I was wondering if anyone had advice on when it is acceptable to clamp a gap?
I am building a walnut table and the top is made up of boards of varying widths and lengths…a mosaic pattern if you will. One of the pieces will require closing a gap of 1/64 “. I know because I put it up against a known true board, measured the thickness of the 2 with a caliper, dry clamped it and measured it again. The difference is almost exactly .016”. And this gap will be even smaller once the piece is cut to length, since the problem lies at both ends of the piece where they are just a hair thicker (due to some less than accurate ripping).
I know what I did wrong and can learn from it, but in an effort to minimize my waste is ok to use this? I can only guess that the gap will be more like a 1/ 128 ” of an inch when it is cut to final length. Or am I getting waaaay to technical here haha. I mean this is a gap I have closed with just my fingers.
Please put me out of my misery 🙂
Replies
Too Technical
It sounds like you are doing a fine job. Especially with all the changing moasic grain patterns you have - the real test will be a year from now. Suggest do your glue up with a urea resin (matches walnut in color) and it may fill in the slight gaps. Finishing will take care of the rest.
SA
Hey thanks for the reassurance. It's easy for me to get lost in the imperfections. I'm sure i'm not the only one to beam over perfectly true boards and then stew over minor imperfections. I guess I am more worried about the memory of walnut and risking a future joint failure...but I get the feeling I don't have to worry about that in this case!
No problem. If you are useing a finish like Watco oil the wet sanding stage will fill these cracks with a wood/oil slurry. But I imagine after glueing the crack,won't be there.
best of luck.
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