how I spent my sunday....

[TorontoBuilder]

My brother's partner is a very picky woman who wanted a custom made dining room table.

But she had so many design criteria and often could not articulate them all or made conflicting statements while doing so... But in the end I was able to come close to what she wanted and better yet we were able to find wood that meets her tastes.

This maple board has enough defects that it will suit the rustic aesthetic she wanted, but does not have too much grain which she did not want. But best of all it does have a lovely tiger maple ray pattern that we can finish so it is not super pronounced but still be visible and lovely. There are a few worm holes and heart wood spots so we dont need to fake any such defects. Just lightly bleach the spots to make them less pronounced. I think a super light stain is also going to be applied so maybe bleaching not required. We have yet to do finish tests.

I need to experiment to find the right techniques to add a bit more destressing to go with the worm holes.

My friend Dave feeding the planer, my brother Tom stopping the cart with the planer from moving. I helped support the end when the 12' piece came off the outfeed.

After we had planed the piece we noticed that the back side was gouged. Gouges on the base of the planer gouged the wood. Im like WTF, this never happened before. Dave then informed us this was his old dewalt planer he had to swap out his new one when the motor quit. No pics of this though.

So Tom stoned the old planer base to remover the nasty burs from the edge of the many long gouges. I took apart the new dewalt planer and checked the main switch, the circuit breaker, the motor brushes and finally I traced the fault to this part. It is a normally open safety switch that is depressed when the machine cover is in place. It had a fault so that every time the motor started an arc formed in the switch, and melted the contact points and even the insulation on the spade connector and fused the spade connector in place.

I didn't have my supplied with me so off to home depot for spade connectors.. I took the same switch from the old machine and put it in the new planer. In doing that I found a broken off 1/16" drill bit that mush have been what scored the old planer base.

In the new planer innards I found a loose part that didn't even belong to the planer. Makes me wonder WTH goes on in these overseas factories.

 

[TorontoBuilder]

Oh and she is so funny that we can't say these are worm holes or she will reject the table because she'd worry that worms would come out the holes at some later date.

 

[jcdammeyer]

Do you have problems with end snipe on wood going through the planer?

 

[TorontoBuilder]

Do you have problems with end snipe on wood going through the planer?

Yes, Dave was having end snipe issues, which is why we set up and carefully leveled the feed tables. Now the end snipe is no longer affecting the front end and only affecting about 2 inches on the tail end.

I hope when we get the old general planer rebuilt we can eliminate end snipe by having better custom made feed tables and eliminate it entirely.

 

[SomeGuy]

Do you ever do large glue-lam setups? When my basement space is done, I want two large wood tops that are single pieces (I hate seams), and we're talking like 10' x 36" and 12' x 30" slabs (roughly, don't have exact measurements but larger than most butcher block tops that are commercially available).

Wondering how hard it would be to DIY that? I don't do a lot of wood working, friend has a benchtop planer I can use, but neither of us have a jointer (but have table saws), and I do have a decent router, and could pick up a pile of Bessey pipe clamps or something...but is this a recipe for disaster trying to DIY something that large?

 

[trlvn]

...tiger maple ray pattern that we can finish so it is not super pronounced but still be visible and lovely. There are a few worm holes and heart wood spots so we dont need to fake any such defects. Just lightly bleach the spots to make them less pronounced. I think a super light stain is also going to be applied so maybe bleaching not required. We have yet to do finish tests. ...

You might consider a coat of amber shellac followed by fine sandpaper or steel wool. Or French Polish if you're up to doing a big surface like that. The shellac warms the colour of maple slightly and gives a translucence that brings out the figure. Shellac is the universal undercoat so you can top coat with something hard wearing.

Craig

 

[TorontoBuilder]

Do you ever do large glue-lam setups? When my basement space is done, I want two large wood tops that are single pieces (I hate seams), and we're talking like 10' x 36" and 12' x 30" slabs (roughly, don't have exact measurements but larger than most butcher block tops that are commercially available).

Wondering how hard it would be to DIY that? I don't do a lot of wood working, friend has a benchtop planer I can use, but neither of us have a jointer (but have table saws), and I do have a decent router, and could pick up a pile of Bessey pipe clamps or something...but is this a recipe for disaster trying to DIY something that large?

Normally a person would make a top that wide with 5 -6 boards of varying width between 6 - 9 or 10". These can be made in a decently appointed shop like Dave's

Dave's 12" jointer is an antique but still cost a lot. Dave also has an open ended wide sander. You can reverse the board to sand twice as wide as the nominal width, but I'm not sure how wide it does. Pretty wide.

Wide boards to make wide table or work tops require really another technique. River epoxy tables with live edges are all the rage right now, because the makers are trying to maximize dollars from less than idea lumber, as well as trying to stabilize boards that on their own will warp and cup badly. I personally dislike the style immensely but some people like it.

To get a top without live edges and a wide width is really not a simple task, there is not a lot of good lumber available to make them and you will be plagued with issues. I dont see the sense when with a large enough lumber supply and careful grading and selection I can make a top that you cannot detect seems in and that looks almost as if it is a single width piece.

That said, IF YOU MUST....

Most people making such a one off design top like that use a commercial shop to flatten and sand boards. There are a few such shops in the tri-cities area that will flatten slabs for you using a cnc router then huge pass thru sanders.

The other option is to make a router sled. Forget bessy clamps...

 

[Hruul]

I believe Lee Valley now sells a kit for a router sled, but you can likely make one almost as easy.

 

[TorontoBuilder]

I believe Lee Valley now sells a kit for a router sled, but you can likely make one almost as easy.

It is not a good kit and the work it can do is rough. I'd compare it to being the maslow cnc router of router sleds..

 

[jcdammeyer]

Years ago I laminated up a counter top for a friend. I did it in two sections that fit through my 16" surface planer. Then carefully glued the two together using the top of the table saw as the flat surface to align them.
Then carted the assembly off to a local wood shop who, for a small price, ran it through their 36" wide belt sander.
Don't remember how much it cost but it wasn't a lot.

 

[Martin w]

Oh and she is so funny that we can't say these are worm holes or she will reject the table because she'd worry that worms would come out the holes at some later date.

And they will, unless it was kiln dried…

Do you ever do large glue-lam setups? When my basement space is done, I want two large wood tops that are single pieces (I hate seams), and we're talking like 10' x 36" and 12' x 30" slabs (roughly, don't have exact measurements but larger than most butcher block tops that are commercially available).

Wondering how hard it would be to DIY that? I don't do a lot of wood working, friend has a benchtop planer I can use, but neither of us have a jointer (but have table saws), and I do have a decent router, and could pick up a pile of Bessey pipe clamps or something...but is this a recipe for disaster trying to DIY something that large?

Any shop that makes cabinet doors will glue up slabs and sand them for you. Literally dozens in the Golden Horseshoe.
Martin

 

[TorontoBuilder]

And they will, unless it was kiln dried…

I'd never make fine furniture with anything other than kiln dried lumber. In fact the only time I recall using non-kiln dried lumber was to make pipes from brier that was only air dried

 

[jorogi]

Do you ever do large glue-lam setups? When my basement space is done, I want two large wood tops that are single pieces (I hate seams), and we're talking like 10' x 36" and 12' x 30" slabs (roughly, don't have exact measurements but larger than most butcher block tops that are commercially available).

Wondering how hard it would be to DIY that? I don't do a lot of wood working, friend has a benchtop planer I can use, but neither of us have a jointer (but have table saws), and I do have a decent router, and could pick up a pile of Bessey pipe clamps or something...but is this a recipe for disaster trying to DIY something that large?

My work bench. Fir off the property, 4" x 14' x 24" ish. IIRC it's three pieces, glued together and bolted using exposed timber washers on the front. Electric hand plane and belt sander followed by a random orbital and an epoxy finish. I retightened the nuts a few times as it fully dried and trimmed the bolts down so they wouldn't snag the boys.

 

[quitereal]

Analine dyes or acid dyes make those medullary rays really pop, then shellac helps a bit yet, I found even epoxy gave a deeper better reflection of the grain than regular varnish. My favorite is ebonizing it with vinegar and steel wool to make it gray then shellacing it

 

[Hollow-Grind]

I'd never make fine furniture with anything other than kiln dried lumber. In fact the only time I recall using non-kiln dried lumber was to make pipes from brier that was only air dried

I’ve killed and milled trees professionally for 23 years. Air dried black walnut is considered a higher quality than kiln dried. My kitchen table is 46 inch single slab black walnut. Air dried.

 

[Martin w]

I'd never make fine furniture with anything other than kiln dried lumber. In fact the only time I recall using non-kiln dried lumber was to make pipes from brier that was only air dried

When I served my apprenticeship we toured the Electrahome factory in Kitchener through trade school. The day we toured there were dozens of the old school cabinet televisions on an assembly line. Under each television was small piles of sawdust. The load of mahogany they were using was infested. They had every suit out in the factory trying to figure out what to do. Not sure if they fumigated or scrapped all of these television cabinets.

A few years ago reclaimed barn wood was in. I had a client that wanted a barn board dining room table made. We went to a local barn board wholesaler and he picked out some 3” thick hemlock planks 10 feet long. While he was picking out the boards the supplier told us they came out of a stall in an old dairy barn. Long story short I built him the table and I was chatting with him and mentioned for having been S#it and pi$$ed on for 100 years they came out beautiful. It had never even occurred to him barn wood would have that on it. Lol. He made me promise not to tell his wife!
Martin

 

[TorontoBuilder]

I’ve killed and milled trees professionally for 23 years. Air dried black walnut is considered a higher quality than kiln dried. My kitchen table is 46 inch single slab black walnut. Air dried.

sure that works well enough. On the proviso you have facilities to air dry large slabs for a long period of time. Not something I can do in Toronto townhouse.

 

[TorontoBuilder]

When I served my apprenticeship we toured the Electrahome factory in Kitchener through trade school. The day we toured there were dozens of the old school cabinet televisions on an assembly line. Under each television was small piles of sawdust. The load of mahogany they were using was infested. They had every suit out in the factory trying to figure out what to do. Not sure if they fumigated or scrapped all of these television cabinets.

A few years ago reclaimed barn wood was in. I had a client that wanted a barn board dining room table made. We went to a local barn board wholesaler and he picked out some 3” thick hemlock planks 10 feet long. While he was picking out the boards the supplier told us they came out of a stall in an old dairy barn. Long story short I built him the table and I was chatting with him and mentioned for having been S#it and pi$$ed on for 100 years they came out beautiful. It had never even occurred to him barn wood would have that on it. Lol. He made me promise not to tell his wife!
Martin

yall dont wanna hear the stories about what construction workers do in homes under construction... you really dont

 

[quitereal]

When I served my apprenticeship we toured the Electrahome factory in Kitchener through trade school. The day we toured there were dozens of the old school cabinet televisions on an assembly line. Under each television was small piles of sawdust. The load of mahogany they were using was infested. They had every suit out in the factory trying to figure out what to do. Not sure if they fumigated or scrapped all of these television cabinets.

A few years ago reclaimed barn wood was in. I had a client that wanted a barn board dining room table made. We went to a local barn board wholesaler and he picked out some 3” thick hemlock planks 10 feet long. While he was picking out the boards the supplier told us they came out of a stall in an old dairy barn. Long story short I built him the table and I was chatting with him and mentioned for having been S#it and pi$$ed on for 100 years they came out beautiful. It had never even occurred to him barn wood would have that on it. Lol. He made me promise not to tell his wife!
Martin

Ammonia fuming wood is really a thing, works well on red oak, they used to notice it in barns because of the pee lol. Again better than modern stains and brings out the grain. Penetrates deep. I bet it was a beautiful table

 

[Martin w]

Yeah the problem with pee and ammonia it turns orange when you finish it. It makes it really hard when a client doesn’t want an orange tint in the wood. We used a lot of NGR stains ( non grain raising) alcohol based and fast drying. Very easy to shade and blend colours.

Ammonia fuming wood is really a thing, works well on red oak, they used to notice it in barns because of the pee lol. Again better than modern stains and brings out the grain. Penetrates deep. I bet it was a beautiful table