KirkwoodWorking: Dining Table, Part III

Back onto the dining room table! As a reminder, we are starting with 2 pallets that I got for free from my work, which appeared to be hardwood.

And the plan is to make a dining room table with a trestle base that has a rustic feel and accentuates the nail holes and knots of the wood.

We started with the most exciting part of the project, planing the boards that will become the top of the table. We were unsure if they were all the same species or if they were going to be flat enough to not create a horribly warped tabletop.

All in all, there were 3 Red Oak and 2 White Oak boards. We moved them around, flipped them over and swapped their orientation many, many times to get the best looking boards in the best looking order.

There was going to be some very different grain and color, I hope that I will be able to even out the color when finishing and staining.

Then I started to straighten the edges as close to perfect as I could. With a tiny power Jointer, this was a job for the new workbench and some handtools!

This went better than I expected. Some of the boards had some pretty rough edges, but I was able to take a heavy cut with my No. 6 plane and then clean it all up with my number 7.

Once all that was done, It was time to glue-up. I did it in 3 phases: two separate glue ups of 2 boards and then joining them all together. I used cauls to keep everything as straight and flat as I could to minimize any unevenness.

Once they were together, I needed to do something to keep them straight for the next 50 years or so. I decided on breadboard ends. The straight and strong board will do its best to keep the planks true and without the cupping and warping that all wood goes through.

I needed to cut the tongue and tenons into my existing top. I used a router for this job as the top was now far too big to move around the shop, let alone run through the tablesaw.