Face-gluing board for table top?

[Steve Lachowiec]

I'm gluing up a 1x25x56 red oak top for a coffee table.
I'm short one 1x6 piece, ran out of thick enough stock.
Can I face glue some thinner stock and use it in the middle
of the top? The edges on the ends will be visible, but will
it be too noticeable and look bad? Anyone try this?

[Gary Kman]

Arch the bottom as part of the design. It'll take a mountain of work but will save the few dollars an additional board would cost.:cool:

[Brian Tymchak]

If you take care to match the end grain direction of the thinner boards, it might not be all that noticable. If it fits your design, you might consider putting some sort of a treatment on the edge. It might further hide the change of grain pattern.

You can easily mock up the end of your table with small cutoffs to see how it would look. Even stain them if that's part of your finish plan to see if the stain might further hide the change of grain.

[Stephen Cherry]

I agree with the others that it would probably be OK, but if this is going in your living room, and you may need to look at it forever, I would just get into the car and go buy another piece of wood.

[Peter Quinn]

It's less than 3 bf of wood. Its red aok, so its inexpensive and generally easy to find. Forget the glue up and get another board.