to smooth a table top in one short session.

Last thing- after rough sanding, trim the two ends of your table top so that it is to the finished dimension desired. If you have a table or radial arm saw, it's pretty easy to do. But you can also accomplish it with a router and a straight cutting bit. Clamp down a straightedge to your table top and use the router bit to trim the ends. Don't forget to use a big square to ensure that your ends are square. You may get a little splintering or chipping, so it's wise to wait to do your finish sanding until after the table top is trimmed to it's final length.

Good luck, I hope this helps. Feel free to write back with any other questions you might have after reading this.

Jamie Yocono
Wood It Is! Custom Cabinetry
Las Vegas, NV