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Hardwood table biscuit joins seperated

3K views 26 replies 12 participants last post by  punkin611 
Leave is as is. It's going to continue moving - shrinking and expanding with the seasons and it's going to continue to get worse for a couple years.

If you try to spot fix it - the repairs will then split and you'll be repairing repairs.

Best to walk away and write it off as a learning experience and do better next time.

The only viable option (that I see) is to run a shallow V at all of the joint lines to hide the split and make it appear as it is an intended design feature. The only problem with that option, though is that, assuming the other seams were not glue starved or some other issue, new cracks will not be on the glue seams.
 
I've tried but it is very hard to convince wood not to move across the grain, you have to plan for it.

Bret
This is true! Blew my mind the first time I saw old pinned top tables - where the top is pinned down with wooden dowel into the aprons. It works though - I've built em and never had an issue. The dowels must allow just enough movement to make it work.

Jean
 
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