Help with first table top glue-up - warping a bit

[Keith Kelly]

About 2 months ago I glued up a few pieces of Hickory (+ pecan maybe?). The boards are probably 10 years old, from my father-in-law's shop - leftovers from the kitchen cabinets he built. I planed them, biscuit joined them, and glued them.

[for 2 months we were sidetracked on another project, and this sat in the cold garage]

Earlier this week, I brought the table top inside to tweak/prepare with my card scraper. (garage was crazy cold) Now it's slightly warping.


What are my options? I'm under the impression we're not supposed to fasten the top to the legs. But, what if I fastened some support boards underneath, running perpendicular to these boards (then loose-attached that whole assembly to the legs/rails)? What would you recommend to a n00b in this situation?

This will be a kids table for small children, and I plan on having this around awhile.


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[Art Mann]

How do you plan to fasten the top to the rest of the table? What type of structure will it have? Will it have a skirt? Whatever you plan to do, you can probably obtain the fasteners to secure the top in such a way as to allow a little movement while still holding the surface pretty much flat. The picture does not show very much of a problem to me.

[Keith Kelly]

Great, thanks for the reply.

I will be using an apron & legs. No leaves, so it will be fairly standard I believe. After posting this thread, I read a FWW article (http://www.finewoodworking.com/media/TabletopsFlat.pdf) that helped me get an idea of options. I probably should have read that before posting, but it does help to know you're not too worried by the cupping in the picture.

I have some fastener clips that I plan on attaching to the underside of the top, and they will clip into a dado on the inside of the apron. After reading that above article as well as your post, I'm starting to think there's no reason to worry yet. Especially since very little hand pressure will bend it back, it seems I'll be safe with fastening it to the apron, while allowing movement.

[Jim Andrew]

I have had similar experiences with moving a piece from outside storage to inside, and with similar warpage. My experience is that after the piece gets acclimated, it will probably go back flat.

[Prashun Patel]

This happens to me on many glue ups.

Let it acclimate. You might be surprised. Build your base. Mount it without fasteners. The top does not need to be perfectly flat. It only needs to LOOK flat on top, and be flat enough on the bottom so that fasteners can pull it flat to avoid gaps.. Once it's in place, you'll have a better idea of where local corrections need to be made.

I find this easier than trying to flatten the entire top.

[Howard Acheson]

How were you storing it? Air needs to be able to continually be able to get to both sides. In other words, the panel should not be laying on another flat surface. That would impeded the free flow of air to both sides.

If that's what you did, you may be able to salvage it by now putting in on 1" high stickers that are on a flat surface. Add stickers on top again and then add a flat surface with weight on top to flatten. Give it 2-3 weeks and see if you flattens out.

[Keith Kelly]

I had it on bench cookies, or leaning against a wall.

One thing I realized is that after the glue-up, I only removed material from the top side. Perhaps that allowed additional moisture to escape from that side more easily. So, yesterday I put it on the cookies and scraped some wood off the other side to even out the boards. (apparently there is a little bit of play in my ability to handle the biscuit jointer)

Perhaps it will even out on its own.

Thanks for the replies!