With great trepidation, I got my first large (44 x 60) table top almost done. Its out o’ the clamps and half planed. Since I ran into a real dearth of information about big tables, I though I’d share my experience.
First, I couldn’t find anything about about the minimum parameters of board straightness except for the edges, nothing about bow. I had eleven 8′ boards to choose from, but only four were reasonably flat, one was truly straight and the others either heavily bowed or had crooks or knuckles toward the end. Most writers on the subject were obsessed with grain matching, so one gets the idea that the issue of bow is not all that big a deal.
It should be obvious that if you flatten boards by planing,, you end up with boards all of differnet thickness. There’s just no way to flatten a large number of boards uniformly, so what people do is flatten them and then bevel the edges to give the illusion of even thickness. Frankly, I think beveled edges suck. So, I did the best I could with what I have and forced them (facewise) into position while clamping. I had maximum deflection of about 3/16, which seemed like a cliff. And I learned a few things.
First, like army infantry training, dry clamp ups don’t reveal all the problems of slippery glue clamp ups. The boards I could force into position dry, couldn’t be evened up while wet. I had planks standing proud all over the place. I was ready to fall on my sword. Once the glue’s on, that’s it, yer duck is roasted.
So, I pull this massive thing out of the glue up jig and put it on the bench. I pull out my crummy, but well tuned Stanley and have at it. Low and behold, I ended up learning how to use a plane properly, tho previously thought I was. I discovered just how easy cross grain planing is, (diagonal, actually). In about an hour I had taken down half of the top to perfectly level without any tear out in a wood that everyone says suffers from horrible tear out. In the end, l will be able to get by with only about 1/8″ of bevel on the underside that won’t be noticable.
Anyway, I’m less proud of myself than happy about what I learned and not ending up with a disaster to boot. MY fear had been that I wouldn’t be able to level a top this big with a hand plane. I thought my top had, gasp FATAL ERROR #17 — uneven seams. This top will be on its legs by this after noon.
Edited 7/19/2003 8:07:08 AM ET by boatman
Replies
Boatman.
Thanks for the insight, I'm still fairly green at this, but I do a lot of thinking about stuff like that and just figure that there's more I need to learn and all will work smoothly when the time comes. As a result, I often start looking for my sword when the project is about 3/4 finished.
One of the main misconceptions I picked up from books and magazines is that your current project should look like a work of art from beginning to end.
I'm learning that one of the most important skills is to stick with it, don't fret, all is not lost. It's all about dealing with the unexpected.
Ben.
Boatman,
thank you for that.. It caused me to believe that in the future I'll stand a chance too. While my work now is on the timberframe, when finished the first real piece of furniture I plan on doing is the table for the great room..
I'm thinking about one that will be about 16 feet long by eight feet wide.. The idea of keeping something that large flat frankly scared me.. Nice to hear you were able to succeed with that elm.. That will encorage me to try mine in white hard maple and burled oak..
Out of curiosity how many hows did you spend planning and were you able to do it with one sharpening?
16 feet? Oh, good luck I can tell you that at 44" wide, it's a major problem. I spent a total of about 4 hours planing, then another two scraping, which totally exhausted me. I resharpened before the final, but I don't think it was necessay. Didn't get any better. When you get down to the end, the slighest bit of tear out becomes an eyesore. Then you're faced with either leaving it or creating a divot trying to get it out. I left it.
BTW, my top is so heavy I can hardly move it. Having it to do over, I'd create a light framed core and veneer it.
I would have worked the edges enough to glue the thing up and then flattened it as a unit.
When you make a tabletop like this, you start with THICK lumber. Give yourself room to bring it to flat. No reason to work with a knife at your throat unless you absolutely have to.
I would have used hide glue for the tack (suck) it provides. Let some other fool suffer with slippery yellow (I assume) glue. You don't have to.
I would never have had the expectation that a top so large would glue up perfectly flat, with no 'proud' edges, etc.
Sounds like things turned out fine, and you learned some very valuable lessons. You also learned how important hand tool skills are.
Lot's of guys and gals married to machines can't pull off a project like this.
Always remember to mark the grain direction on each board to facilitate hand planing later. Sounds like you were lucky this time.
Boatman,
Agree with other's comments - what wood are you working that is "prone to tearout".
Providing that your blade is sharp and set fine, it doesn't take long to flatten the top.
Just a couple of comments.
Never assume that wood from the yard is square or true - I always rejoint to ensure that things are square
To align the now-squared boards, I use dowels to guide the boards together during glue up. Biscuits also work but swell too quickly to get a tabletop glued together accurately in my experience. You need all 20 minutes of the glue open time.
Don't flatten half the table and then go on to the other half, instead get the lot flat and out of wind coarsely and then slowly flatten the top as a unit. You may end up with two misaligned ends of a table that will not be visible until you put the finish onto the top and view it in a reflected light (which is how SWMBO will see it)
I'm in the middle of a large table top (workbench) job using hand tools only - making a top by face jointing 3 x 2 x 75" old, old hardwood joists. They are in wind by up to 3/8" and taking a while to prepare. Valuable practice for me - I thought I knew how to use a plane after the first year apprenticeship course - I can now plane so much more accurately after spending 4-5 hours per day for a fornight on a hand plane.
Cheers,
eddie
When you're working with long boards, you can get a LOT of grain direction change, even from one side to other of same board, so marking grain is no help. Moreover, one can never get the bow out of long boards, otherwise you end up with veneer in the middle and thick on the ends, or vice versa.
The one big mistake was that I didn't follow my plan, which was to do 2 halves. I did the first half, after which I piled on the remaining boards and glued at once. Had I done it to plan, I would have ended up with almost no ridges and cut planing time in half. Seems to me that the amount of acceptible error depends on several factors, such as color of table, finish and whether you plan on achieving perfection. Knowing that I wouldn't succeed at perfection, I planned mine to look just slightly rustic, or perhaps like a well- restored old table, but not the so-called "distressed."
I developed a theory about bowed boards. Using a bathroom scale, I pressed down on it with my thumb. At about 30 lbs. it started to hurt, point I used as a guideline. Selecting boards with an even bow, after cutting to length, if I couldn't flatten them with my thumb, I rejected them as having too much stress as I intended to force them flat. The longer the board, the easier this is to do because of leverage involved.
Hi,
When you're working with long boards, you can get a LOT of grain direction change, even from one side to other of same board, so marking grain is no help. Moreover, one can never get the bow out of long boards, otherwise you end up with veneer in the middle and thick on the ends, or vice versa.
Glad you said that because I forgot to.
Thanks,
eddie
Boatman - My hat is off to you for your perserverance. That's a big job for handplane. Ever notice the handplane gurus in most articles are planing a pine drawer front. And there you are with what might as well be a aircraft carrier deck to flatten. The rest of your experince sounds familar. I use biscuits for alignment and glue up the top in pairs. Then join the pairs and so on. Cauls are good, but wood forced to lay flat won't stay that way for long. Not that I'm married to machines but starting with flat boards of even thickness is half the battle, this takes a planer. If hours and hours of planing gets you to nirvana - more power to you, enjoy. I can get time on a 48" wide belt sander 15 minutes away for $25 an hour. For smaller glue-ups I have a 4 x 24 BS with a sanding frame that does a very nice job.
John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
Except that the thickness planer machines them exactly to their original bow. Since nearly all boards are bowed, I presume that 30 lbs. of pressure is not much. I have 99 issues of FWW and there is not a single article in any ot them that even mentions bow, so I'm ####-uming that it isn't a problem. Picture of Chirstian Beekvoort smashing cherry boards flat. Reaction wood was the thing I got out my garlic and crosses for. Looked for as straight edge grain as I could get.
If all the plane afficionados could see the plane I'm using they'd split a gut - a hardware store Stanley that's got more rust on it than the Titanic. I'ts well tuned, tho. Hey, good upper body work out. NO NIRVANA, more like hell-on-a-sled.
I thawt about biscuits -- sounds like a good way to get a perfect line up. Is it ?? or are there hidden pitfalls??
boatman,
I've found biscuits to be very useful for lining everything up. As long as your cutter is properly adjusted and you are careful to insure the fence is dead against the reference side of each piece of stock it's hard to mess them up.
Kell
I agree that a planer won't take out bow. If the bow was from the lumber leaning in a vertical rack, then the board was "trained" and to some degree can be untrained. Lay the boards with the convex side up on the lawn on a sunny day and let nature do the work. The convex side will take up a little moisture and heat and straighten out. Same thing will happen on a concrete slab, but it takes longer. I don't know about perfection, but if you're careful and your fence is true, biscuits give you a least on face that's pretty flat. I have heard about biscuits showing through the top, but I never had that happen. Let the panel cure for a few days so the biscuits aren't swollen before the top is surfaced and you'll be ok. In an edge glue up you don't really need to glue the biscuits if they're just for alignment in the first place.John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
Great advice on getting storage induced bow out of boards. I've been using that method for years now. My hardwood supplier has a great selection and great prices, but they store the lumber standing up, and it really pi55es me off every time because I have to take the boards home and spread them out all over my yard and it looks like some kind of freaky ritual at my house...keeps the birds away. Some of the boards are bowed over an inch, but I hate to pass them up because they're good looking boards, just bowed. I can usually get them to within 1/4" over 8 feet.
Vert storage is a 2 edge sword for sure. Easier to sort through than a pile but the boards suffer. It always seems that the boards I want are bowed the most :)John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
When you see how lumber is handled, it's enough to make you cry. You see those stickered stacks 20" high. The boards on teh bottom are totallly useless they're so badly bent. Not only that, many boards have compression damage that will never go away having been caused by 20 tons of weight above.
My table is already showing the effects of forcing out bow to the extent of 1/32" per foot. Max bow 1/8 on face. I altered the bow up/down and now one side is convex, the other concave. The only solution as I see it is use only straight boards, or level them - damn the consequences.
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