Help building an Ipe table

[John Hollander]

I working on making an outdoor dinning table built out of Ipe and I'm looking for some help. The design is somewhat similar to this: http://www.backyardbillys.com/IntegraOmega-390.jpp



First what kind of glue have people been successful with using on ipe?

Second I will be using tongue and groove to attach the ends of some of the boards. Im not sure what to use on the Ipe to lock the tonge and grove in with the glue. Normally I use a nail gun from the underside. Will this work? Will I have issues shooting through the wood with an 18 gauge nailer? Ive heard that you should only use stainless steel with ipe. Would pre drilling and then had driving some stainless steel tacks or small screws be a better idea?

[Jeff Duncan]

Your link doesn't seem to work...or at least I can't get it to work....?

First off Ipe is a very heavy and dense wood, the dust is particularly nasty stuff so try to avoid breathing it. It's not a great wood for glue joints and brad nailer....yeah I'd forget about that, very likely you'll have a lot of nails just re-directing themselves! Or if they do go in and your near the ends it will split.....Ipe is also fairly brittle.

Without seeing the design you have in mind it''s tough to give advice, but your best bet generally speaking with Ipe is to keep the design fairly simple in terms of fastening things. Pre-drill and use SS screws instead of glue if possible.

good luck,
JeffD

[John Hollander]

Maybe these links will work. I am looking at either building a table like this: http://www.carolinaprowash.com/Ipe_Table_complete.html or http://www.backyardbillys.com/jensen-jarrah.html (scroll down to the omega extension table)

Either way I was planning on using tongue and groove. Is it plausible to put screws through the bottom side of a tongue and grove? My tongue and grove cuts 1/2in deep

[Van Huskey]

My bottom line with Ipe is I never rely on glue. Sometimes it is OK but more often than not the glue is useless long term. It does depend on the actual species you get being sold under the Ipe name, some are worse than others. Where you do glue have a fresh edge and clean it off with solvent prior to gluing. I have heard to use PVA, Gorilla glue, epoxy etc and I have heard that everyone of these does not work as well. It is just hit and miss, for what it is worth FWW did a test sometime back and said to use PVA.

[Craig Michael]

Forget brads, i doubt they would penetrate. I built a double outdoor chair using ipe. I used ipe dowels from miller dowels and titebond 3. It is going on 3 or 4 yrs old in a northern climate outdoors all year and it is as tight together as day one. You could also probably use pl premium. I did not use any screws, etc, only miller dowels. Use the dowels as a feature and put them to the face of the top.

[Brad Shipton]

I have worked with a quite a lot of cumaru lately and have had the best luck with West six10 epoxy. I did some tests with cumaru veneered to treated plywood using TBIII, and those results did not turn out well at all. I know a fellow on the woodweb uses resorcinol and he has the experience to know that works. This is awful crap to do anything custom with and if I were doing it again, I would use fasteners everywhere or pick Jatoba, Tigerwood or teak. 18g Brads do not work, nor do 15g nails. Pre-drill everything and use screws.

Brad

[John Hollander]

Forget brads, i doubt they would penetrate. I built a double outdoor chair using ipe. I used ipe dowels from miller dowels and titebond 3. It is going on 3 or 4 yrs old in a northern climate outdoors all year and it is as tight together as day one. You could also probably use pl premium. I did not use any screws, etc, only miller dowels. Use the dowels as a feature and put them to the face of the top.

Ive never seen those dowels before...but I think that will work perfectly. Which color wood dowels did you use with the ipe?