Jim Schwappach
04-27-2009, 12:01 PM
I have a 30 inch square by 16 inch thick Monarch Meat Block from the Bally Block Company that is about 50 years old. It is starting to fall apart and I wanted to salvage the wood to make an 4 inch thick, end grain table out of the wood. It's made out of hard maple.
The wood has a tapering double dovetail in the rows, then each row is glued together and the whole thing is supported by 4 steel tie rods.
I am hoping to preserve the double dovetail, and salvage as much wood as possible from the original piece. I'd also like to try and break the original glue joints so I can do a full glue-up for the final piece to ensure it's safe for food prep.
My first thought was to try and run the whole thing through a bandsaw along the glue joints, then heat each remaining joint to break the glue joints in the dovetail. The piece weighs about 300 pounds, so feeding it through the saw might be difficult though.
This is my first post on the site--I'd appreciate any thoughts you might have on the best way to proceed.
Thanks,
Jim
The wood has a tapering double dovetail in the rows, then each row is glued together and the whole thing is supported by 4 steel tie rods.
I am hoping to preserve the double dovetail, and salvage as much wood as possible from the original piece. I'd also like to try and break the original glue joints so I can do a full glue-up for the final piece to ensure it's safe for food prep.
My first thought was to try and run the whole thing through a bandsaw along the glue joints, then heat each remaining joint to break the glue joints in the dovetail. The piece weighs about 300 pounds, so feeding it through the saw might be difficult though.
This is my first post on the site--I'd appreciate any thoughts you might have on the best way to proceed.
Thanks,
Jim