joining large boards

[Phil Mueller]

Lasse, you may want to look up Japanese Furniture Maker George Nakashima. He makes a number of tables that consist of two slabs joined by dovetail keys (with a slight separation between the two). Here’s one example:

800BC331-40B6-43A1-B560-2D053A565E1C.jpg

[Lasse Hilbrandt]

Im making the table for a colleague. She want´s the crac. She wants steel legs as seen in the link below. I don´t think the dowels will do anything but keep the boards aligned.

https://planke-bord.dk/shop/bordben-...SABEgJTLPD_BwE

[Robert Engel]

The more I think about it, the more I think I will use dowels to keep the boards aligned and spacers on the dowels to keep a small space between the boards. It will look better I think, than gluing it up to one board.

I would reconsider this both for aesthetic and sanitary reasons.

Jointing long boards on a machine can be challenge, even on a long bed jointer. For boards with significant bows I've found it best to do the initial jointing on the TS with a fence extension and a good quality glue line rip blade.

Alternate faces against the jointer fence thereby cancelling out any error off 90°.

Fine tune the fit with a hand planes. Big fan of spring joints.

When gluing up panels, I generally don't use alignment aids, but for the dining table project I am working on I elected to use splines because I wanted to keep the top as thick as possible (and because I despise biscuits and I don't have a dowelling jig or a Domino).

Use a waterproof glue with a good open time like TB 3 or epoxy (for some reason I don't like epoxy on white oak). In my case, I chose to glue the top in 3 section rather than try to do it all at once. This greatly reduced the stress!!

Hope this helps.

[Prashun Patel]

I don't have an issue with a split top aesthetically or functionally.

However, I would not join it with dowels. I would instead use a batten or apron system to keep them aligned.

[Lasse Hilbrandt]

I don't have an issue with a split top aesthetically or functionally. However, I would not join it with dowels. I would instead use a batten or apron system to keep them aligned.

what is a batten?
I think a apron design will look out of place with the steel legs chosen by the customer.

[Wayne Lomman]

Lasse, having now seen the picture, your design is good the way it is. The steel legs will hold your top aligned at each end. All you will need is some locating pins in between. I recommend something like 10mm stainless steel pins. They only need to be glued into one side. Just buy some 10mm stainless bolts, cut the heads off and glue the threaded end into one side of the joint leaving the other side to slip into its hole when assembling the table. Cheers

[Pat Barry]

What will you do for bracing to keep the table from racking and wobbling?

[Mark Gibney]

I wouldn't use the dowels. You're adding a visual element that will look at best uninteresting, at worst like a mistake.

You don't need them. If your client grows tired of the gap, or want a wider gap a year firm now you can make the changes if the dowels are not there.
Being attached to the steel legs will keep the two boards aligned just fine.