THE TOP PART 5

The top has (FINALLY!) now been completely glued-up. A considerable amount of time has been spent ensuring that I have tight glue seams between each of the three laminations that comprise the top. The means to this end was careful jointing of each lamination side. This entailed repeated checking with the winding sticks to ensure the edge was not "in wind", and frequent checks with a square to ensure that the edge was indeed at right angles to the top of each individual lamination.

Here you can see the winding sticks on the edge of the lamination. At first I though jointing such a wide edge would be a rather daunting task. This proved to be somewhat unfounded: it is easier to joint because the plane is less likely to tip while planing, making the job somewhat easier than I anticipated.

Having made sure that each of the edges was suitably prepared, I joined two of the laminations together. This was followed by the third lamination once the glue had set. Although I never used all the clamps in my collection, I certainly dug deep for this glue-up! I have no idea what the mass of the top is at this point, suffice it to say that it is HEAVY! I had to rope in my trusty assistant to help manhandle the laminations for the final glue-up (thanks Dad!).

I will be removing the clamps in the morning and doing some further tweaking (hand planing!) of the surface. This should provide me with a reasonably flat work surface. Needless to say this will prove invaluable in the making of the legs and stretchers - a task which ought to commence in the next couple weeks.

ROUBO TOP

I decided to commence construction of the top - that way I can throw it up on a pair of sawhorses to get the glue-ups complete. The top will then serve as a work surface during the construction of the legs and stretchers.


Since the top will be flattened using hand planes, it is imperative that the grain direction of all the boards forming the lamination run in the same direction. This afternoon I set about determining the grain direction of each board by planing in what looked to be the correct direction and then checking for tear-out. I also measured the MC of each board and recorded the result on each board. It will be interesting to see how this changes over the next week.


The Rain Forest. The boards lying on the floor will become the top. The lumber in the background will become the legs and stretchers

Here you can better see the grain direction as I have marked them on the individual boards

Next weekend I will begin planing and truing the boards to size. The top will be in the order of 1,600 by 600 x 100 - so I expect handling it to be somewhat of a challenge - another good reason to complete the top first.