Peter Aeschliman
01-05-2012, 2:08 PM
Long story short, I'm building an dining table for a good friend as a wedding gift out of black walnut and I'm questioning my planned use of breadboard ends. Some background first:
The wood comes from a tree his father cut down from his front yard (the house my buddy grew up in) before he passed away suddenly in an accident. He was a really good man and my buddy took it pretty hard. His dad had a portable saw mill come out to process the tree into rough stock. Unfortunately he did not properly sticker the wood and seal the end grain while letting it dry. So not surprisingly, most of the stock warped horribly. Most of it was rough cut to 4/4.
Dead set on using this walnut for sentimental reasons, I went through it, disposing of the unusable stock. It sure was painful to throw out so much but it was truly unusable. Once I milled up everything that was left, most of the stock was too thin to use for the top (1/2" or so). I only had enough left to make the top of the table, and I had to face glue pieces together to get the desired thickness.
Since the pieces I had were too short to have them run lengthwise on the top, they have to be oriented so that the grain runs perpendicular to the length of the top. Problem is, since the pieces are face-glued, the end grain is less than pretty.
That's where the breadboard ends come in- I want to use them to hide the end grain. The total size of the top (excluding extension leaves) is about 73 x 41. So each piece of the top will be 36.5" long. I want to run breadboard ends down the length of the table.
My plan is to glue the breadboard ends at the middle of the table, so that the table closes without a gap... meaning, the table will be expand/contract along its length, but out toward the end of the table only. The extension leaves will not have breadboard ends on them, so I don't have to worry about them.
So I finally get to my questions/concerns (if you've gotten this far, thanks for hanging in there):
Is the expansion and contraction along the length of the table going to be so severe that it will make the table look sloppy or poorly made? Said differently, how much should I expect the table to move? I don't want the breadboard ends to protrude too much, or worse yet, I don't want the center of the table to protrude out of the breadboard ends. That would look especially bad.
Is it unlikely that I'll be able to glue the breadboard ends on such that I get a tight seam at the middle of the table when it is closed?
Any other concerns about my design? Advice? I really want to make this table last forever. The idea is that this is something for my friend to remember his dad by, so I'm approaching the project with a great deal of respect.
Thanks!
Peter
The wood comes from a tree his father cut down from his front yard (the house my buddy grew up in) before he passed away suddenly in an accident. He was a really good man and my buddy took it pretty hard. His dad had a portable saw mill come out to process the tree into rough stock. Unfortunately he did not properly sticker the wood and seal the end grain while letting it dry. So not surprisingly, most of the stock warped horribly. Most of it was rough cut to 4/4.
Dead set on using this walnut for sentimental reasons, I went through it, disposing of the unusable stock. It sure was painful to throw out so much but it was truly unusable. Once I milled up everything that was left, most of the stock was too thin to use for the top (1/2" or so). I only had enough left to make the top of the table, and I had to face glue pieces together to get the desired thickness.
Since the pieces I had were too short to have them run lengthwise on the top, they have to be oriented so that the grain runs perpendicular to the length of the top. Problem is, since the pieces are face-glued, the end grain is less than pretty.
That's where the breadboard ends come in- I want to use them to hide the end grain. The total size of the top (excluding extension leaves) is about 73 x 41. So each piece of the top will be 36.5" long. I want to run breadboard ends down the length of the table.
My plan is to glue the breadboard ends at the middle of the table, so that the table closes without a gap... meaning, the table will be expand/contract along its length, but out toward the end of the table only. The extension leaves will not have breadboard ends on them, so I don't have to worry about them.
So I finally get to my questions/concerns (if you've gotten this far, thanks for hanging in there):
Is the expansion and contraction along the length of the table going to be so severe that it will make the table look sloppy or poorly made? Said differently, how much should I expect the table to move? I don't want the breadboard ends to protrude too much, or worse yet, I don't want the center of the table to protrude out of the breadboard ends. That would look especially bad.
Is it unlikely that I'll be able to glue the breadboard ends on such that I get a tight seam at the middle of the table when it is closed?
Any other concerns about my design? Advice? I really want to make this table last forever. The idea is that this is something for my friend to remember his dad by, so I'm approaching the project with a great deal of respect.
Thanks!
Peter