(For better or worse) I agreed to put together a massive 36”x92” country style tabletop for my sister out of 8/4 lumber. She wanted maple but the $11+bd.ft. price was too rich for her so she decided on poplar (that will be stained). Each of the boards are 8/4 x 9-12″ wide x 8′ long. I got the boards home from the lumber yard and offloaded. Each of these pieces are heavy, unwieldly, and just generally massive. (I don’t want to think about the total weight of the top once it’s together.) The top will go on some equally massive set of country style legs she got off of etsy.
I’d like hints / advice / suggestions on how to get the boards milled to put together. I can set up some supports for the planer. What about getting an edge on them good enough for gluing? Obviously running them thru my 6” jointer on wheels is going to be impractical. My handplane skills are pathetic, I don’t know that this is the time to hone them. Maybe taking the edge off on the table saw will be good enough (again with extra infeed & outfeed supports).
My wifey will try to help, but ….
I have a buddy who can probably come over and help man handle the stuff.
As always —- THANKS!
Replies
First bit of advice is to check the moisture content of those boards. Yes 8/4 by 8 feet is beefy and awkward to handle, but they shouldn’t be super heavy if they are adequately dried.
I have milled 8/4 by 12-1/2” by 7’ red oak planks on a 6” jointer and through a lunch box planer, both of which are on mobile bases. By locking all of the casters and using roller stands on both the infeed and outfeed sides, I was able to focus pressure where required on the jointer bed and mill the slabs flat, straight, and four-square.
A buddy to help is nice, but I didn’t have one available at the time. I would not rely on a table saw cut to produce an edge suitable for glue up, especially at that length.
Good idea. I just “assumed”. We all know what that gets you. :) I’ll get a cheapo meter at harbor freight tomorrow and check them.
I agree that the first step is to check the moisture. In my experience, poplar has a nasty habit of twisting unless its in the 7% range.
(but then, I've just experienced twisting in some pieces of 13" wide sapele after cutting to length - and it was at 6.5,% measured by drying a sample to constant weight in an oven) Still haven't figured this one out.
The width of your planer will dictate the steps to a finished top, or the availability of a 36 inches planer, what do you have? I just completed a 36 X 84 hard maple tabletop from 8\4 stock with a 3 1/2 inches thick appearance , handling alone was an issue.
Its country style. To me country style does not mean perfect glue joints. If you can get em, great, but don't sweat it. Make the top, use some filler if needed, and fasten it in such a way it can move and not need to put stress on any weaker edge joints. Try the jointer, it might not be as bad as you thought. If that isn't working out, try the tablesaw.
My dad has a beautiful country table that doesn't have edge joints at all, it just has breadboards and battens attached with pegs, screws, and cut nails. It must be well over 100 years old.
Sounds like you know what to do, just trust your tools and get it done!
I gotta ask, what is with that maple price?! More than double the price here in NYC. Maybe you meant linear foot on 12x8/4"?
Sticker them in your shop for a month with top & bottom layers of plywood and weight on top. Rotate the stack once a week, check MC with each rotation. Use the wait time to sort out your supports. If they are even after a month, proceed with milling; if not go another month.
A good quality circular saw should be able to put a useful joint on those boards. Make sure you have both face planed parallel first though as you will want to cut from alternate faces to ensure that any small error in the saw blade alignment will cancel out.
The answer to this issue is to find a friend with larger equipment. And plenty of space. If you are making a top with eight-foot-long boards, you need a shop space 16 feet in width in order to pass it across the jointer or the table saw.
Seriously, there are professional woodworkers with larger equipment who will be glad to mill your boards, for a price. Figure on paying $50-100 per hour for use of their shop. I have a friend with a 24-inch Oliver jointer which is really great for just that purpose.
I made a top with 6/4 cherry almost as big as yours, and did it successfully with ordinary garage shop equipment, but at the higher end. I have an eight-inch jointer, for instance. It required moving equipment around, but wasn't
too tough. The tricky part was jointing the edge--keeping the pressure on the board at the cutter head, difficult with such long workpieces.
I have a 6" jet jointer on a mobile base. I found it difficult to get good straight edges on longer boards due to the length of the jointer in/out feed tables. What I did was to make 2 extensions out of 3/4" quality plywood with the same plywood as sides. Think of it as an upside down U shape. I bolted a piece of angle iron on the ends of the jointer and use a roller stand to adjust and support the other end. It now allows me almost 10' of support on each side of the cutter head.
Jointing 8 ft long lumber on a 6 inch jointer is perfectly feasible, especially with a light wood such as poplar. I would first resaw the planks at a maximum width of 5 1/2 inches and flatten one face on the jointer. Then I would joint the edges flat face on the guide and make 3 panels , each 12 inches wide so they can go in your planer. Taking good care to glue the planks evenly they can be planed , first with the flattened face down to an even thickness and glued-up to the final width. The slight unevenness can be sanded down with a belt sander. The 36 inches wide table shown above was done in two 18 X 74 panels that matched my 20 inch planner, the one below was done this way also, with 3, 8 X 4 X 60 pieces of BC Fir bolted together for a final width of 24 inches.
All good advice.
I would start by checking the boards for twist with winding sticks, and checking for cups. The first thing is straight line rip so you can establish an edge. Track saw is best or you can do this on the table saw with a jig. Twisted boards are very difficult to deal with.
I usually have to address the edges to some degree with a jointer plane.
I highly recommend an alignment aid such as biscuits or a spline. This will greatly reduce the stress during glue up. Heavy duty cauls to keep it flat during
Flattening the top is the other big issue. Running through the planer will thickness, but not flatten. Important to start with the straightest boards possible!
Various ways to flatten - router sled (preferred) and hand planes/belt sanders. Winding sticks and straight edges are required.
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