chadhasprojects

I'm new to woodworking and am working on starting my first table. I would like to have a plank table top, comprised of about 4 2x8's joined together on the edges. I know I have to glue and clamp these together to forn the top.

How do I join two pieces of 1x8 to form a 2x8? Do I simply glue and clamp? Please detail this out for me so I can understand, or is there a link to some info on this?

ANY help is greatly appreciated.

smitty1967

Chad: welcome to one of the greatest hobbies! You're going to get a variety of answers on this question. I'm going to stick my neck out and say that most of them are going to go something like this: Don't try to laminate (glue) layers of dimension lumber. Don't try to make 2x8s out of 1x8s, or whatever width you're in need of.

There are a couple of reasons for my saying not to try this. Foremost, you would need a large number of clamps with a large jaw surface to get a good bond. Second, the differential rate and direction of shrinkage and expansion (with atmosphere) will cause the grain of each piece of wood (top and bottom) to move at different rates and directions. The warpage and curling would greatly disappoint you, I'm sure, especially once the project was finished and in use.

Now, with all that being said, let me just suggest this: If 2x8s are what you need for your project, just go ahead and buy 2x8s. Don't over-think the problem. Much effort, labor and grief can be saved by simply taking your time, doing a little research (like you're doing here), and proceeding slowly and with a solid plan in mind or in hand.

Hope this helps. Best of luck and let us all know how it goes.

regards,
smitty

Handyman

[quote=chadhasprojects;27518]I'm new to woodworking and am working on starting my first table. I would like to have a plank table top, comprised of about 4 2x8's joined together on the edges. I know I have to glue and clamp these together to forn the top.

Chad I made this table about 15 years ago for my wife. She wanted an old farm style plank table. It is 4 x 7 1/2 and is made of 2x10s pegged and glued. I glued the whole top in one shot using pipe clamps. The bottem frame is 2x6 cut down to about 4 1/2 inches and the leggs are made of untreated 4x4 that I fluted with a 1/2 bit. The whole table wieghs about 180lbs. It has 6 or 7 coats of Polycrilc, hand sanded between coats. Sorry about the quality of the pics My scanner in old.

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thekctermite

I have done a number of projects that utilized laminated 1x material to yield very stable thicker dimension material. I always run it through the planer first and use tons of clamps. I've found that I don't experience any checking or cracking, and the best part is that you can cut around the defects if you don't want them.

I've never had an issue with stability in any piece I've ever built doing this. Ever hear of a gluelam beam? Same principle. Very stable, very strong.

pianoman

Well, back to the origenal question...If you have 1x material and you want 1 and 1/2" thick top... why not rip the 1x to 1 and 1/2" strips and glue up butcher block style?

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thekctermite

No reason you couldn't do what pianoman says. The only challenge might be getting the surface nice and flat, but that is true with any glue up. If you have a drum sander or access to a really wide planer that would be ideal. Otherwise you're hand-planing and sanding.

Handyman

The hardest part of glueing that many boards together is getting them all level. If you can find or have a plainer, you can glue up as many boards at one time that will pass through the plainer. Then glue the sections together. That way you wont have as many joints to deal with.

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woodworks

[quote=Handyman;27562]Handyman;
You didn't even answer the mans question. You just took this opertunity to try and show off your work.

And since you did, let me say, nice job. I may just do something like that only on a smaller scale. Thanks for the pic's.

Graphiti

I was reading the posts and nobody really ansered your question of how to go about glueing up 1x stock, I'm very picky about the imperfections and color consistancy of the wood I use so I often laminate 1x stock to make thicker boards with a blemish free surface, I gave up on finding 8/4 that had few enough blemishes for large pieces.

So far, I've been doing this for about 15 years, I've gotten less warpage problems from the laminated stock than regular thicker stock. I first started laminating wood to overcome warpage, I often use very twisty woods like purple heart, and Pink Ivory.

(Pink Ivory is by far the most unstable wood I've ever used, I've had an 18" 2x2 turning square warp almost 2 1/2" and twist 20 degrees after it was milled to size. I bought it straight and pre-milled and it warped while it was stored in a temperature and moisture controlled storage room. By contrast, a piece from the same plank was laminated and stored in the same place and had no noticeable warpage.)

My idea would be to use all quarter sawn wood and assemble the table top like pictured below. If you plane and joint all the surfaces including the 4x4 clamping cawls you should be able to make the joint lines almost inviible. Just work your way accross the slab one piece at a time, this way you won't have to rush through a complicated setup and glue-up trying to hurry and get it all aligned and flat before the glue starts to skin over or dry. It will take more time but you will be sure of each joint's alignment and flatness. If all the boards are jointed and planed to the same thickness it will only need minimal sanding when complete.

By overlapping the boards you won't need dowels or biscuits or anything of the sort and the finished strength should be higher than a solid slab. Also, with overlaping, the boards do not have to be the same width, just the same thickness. This fact will let you get the maximum yield from each board and hide surface blemishes inside the piece. I avoid actual knots and simular disfigurement as the area around knots expands differently than clear grain and can cause warping.

As mentioned above, it is simular to a Glue-Lam type beam. By using all quarter sawn wood with the grain oriented to self counter internal stresses the slab will act like a solid 2" slab. You will still have to account for seasonal expantion and shrinkage though.

I figured I'd throw my two cents worth in...
However you decide to go, good luck and send pictures.
Randy.

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Aaronmcc

If you are gluing several plain sawn boards then arrange them with the grain on the side alternating up and down to try and counteract the shrinkage and maybe plane 2 sides of 2 boards at once (the ones that will meet up with glue) with a hand plane to insure that they are flat.

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