large table top

[jack fitch]

Hello, I am going to build a red oak kitchen table about 43" X 7 1/2-8' any suggestions on how to glue up the top w/o buying new larger clamps. I was thinking I could use a 4 X 8 sheet of plywood and screw a stop on the sides and use wedges to clamp it. Am I crazy or will that work or should I break down and buy the clamps?? Thanks, Jack

[Craig D Peltier]

Hello, I am going to build a red oak kitchen table about 43" X 7 1/2-8' any suggestions on how to glue up the top w/o buying new larger clamps. I was thinking I could use a 4 X 8 sheet of plywood and screw a stop on the sides and use wedges to clamp it. Am I crazy or will that work or should I break down and buy the clamps?? Thanks, Jack
A tabletop needs to be glued up right or you will have problems. It could warp , it could come apart.
I think its a bad idea what you propose.
Get good clamps. Cheapest way to do it is to buy the black gas pipe from home depot at lengths you need and then but some pipe clamp heads. Dont get the half inch clamp heads and pipe though. Us the 3/4. It still flexes alot.
Use clamps about every foot alternating from top to bottom. Personally I glue up one piece at a time. Alot easier to keep each piece flat. On the other hand i have enough clamps to do several this way though.

[John Thompson]

Have to agree with Craig on using clamps. I have 8 48" cabinet masters and 12 more pipe clamps that would accomodate your width. I won't get into 30" and below but if you get into large projects over the years you will need them all sizes. But.. that is an accumulation over the years. The 3/4" pipe clamps would serve your purpose as the parallel clamps aren't cheap. You have to accumulate over time unless you in-herited or won the lotto. :)

I also agree with Craig about sectioning it. I usuall do 3 boards at a time but rarely go over 60" long on a table-top. When I build work-bench tops that are that long.. I usally add one piece at a time to avoid running into open glue time expiring.

Good luck....

[jack fitch]

Thanks for the input think I'll go with the 3/4" pipe clamps. I really would like to make at least 7 1/2' long hope it doesn't cause me too many problems. Jack

[John Thompson]

The lenght shouldn't if you sneak up on the glue-up as we suggested. Having worked with a lot of red oak before I starting using quarter sawn white oak almost exclusively.. if there is any problem you may encounter with red oak glued that wide it would probably be bow or cup of the glue-up. I would personally probably opt for the red oak quarter sawn for the top as the QS is a bit more stable.

If you go flat sawn.. be sure the red you are using has been acclimated to the shop and is proper moisture content which can range from 8%-12% based on my local.

Good luck..

[Andy McCormick]

Not trying to be stupid but why not glue the top the other direction. You will have a lot less movement in the wood and less endgrain to look at. Andy

[Brent Ring]

+1 on 3/4" clamps and I would reccomend cauls as well, and do the glue up in sections.

[Brian Tymchak]

Thanks for the input think I'll go with the 3/4" pipe clamps. I really would like to make at least 7 1/2' long hope it doesn't cause me too many problems. Jack

Jack,

You may already know this but if not... If you use the black pipe for your clamps, make sure you clean it before using it and also to cover the pipe with tape or use some other method to assure that the pipe does not touch the oak. The tannin in the oak reacts with iron and you might end up with a black stain on the oak.

There is a different style clamp for doing larger panel glue-ups. Rockler calls them a 4-way equal pressure clamp.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10711&filter=clamps

I've been interested in these but I've not used them. I can't offer any advice if they are any good. Maybe someone else has used these and can offer some experiences.

Brian

[John Thompson]

Not trying to be stupid but why not glue the top the other direction. You will have a lot less movement in the wood and less endgrain to look at. Andy

Andy.. if you are asking what I think you are asking... you will end up with far fewer glue joints by glueing them lengh-wise which is standard practice. As far as a lot less end-grain to to look (?).. you would end up with around 7 feet of end grain to look at on each side of the table with only 43" of long grain edge on each end doing it the way you suggest. And no way glueing numerous short pieces side to side is going to give less movement in the wood as wood's basic movement is from one side to the other and very little lengh-wise. 96" side to side doing as you suggest with multiple glue lines as opposed to 43".

If I have mis-understood you.. sorry but you probably should explain in detail what you refer to exactly..

Regards and hope that helps...

[Andy McCormick]

Well when has said he wants to make it 7 1/2 long, I was assuming that he was needing 8 ft clamps. I guess I assumed everyone has 48 inch clamps. I must have misunderstood which direction he is clamping. If i were to make a solid table top 7 1/2 ft long I would use 8ft lumber and glue it short ways taking away as much movement as I can. Andy

[Alex Shanku]

Well when has said he wants to make it 7 1/2 long, I was assuming that he was needing 8 ft clamps. I guess I assumed everyone has 48 inch clamps. I must have misunderstood which direction he is clamping. If i were to make a solid table top 7 1/2 ft long I would use 8ft lumber and glue it short ways taking away as much movement as I can. Andy

I understood what you were saying. I, too, though he was trying to glue up boards along the width of the table verse the length...

[Greg Schwieterman]

I made a table out of cherry a few years ago. It was 8'-8" long. I used the four way clamps from Rockler. I would highly recommend them. They make the glue up process go very quickly. When you glue a joint 8' long the glue will try to set up before you are ready. Those clamps make the glue joint flush on both sides with very little effort. If you end up using pipe clamps be carefull, In my experience they tend to cause the top to be cupped , especially if you overtighten them. If I were using pipe clamps I would put one with the pipe on top then one with the pipe on the bottom and alternate all the way along the length of the glue joint.

[Ryan Sparreboom]

Why glue up anything at all??
Just get a nice big solid slab. 1 piece o wood for the top, no clamps, no glue.
Just lots and lots of handplaning! :)

http://www.rusticmill.com/samples.htm

Ryan