Replies

1. 
   john_c2 | Mar 31, 2022 02:06pm | #1

   That's what I'd do. I take it the wood is unfinished? Glue it together, lots of screws from below as clamps, remove the screws after the glue has a few days or a week to fully cure.

1. 
   user-344436 | Mar 31, 2022 04:28pm | #2

   Perfect. Thank you, John.

2. 
   JEarch | Mar 31, 2022 05:21pm | #3

   That’s what I did for my bench, except it was red oak butcher block from an old conference table. It is important to make sure the two are relatively flat so they can be brought together with clamping. Since my BB was prefinished, I ripped it down and ran it through my planer first — fortunately I was going for a split-top anyway.

   Consider offsetting the two layers by a 1/16” or so in each direction so that after glue-up you can trim the edges to match each other with a flush cutting router bit. A 1/2” shank bit is recommended since you’ll need 1-1/2” or more cutting length.

3. 
   eddo234 | Mar 31, 2022 05:22pm | #4

   As John said, screws will work. You could also eliminate them and use cauls to get even clamping pressure across the surface. If you don't want to make dedicated curved cauls you could use straight clamping boards with different thickness shims along the surface.

4. 
   jharveyb | Mar 31, 2022 11:06pm | #5

   Here is a tip, if you use screws. Since you plan to take them out, you don't need to countersink the holes for the head. However, given the density of the wood, you need to pre-drill the holes in the bottom slab so that the screws pass thru freely, drill holes in the upper slab that are the size of the root diameter of the threaded part of the screw (the solid part inside the threads) AND you need to do a small countersink on all the holes in the bottom slab, not on the bottom for the head, but on the top so that when the screw enters the hole in the top slab and creates a little hump of wood around it, that hump can go into the countersunk area, instead of holding the two slabs apart. You can drill and countersink the bottom slab before glue up, then glue, apply a couple clamps temporarily to hold the two slabs in position, and then drill the smaller diameter holes in the upper slab and install screws. Expect to clean glue off the drill bit several times... If you happen to have a lot of clamps, you can use them around the edge and save installing screws in that area. You might want to start with a line of screws right down the middle of the slabs, and work your way out toward the edges. Fastening the edges first might prevent the middle from coming together if there is any concavity. If there is any concavity, you probably want to face the concave sides toward each other, as that will keep the outside edges tight over time, and also help the 3" slab be flat. If your slabs aren't flat, it will be prudent to have 4 or 5 stout battens and some wedges and a straight-edge, so you can straighten out any humps while the glue is still wet. When the glue sets, it will tend to stay the same shape, so you want it to be as straight as possible.