Soon We Will Dine

  The next part of the table build was to glue some boards together to make that large top. When finished the top would measure 8' 4" long and 3' 6" wide and a little more than an inch thick.

  To glue the boards together the edges must be straight. I called on my friend Paul to give me some help running the long boards over the jointer and through the thickness planer. It was a good afternoons work. Thanks again Paul.

  This is a very wide top and I broke it into 3 glue ups. Two glue ups to make each half then a third glue up to mate the two halves into one big top. This is the largest top I have put together in this shop.

Here is one of the halves being clamped together. Nice pic Shannon.

Dry fitting the two halves showed that the mating edges need some more straightening. Going to have to break out the hand plane for this part.

 More clamps, I need more clamps.....
In this picture you can see the pairs of wooden cauls that run across the boards to keep things flat while clamping. They have a fair curve (bow) on them that comes tight to the boards when you clamp them together.

  This table is very wide. (I am reminded of this by it's weight every time we handle it). And one good way to help keep things flat is using breadboard ends. Also looks cool. Underneath the top there are four boards that run across the width of the table. Two to help keep things flat and two that attach the top to the trestle ends.

These four tenons will fit into corresponding mortises in the end board to prevent it from coming off when the table is lifted or diners are leaning on it. Space on each side of the mortises allows the top to expand and contract across it's width.

Lots of adjusting of tenon thicknesses here to make a clean fit. The shoulder plane was a very handy tool for this and was teamed up with a block plane.

Dowels are driven through holes in the end and pass through holes in the tenons that are slightly out of line so that the end board will be drawn tight to the table top keeping the joint nice and tight.

There is no glue used to affix the board to the end of the top.

A slight curve on the ends. A little more forgiving when catching your leg on the corner of the table and it looks good. Also at this point the top was smoothed and the end boards flushed up with the rest of the top. A lot of hand work with planes and scrapers. It was a good work out.

The top after staining. The satin topcoats will go on after the stain drys thoroughly.

The width of the top was hiding the nice truss work underneath. The truss was lowered 2 1/2 " and a little support post is placed on top of the truss to keep everything tight.

  Where the groove was cut in the breadboard end I cut in a walnut piece to fill the gap and visually tie the top together. The walnut piece will be free to move with the width of the top when it expands and contracts.

  Well that's it for this one, loading it into the trailer today and taking it to the new owner. Me thinks there will be libations a plenty tonight as we toast their new table.
You can find earlier posts on this table here for the 1st one and here for the second post.

As always thanks for reading
Ken