The attached picture is one leaf to a cherry drop leaf table. I was careless in my layout and cut this piece too close to the end of the rough cut board. I could reduce the length of the leaf a little but the crack still extends into the finished product. Is there anything I can do? Can I inject glue into the crack and hope for the best? or should I just bite the bullet and start over.
Thanks,
Brian in Webster Groves, MO
Replies
You could try to rip the board at that angle (about 45 deg.) and glue it back together with some kind of spline.
I would start over.
C.
I would start over. Why have a beautiful table with a defect from the very start?
Where did you score the cherry? I'm in the metro-east area and always looking for wood places.
Marion
Epoxy is the only way to fill and glue the end check. It will not look too attractive and you will kick yourself as long as you use that table. There is no guarantee that when brought into the house the check wont get worse. When you commission a piece of furniture, the cost of the wood is usually never more than 20% of the total cost. Relace the board and use the checked one( cut down) on another project.
replace
Start over and chalk it up to learning.
A rip and re-glue or some other cutesie repair is out of the question IMO.
It's one board. Your psyche will recover.
Edited 11/22/2006 11:43 am ET by CStanford
Webster,
It might be possible to try to salvage it. Best to cut it off, if you can, but if you need to use it, here's what I'd try. Tint some titebond or similar glue with a bit of water based aniline dye, (Franklin's makes brown tinted titebond if you can find it) you can use a tiny bit of food color if needed, to get a glue that dries brown. Work as much of it intro the crack as possible, then clamp the split shut. When dry, the crack will look like a bit of pitch, like cherry has in it sometimes.
Ray
Webster is going to start over,but may I ask, looking at that endgrain, if you would have chosen to use that wood in that situation in the first place? My reason for asking is that I have doubts if it would have endured over time even without the split, but is that a fair thought.
mufti,
Given a choice, I'd choose not to use it. But have been in situations where I've repaired similar checks to be able to have matching boards across the top of a table, or when the curved shaping of an oval or circular top failed to cut off checking as I thought it would. After gluing up, planing, rule-jointing and hinging together a dropleaf table top and leaves, there is some incentive to take a little time to make a good (unobtrusive) repair, rather than much more time for a do-over.
Regards,
Ray
Webster,
Ouch, I hate when that happen. You could try glue or epoxy. The problem is what type of finish are you planning on for the table. Try it on a cracked peice of scrap first. And finish. You may not care because the leaf will only be used for holidays (and covered with a table cloth) and not seen.
If you do glue (or epoxy) place a vacuum hose under the crack (with vacuum on) and draw (suck) in the adhesive to ensure full penitration. I then tape the crack on the under side (so adhesive doesn't drip out) and fill the upper half.
Hope this works, tell us how it turns out.
Joe
Even a broken clock is correct twice a day...
You could incorporate a new design element by cutting out the crack in some deliberate way that allows a decorative contrasting wood in some interesting shape to be spliced in to a create a decorative element.
Agree with others, Chalk it up to experience and make a new board. the old board won't go to waste. Save it for another project
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
I might go ahead and start over, but not until after I'd tried some, if not all, of the good ideas I read here re mending the problem-
That crack in an end of the board is called a check.
When you bring a piece(s) of wood from a lumberyard (or where ever) you have to let it sit a few weeks to acclimate. Another reason could be the M.C. was a little high and you cut the board. As the M.C. in the board dropped (dried) the ends checked.
There is very little you can do about this but incorparate it into the design (think outside the box) or put breadboard ends on it.
Thanks for everyone's comments and suggestions. I'm going to start over. Need to buy some more Cherry - ouch.
Here is my source in St. Louis. Great prices and good selection - http://www.woodfinder.com/listings/012869.php
Happy Thanksgiving!
The board with the split looks like "reaction wood" anyway, so you should replace it with another board.
Part of the art of woodworking is to be able to just do it over with a smile on your face when things don't go well. It won't take as long as you would expect and you will be happier with the results.
If, for some silly reason, you do decide to glue the check, you will need to use epoxy, not Titebond. Titebond does not fill a gap with any strength. The split will shift and you will always be able to feel it. Epoxy is actually stronger if the gap is larger.
Hal
http://www.rivercitywoodworks.com
Hal
You are a pro and would you please answer me this. Would Gorilla glue or any poly type glue be good for that? My feelings tell me NO.
Dave
Dave,
Actually there is sort of an urban myth about Gorilla Glue and other "polyurethane" glues on the market in regard to their ability to fill gaps.
The foamed material will fill the gap, but in doing so it has very little, if any, strength. And even with no gap, I have found with my experience that it tends to creep.
Another thing about Gorilla Glue or others is that it is really hard to clean up. I personally don't know of anything that it does well that good wood glue or epoxy isn't better for, other than gluing wet wood.
Epoxy is not so hard to use. If you buy the little double hypo tube type, just mix more than you need because the more you make, the more likely you will have a closer ratio mix. And don't make the common mistake of adding more "hardener" as this will only mean that there is extra hardener that doesn't have anything to react.
Also, slow setting epoxy is much stronger than 5-minute epoxy.
Hal
http://www.rivercitywoodworks.com
Hal, after looking at your web site...............it's guys like you that make me want to go out and set my shop ablaze and take up needle point!Wicked Decent Woodworks
(oldest woodworking shop in NH)
Rochester NH
" If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy........yessa!"
Thanks!
In reality, if you saw my shop, you would never know that so much work has come from it. It isn't exactly the picture perfect "Fine Woodworking" shop. I'm not really a tool nut, I just have a bunch of them that I have figured out how to make work well for me.
In fact, some of the largest things I have built, like the huge decorative interior trusses, were built in a little concrete tunnel of a shop that was 10' wide and 40' long. Before that I worked in an old Model T garage that was only about 7' wide.
I spend my time making things for my clients, but in my spare time I don't make things for my shop. In my spare time I go windsurfing, skiing, golfing, hiking, and afterward take my wife out for dinner and dancing.
I believe that anyone that enjoys it can do the same work I do. It just takes about 50 years of practice, a little training in fine art, and people willing to pay them to figure out how to make what they want.
There is a book by Franklin H. Gottshall called Masterpiece Furniture Making that is worth seeing and reading. Some of the really amazing work that he shows are some of the first pieces he built. I think he proves my theory that it is all about knowing what you are trying to achieve, then making it.
Thanks again for the compliments!
Hal
http://www.rivercitywoodworks.com
Edited 11/28/2006 1:06 pm ET by Hal J
Dunno if you've already embarked on a new course of r&r, but ran across an article in an old issue of FWW (Feb 1991) that bears on your problem- In "Methods of Work" the guy drills holes 1/2 way through the work piece and intersecting the crack- Fills the holes, one at a time, with epoxy, and then uses a plug for a piston, forcing the glue down into and out along the crack- Then he cuts the plug(s) off flush-
Hi Brian,
Not sure what type of table you are making, but it is not uncommon to include breadboards in the design of a large table to help keep the table top flat and to also hide end grain. You create tenons on the long boards and insert them into tenons in the breadboard. If your bread boards are 1.5 to 2 inches on each end, you may be able to chop of the checked portion of the board or just make the tenons on either side of the crack an cut it out. It runs perpendicular to the 'field' of you table. On a farm, country or shaker style (not drop leaf) table the bread board would be fine. Keep us posted on the project.
Regards,
Ken
"Do as you would be done by." C.S. Lewis
Edited 12/30/2006 1:20 am ET by kenshep
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled