Day 3 was exciting. The first slab of 4 was ready to come out of the clamps. The first process was to get the slab through the jointer and planer to get 4 sides square.
The comments on the pictures really tell the story.
The glue, while very different from my standard Titebond II or III really did not present any problems. I scraped off any excess that would have made the slab off on the jointer.
The big problem is just the mass of the slab. It is heavy and 8 ft long. Pushing this over the jointer requires the in-feed and out-feed rollers stands to be exactly the correct height and solid. Both are a challenge. I did became familiar with the “feel” of the process. Not that it became any easier, I just was able to control the material better. I had to push hard downward to keep the slab in contact with the jointer bed. This was workout. When I moved to the second side in the jointer, to create a square to the first side this became more difficult. A LOT of pressure had to be continually applied to keep the first flat side in contact with the rip fence on the jointer. I ended up with one side almost exactly square. The other side not as good. It will require some hand plane work to tune it exactly.
After milling the section ( slab ) finished at 6 9/16″ x 3 3/4″ So will take 4 sections plus one more piece to get close to the 28″ width I want. As for the thickness, I started with 3 7/8″ first cut from the 8″ stock. So I am sure I will end up with my 3 1/2″ target top thickness.
Getting that accomplished, I stopped and really cleaned the shop up.
I had some more time so I prepared for Day 4. I pulled all of the stock from the pile to mill 13 more top pieces. The pictures tell the story here.
So a BIG day of stock milling is in front of me. This may possibly be two days !!
I am starting to really wonder how I will handle the top once is it completely assembled.
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Enjoy the story from the pictures below
I can see where your confined shop will be a problem as you progress. I often have the same problem and have wrapped plastic on major tools and put them outside temporarily. I have everything on wheels too. Would that help? Also, do you plan to make the entire top in 4-board sections and then glue them up? Just curious. Have fun and at the end of the day, count your fingers. Jack
Jack, thanks for following the build and your comments.
My shop is in my basement. I have walk in through my wife’s sewing room but could not move anything temporarily. Look at the bottom of this page mysaw.com/shop/shop-history/ for a layout of the shop. I am able to mill 8 ft boards on all machines by design. I do have to shift the machines some, but it works.
Yes I am building the top is 4 board sections. Doing that I can process them over the 8″ jointer and then throught the planer. When I have all of them assembled I will plane them down to the same thickness. In my OCD mind it makes sense to me.
I have a SawStop, so the only machines that really scares me is the jointer. Which I happen to be using a LOT ! So yes I will be careful. The big sections are tuff to move. I have started using the rubberized gloves which really helps grip the large section.
I have upcoming fun playing with 7′ cherry boards for my daughter’s dinning room table. I’ll doing them all by hand. Could I drive down and use your jointer and in/out feed rollers?
why do they need planing after glue up? Could they not be planed as individual boards and then used as they are after scraping?
Chris, look at today’s post, Day 12. I purposely took some pictures of before and after of a glue joint. I run all my glued up stock over the jointer and through the planer when I can. I plan on doing that so I allow for some “shrinkage” of the dimensions.