Table top help

[Chris Daigh]

I am gearing up to build a dining room table 42 x 96. I have a 6 inch jointer and am worried about trying to joint the boards because they are so long. The boards are also all over 6 inches wide. I could rip them but I prefer not too if possible. Is it possible to get them close to being flat with the planer, I was then going to glue them up a few at a time and run thru my drum sander. I guess just looking for suggestions, kept me up last night thinking about it. Thanks for your advice.

[Todd Burch]

Chris, your success with this approach is directly proporional to the initial condition of the boards you are working with.

If the boards you have now are flat and straight, they should stay that way. If they are bowed or twisted, they would stay that way, even after your glue up.

Occaisonally, I will glue up boards that are bowed, and I will offset them (one bow up, one bow down) so they will counteract each other.

Understand that with a tabletop, you will have some type of support structure under the top that can be used to pull the top flat. Even after jointing boards perfect, there is no guarantee they will stay flat after they are glued up, whether through moisture content changes, finishing practices, storage practices, etc.

A large part of woodworking is figuring out what works and what doesn't. Let us know how it turns out!

Todd

[Carl Eyman]

Even if he did turn his back on us! One thing to consider, is to glue up two 21" sections and run them through a drum or belt sander before gluing them together. It reduces to one the number of joints you have to worry about (like hand scrape, belt sand, plane or whatever)

Are you a bisquit believer? They might help in alingning the 21" halves

My only big dining table experience had the boards going the other way. Because it had leaves I could drum sand each half and the leaves, Worked fine.

[Chris Daigh]

I'm sure with the help of the planer and drum sander I will get them flat, but jointing them I am worried about. I am looking into the jointability just in case. I'm sure people have jointed 8 foot boards on a jointer, just wondering how they kept it from tipping from the outfeed table. Thanks

[Todd Burch]

Chris, back when I had an 8" jointer, it would tip up (not over) regularly. It happened when face jointing wider 8/4 stock that was longer than about 7'. I just kept pushing (!!) as it was only happening right at the end of the cut.

Here are a couple one-off solutions to support the outfeed side:

1) "Hey Honey, could you help me for a minute..."
2) use a roller stand or a sawhorse. If your sawhorse is not tall enough, make a "U" shaped jig (3 pieces of 1X4s) and spring or c-clamp them to your sawhorse.
3) Stack up boxes that are heavy enough to not tip over from the friction of the stock sliding across
4) outfeed onto/across a workbench or other tool surface.

For a more permanent fix, you could:

1) bolt the jointer to the floor.
2) build a cabinet, with or without wheels, that will double as an outfeed extension for your jointer.
3) build/buy a roller stand.

Todd

[Chris Daigh]

I will put a roller on the outfeed side. Wish I could say when I had an 8 inch jointer, I hope that means you have a bigger one now. Hopefully someday soon I can say "when I had a craftsman table saw".

[Todd Burch]

Yes, I have a 20" jointer now. I can honestly say that it's big enough for anything that I will do. (Now, if I just had a 37" wide belt sander....)

[Dennis Peacock]

Chris,

Been there and done that. Use roller stands for infeed and outfeed. Consentrate on your feedrate and how well you hold your stock during the jointing process. Take you time...neither the wood nor the jointer are in any hurry and you shouldn't be either. With a slow and methodical jointing process, you'll come out just fine. Take your time and check your progress with a good square to make sure your edge joints are 90 degrees to the face of the board.

[Garry Smith]

I'm sure with the help of the planer and drum sander I will get them flat, but jointing them I am worried about. I am looking into the jointability just in case. I'm sure people have jointed 8 foot boards on a jointer, just wondering how they kept it from tipping from the outfeed table. Thanks
If you have a very short jointer, you may want to consider straighting them with your tablesaw first using a staight piece of plywood to go against the fence then using clamps to hold the board in place.
http://www.superwoodworks.com/images/Stairs/TaperJig2Small.JPG
This jig was used to make tapered pieces 8 up to eight foot long.
folloing this link will show the results
http://www.superwoodworks.com/Projects/Stairs.htm

[Chris Daigh]

Well I have come to right place for info. Fellow WWr's with a 20 inch jointer and 8 foot taper jig. You guys rock.