Hi all. I’m about to start building a custom conference table for a local law firm that’s moving into a new office. The top of the table (lumber is shipping to me currently) is going to be made from 2 pieces of bookmatched solid bubinga per the client instruction that the top be solid rather than veneered. The lumber being shipped to me is approximately 2×26 x 14.5′ long and the final table top will be 45×108″. The lumber has been rough planed but appears to still have sticker marks from drying and will need to be cut to size.
I don’t have the equipment to thickness or edge pieces this size, but I have a local shop that is willing to thickness the boards for me. I’m preparing the area to do the glue-up (after reading pretty much every article on the archive about achieving flat glue-ups), but my big question is this: what would be the best way to prepare the center edges for glueing? I don’t have a power jointer (and certainly wouldn’t have one big enough for this piece even after trimming the long end to rough size). Will a hand jointer plane do the trick? I’ve built a lot of tables but the customer’s spent about $4 on the lumber for the top on this one so I want to make double-certain that I don’t mess things up. Thanks guys.
Pat
Replies
If you are proficient with a jointer plane, that should work, though keeping it these thick board's edges a perfect 90 degrees to the faces for such a long length may be difficult. Usually, one can plane baords while clamped together and thereby have and errors be complementary and cancel each other out.
The more certain way to join these would be to use a router with an flush trim or straight type bit guided by a straightedge.
Edited 5/1/2007 3:31 pm ET by Samson
Pat,
The classic way to do this is to space the two pieces 3/8" to 7/16" apart and then take a pass down the resulting slot with a router running along a straight edge. Use a straight 1/2" diameter spiral bit and take some material off both sides at once so that the two edges, even if they aren't perfectly straight, are a mirror image of each other.
For the best results, the two very large and heavy boards will need to be well supported in exactly the orientation needed to glue them together so that nothing changes when you push them against each other after routing the edges. I'd use an epoxy for the glue and do the glue up immediately after matching the edges with the router.
Before you do anything, make up a simple scrap wood frame the size of the finished top and make sure that it will fit through any doors, bends, and elevators between your shop and the conference room. Don't ask me why I recommend this.
John White, Shop Manager, Fine Woodworking Magazine
I don't ask but I will say: been there done that ! Sound advice you are giving there !
In my case we had to remove a sealed window and had the window cleaning rig deliver the table.
C.
"Where there's a will, there's a way", but the stress and the embarrassment of looking like a fool takes its toll. Really felt like I deserved the first beer after having one of those days.
John W.
JohnWas it a sailboat or a table top?FrostyP.S. That was a great suggestion!
It was a massive salad bar for a restaurant, but there have been others.
John W.
John W ,
This method works super on butcher blocks that need to be joined .
I use a 1/2" shank router bit .
thanks for sharing with all dusty
John WW, I have to admit, that I have not ever used the technique that you describe here, because I have had that power-plane for so long. I have used routers with templates plenty of times though with guide-bushings, bearing over, and just letting the base ride against a straight edge. What I am wondering is, when you are routing a thick dense wood like bubinga, with ####1/2" x 3" router bit, don't you get a good bit of chatter from bit deflection in a cut like that?I also have questions about recommending epoxy for edge gluing a dense wood like this. I use enough epoxy to buy it in 5 gallon pails, but I would not think of using it for this. Since it does not penetrate the cell walls, and needs some texture or tooth to make a good bond. Plus it set so slowly, that if you have gotten two good smooth well mated surfaces, most of it will get squeezed out of the joint with too much clamp pressure.I will second your advice of making sure you can get it to the planned conference room. That reminds me of a certain 3/4" x 5' x 10' boat shape, glass top with a beveled edge. It was too long to go in the elevator, and the stairs switched back too sharp to turn, even for a team of muscle gorillas. Thank goodness there was ####slot in between the stair turns, and a drop in ceiling with access to the bar-joist in the roof. Lucky me, I have a couple of sailboats that I could strip of the running rigging, and tackle to manage squeezing it up through. When I have made large thick solid wood tops, I like to rout T-slots across the under-side, and usually work that into the joining of the legs and apron or trestle. This will help control cupping tendency if the lumber is plain-sawn. I make sure that the tops of the T-rails are well coated with wax, so the glue doesn't stick to it.I agree with your choice of beverage to replace the sweat lost from this kind of anxiety ridden work.
I agree with Samson that it will be challenging to hand plane such a long edge (forgive me Adam). If you are having someone else thickness plane the wood, why not ask them to joint the edges too.
Will a hand jointer plane do the trick?
in a word... yea... and fairly easily too with the additional benefit of being far safer. Working with boards that size is enough of a handfull in itself without worrying about something shifting while you try routing 2 edges at he same time...
easy way to do it is pretty fail safe and low tech... trade off is it'll take a bit of time and effort..
I assume you have a bench that's both large and strong enough to handle these boards, and that the worst of the natural edge has already been removed... all you need to do is raise the board off the bench slightly... 3/16" shims are ideal. Clamp the board to the bench, flip your plane (thesr's no real need to use something as large as a #7 for this... something in the jack plane range will cope just as well) onto its side and start to shoot the edge using your bench as a reference surface.
Stop frequently to gauge your progress with squares and straight edges, take your time and enjoy it...
btw there's no need to shoot the entire edge in a single pass... no need to fret about your bench being smaller than the board... take it in bites; plane a section, move the board to get at the next piece and carry on... take it down in overlapping stages until eventually you end up with a perfect edge... I've been shooting real large boards like this for a while now... my bench is only 60" long...
Mike Wallace
Stay safe....Have fun
Pat,
A hand plane will certainly work.
I'd be more concerned about the look of the finished table, while I have not worked with bubinga, I have seen it, and it is a highly reflective wood. Bookmatching a reflective wood on a horizontal surface can (will) result in a very poor appearance. You might want to wipe the boards down with mineral spirits and look at them from varying positions before you decide on how to orient them, I think you'll be surprised at the shift in color and grain intensity.
Rob Millard
While I have some pretty large old industrial equipment, my favorite tool for a job like this is the Makita 1806 power-plane. Here is a linkhttp://http://www.tools-plus.com/makita-1806b.html
I have had mine since the late seventies, and if it ever quits, I will have another on the way the next day. If you know how to use hand planes, with winding sticks etc. Just use the same techniques with this tool, and enjoy the fact that you are getting a cut up to 1/16" deep and 6 3/4" wide, and the ability to change depth on the fly, and have almost total disregard for wild grain patterns like with hand-tools. This tool is really like having a real jointer in your hands rather than one bound by a stand, and the little 3" ones are a joke by comparison.
When I go out onto job-sites, I have a nice work-bench with a solid 10/4 mahogany top, with a vice with wooden jaws that allow me to clamp it into the vice upside down, then use it as a stationary jointer.
When I am in the shop with a long 12" jointer, and a 24" planer, but lumber like you have is too big to handle on even those tools, this is my tool of choice.
If you are quoting a price for this job, then your time is money. This job will pay for almost if not all of this tool
Prmulry,
I just finished building that table, although mine was 48" X 78" split in half for leaves.
Mine were solid slabs which were cut to 36" X 42" each and then a 3" edge was added to the 3 outside edges.
This stuff is heavy. The mating edges at the center had to be final cut. I carefully measured and aligned the Festool guide rail, pushed the pieces together and ran a line down the seam. I worked beautifully since I was only taking off 1/8".
What I liked about using the Festool saw was that it rides on the guide so there is no chance it was going to wander.
ASK
Pat,
I think you have gotten excellent, if differing advice from all the above posters. I strongly recommend John's technique using a straight edge, a router and a long, straight bit to simultaneously trim both pieces. But I sure would like to try that large power jointer method!
Not asked, but a response almost impossible to resist is the advisability of constructing the table as described. I know that's the way the client wants, but clients are sometimes fools. (I mean no disrespect, but reality is reality).
There is so much to be said for using a large, flat torsion box for this table and veneer. Veneer is available in far more variety and figure than solid wood and a torsion box will remain flat and stable. The chances that your thick bubinga top will move in ways yet to be imagined are not insignificant. Objections to veneer's not being "real wood" are simply foolish.
Another treatment you may want to consider is to leave the top in 2 halves with the long opening a design element, possibly sinusoidal, instead of straight, possibly bridged by butterfly connectors.
Rich
Great post! I love it when people think outside of the box.Congratualations.Frosty
A guy who does huge conference tables, using torsion box construction is Kim Carleton Graves. Beautiful stuff.
http://www.carletonwoodworking.com/carleton.html
Click on "Conference Tables and Furniture"
Edited 5/4/2007 11:41 am ET by Rich14
Rich gave you good advice for something that hadn't been asked--clients are fools *many* times.
I know of not a single professional shop that would make this table out of solid wood. If for no other reason than it is going to be more than heavy.
Aside from the client's foolishness, if I were foolish enough to do this glue-up, I would use John's mentioned router method. Tis the fastest and most likely most assured way to nirvana on this project.
This pieces need to be absolutely in the same plane when routed. As little droop as you can--it's a long couple sticks you are dealing with, there will be some.
You should probably consider Festool's Domino or dowels between halves. I don't know what your finished thickness was going to be, but this top will be moved around and carried into place for installation by the edges--by many people.
I don't know what a stick that long, wide, and thick is going to weigh. But it is going to be a logistics nightmare. Have you visited the site and walked through the installation path? Is this top ever going to have to go vertical or even worse, at an angle to navigate into place?
RE the book matching. I don't recall if you mention the figure of the Bubinga. If it isn't curly or waterfall, it should be able to be matched reasonable well. Are the two pieces being sent flitch cut? If it is flitch cut, matching will be less an issue.
Oh man, I wish you the best on this project.
Take care, Mike
Pat, I would want to warn you that you are taking a risk by ordering timber that size and working it straight away-if I understand you correctly. Especially joining boards. You need to be sure that it is well seasoned and at equilibrium moisture content with the place where it will end up. But to answer your question:
I think if you are to do more of this type of job for commercial gain then get one of those power planers that Keith Newton has : this will at least help you to remove waste quickly, if you can't do it all with that tool. I have a smaller version of that Makita and have used it many times to do the bulk of this type of job, then refined with my number 7, not having a number 8. I have either supported the board edge up against my bench or used some hefty trestle (triangular) stands with the work clamped to them- in your example I would go for those trusty trestles. Keeping the edge square should not be too hard , because of the width- you should check often, unless you are like Larry Williams (;).
The router & straight edge method has its pros and cons, but in my opinion in this case it is definitely one of those methods that sounds attractive until it actually applied -same goes for having the board flat on the bench and shooting as if using a shooting board- if you did a lot of that you would develop a permanent list to starboard in no time.
Hope this helps and good luck.Philip Marcou
Edited 5/4/2007 10:39 pm by philip
Philip,"You need to be sure that it is well seasoned and at equilibrium moisture content with the place where it will end up."I have to disagree with that. The stock needs to be brought into equilibrium moisture content with the environment in which it will be worked. If it it's not stable in the workshop during sawing, planing, jointing and construction, the job is a nightmare.But the design of any piece must accommodate potential movement due to changes in relative humidity from the workshop environment to the place where it will be used, and the yearly change in humidity there and future environments.Rich
Rich- we are saying the same thing- I assume his shop is in the vicinity of the job.I would also hope the design takes into account the other factors you mention.Philip Marcou
philip,Quite often the workshop conditions and the environment where a piece of furniture will be used are very different, even though the two places may be physically close, even in the same building.I have seen posts here in which the workshop is a poorly-heated garage, freely open to the outside atmosphere due to leaks around the door, etc. The finished piece will be used in the attached house which, of course is heated and weather-stripped. The in-house conditions are warm and much drier than the workshop. Yet advice is given to bring the stock into equilibrium with the in-house conditions, then work on it.That's a formula for failure.Rich
Hiya Rich ,
We are sort of darned if we do and darned if we don't on this one .
Let the wood acclimate in the shop , build it with wood design in mind then move the piece to a warmer drier home .Some movement can occur later in it's lifespan , depending on the nature of the design .
There are few guarantees in life , wood's not one of them .
regards dusty
Rich, keep your hair on- we all hear what you are saying (;) Nobody is giving him advice to fail, least of all me. See what Dusty has said-I'm sure Pat will get the picture one way or the other, and will make allowance for any significant climatic differences between the timber source, his place of manufacture and the final place of delivery.We don't even know the design of the thing or where it will land up.
Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.Philip Marcou
OK. I'll hang onto what hair is left. Didn't mean to imply anyone was giving bad advice. Just discussing!Rich
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