A small conference table - the build

AlNavas said:

Preparing the boards

From my blog:

Now I start the full-size conference table for a client. This table will be 2X the size of this one I shared here, and submitted to the Winter 2009 Woodworking Awards:

But I will change the edge treatment as follows:

I want to be able do preliminary grain matching, before cutting the boards closer to size. Since at this stage I am not flattening the boards, the #3 is perfect and fast for the job:

Rough boards are not perfectly flat, so my planing stop did not do its job. Time to bring out something more substantial - the Gramercy holdfast - one good WHACK!, and I can resume planing:

Cleaned up, so I could use the floor to match the boards before cutting them to length plus about 6 inches:

Now I can better match the boards, and decide where to cut them:

Once cut, I use the power jointer and planer to make these perfectly flat. The edges needed a little tweaking, so I used the "other" jointer, to create a little "spring" in the joint, to minimize the risk of gaps developing near the ends of the table; the boards in the clamps are already done, and the surface between them is perfectly flat; but I still must do the third and fourth boards:

At the end of the day I had to peek at the grain on one of the boards for the aprons:

The build continues… Thanks for following along!

Al

Click to expand...