HELP! bad glue up of table top fix needed?

[willojones1980]

Hi Ive glued together 6 oak boards for a table top. Ive done a poor job and the whole piece is curved so the centre of the table is heigher by about 5-8mm than the edges.
Im adding bread board ends to the piece which is going to be tricky now.

the boards are 28mm thick and I can afford to loose 4/5mm of this.
The table is going to be a draw leaf style so the main top will sit on top of the two leaves so it does all need to sit together quite well. I guess its more important that the bottom of the main top is flat than the top but i do need to get the breadboard ends on.

Can anyone offer any advice?

Thansk

 

[marcros]

do you have any spare width? i would cut down the glue joints, re-prepare them and start again.

 

[custard]

You've taken on a project that's a long way beyond your abilities. A draw leaf table is a tricky job, even if you get lucky and fix the jointing of the top you're unlikely to get the leaves to slide smoothly or sit in the same plane as the main top. I'm not trying to be rude, I'm a full time furniture maker and I'm just sharing with you how it is.

So either revise your plans to make a regular table with a fixed top (after first ripping down through the glue lines and re-jointing properly), or buy something like this and re-finish it.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-1940s ... SwEzxYRA-2

Good luck!

 

[willojones1980]

thanks guys. I like a challenge so i think its worth cutting it up along the glued edges and re gluing with a few more clamps maybe!!

Ive got the legs and skirting done, the bread board ends are mortised out the leaves are glued and nice and flat so im a good way in to the project.

 

[willojones1980]

Thanks again for the advice guys. Luckily when i took the piece out of the clamps yesturday the bow wasnt as bad as it looked while it was clamped up. more like 2-3 mm rather than 5-8mm so with a bit of planning and a lot of sweating I've got it pretty flat now. Might be a bit fiddly getting the breadboard ends on but once on i can plane it again and get it looking nice and neat on the top and flat on the bottom.

Fingers crossed.

 

[Mr T]

It would be interesting to work out why it was bowed in the first place. Then you could avoid it happening again. Did you do a dry run before gluing up and check for flatness? Did you alternate the clamps above and below the top? Did you check it was flat after glue up? If crown cut are the boards alternating with the annual rings curving different ways? Although this is unlikely to be a factor in the short term..

Just a few possibilities.

I would also agree with Custard, sliding leaf table are a bugger to get right and look bad if not.

Chris