I think I may have fallen at the first hurdle?

[Richard Krushner]

I have just started the glue up of the top of my first proper bench.

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I have almost complete squeeze out between every board, but at both ends there are sections with gaps. No amount of clamping will bring them together.

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This is strange because these clamped snug two weeks ago during my dry run. These have sat in the garage for a couple of months. I thought they would be more stable. I am quite concerned that there will be even more movement now I have brought them indoors. Even if it is only for twenty four hours.

I can fill it from a cosmetic point of view. I guess I can do nothing more but wait and see?

[Andrew Fleck]

I would cut along the glue line and joint it again. It sounds like they moved a on you while they were sitting. If I have to let boards sit for a while before a glue up I just joint them again to be safe. I'm not sure just filling the gaps will give you the strength most would desire in a workbench.

[george wilson]

No hard clamping should EVER be needed on a glue up. If it is necessary,the joint will soon open up again. Only enough pressure should ever be needed to just bring the surfaces together. If anything,your boards should have very slightly concave edges rather than convex,which must be what you now have. And,I mean VERY slightly concave. That way,the ends will not separate.

[Sean Hughto]

For future reference, I would recommend gluing up only one at a time, and adding a new stick every few hours as you can. This allows you to bring all your clamps to bear on each joint, while never having to close more than one joint at a time or bend more than the thickness of a single stick.

As for these gaps, they will not affect your usage at all. You can force some epoxy or glue and veneer strips into the gaps if you want to keep dust out of them or just make the top prettier, but it's not necessary. I assume your gonna be adding a bunch of holes to the thing on purpose before long for dogs and holddowns and whatnot. ;-)

[Jim Matthews]

If Andrew's suggestion doesn't work,
separate the two sides with a circular saw.

Follow up with a router running between the two boards as they will be glued (taking a little off both glue faces at the same time).
I've done this with two straight edges "trapping" the router between them so it rides in a channel.

The second straight edge is essential so that you can't wander off line.

The bit needs to be straight sided, a "pattern" bit.

https://www.canadianwoodworking.com/tipstechniques/turn-your-router-jointer

[Bob Easton]

Wood will sometimes move overnight. Some woodworkers won't joint edges like this until the day they intend doing the glue up. Consider that the next time. For this one, there are already some good suggestions for fixing it.

[David Eisenhauer]

As said above, I would let everything dry as-is, then use a saw to open up the "cracks" or "gaps" to an 1/8"-1/4", rip some thin strips that will fit the newly created gap, smear a little (less than I saw in the photos above:)) in the gap and push a shim down into the gap. All is good.

[Jim Koepke]

My vote is go with the simplest fix and keep all the advise for the next bench you build.

making a striped top with different color patches like David suggests could be kind of interesting.

jtk

[Richard Krushner]

As usual, thank you for the good advice. Once it is dry, it will be back into the garage. Assume it does not move on me, I will fill the gaps, maybe with thin strips as suggested above.

I am just hoping no cracks appear.

[Jim Matthews]

I am just hoping no cracks appear.

That's unlikely.
You built yours the way it should be done.

If you intend to back fill, save any offcuts and make a paste from sanding the offcuts and mixing with the same glue.
If the crack is wider or deeper than .5 mm - don't fill it all at once.

Thicker than .5mm, it won't dry properly and make a solid fill.
There will be almost zero strength in a patch like this - any seasonal movement can leave it free on one side.

The video below shows the method, starting at 5:10


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1Z1_4h2ydM

[Judson Green]

My vote is go with the simplest fix and keep all the advise for the next bench you build.

making a striped top with different culler patches like David suggests could be kind of interesting.

jtk


How bout a pinstripe bench top! Take a boo boo and make it a design element, no one but us will know (and we won't tell anyone). That's when you've become a good woodworker.