Work Bench Glue Up

[Joshua Delmonico]

I received some 2x3 maple about 7' long. It was planed and jointed a year ago and is no longer true. There are several boards that have a 3/16" gap between them but I can close them up with clamps. I don't have a jointer (at least and electric one). If I glue these boards up and clamp them will they pull apart over time or should I bite the bullet and joint them again?
Thanks.
Josh

[Andrew Hughes]

Yes get the wood face jointed and planed,Your glue lines will be better and then you won't have to worry about the table delaminating one sunny day.Also the surface has oxidized so the glue will grab the fresh wood better.Maple doent soak up glue like some woods esp hard maple,so spread evenly and thin.Aj

[Prashun Patel]

3/16" is a bit much, IMHO. I'd try to joint them.

However (and I may be in the minority here) but on the three benches I've built, I've had a couple offending boards that I did not joint. Only one board has delaminated; the neighbors keep each other pretty darn honest. Even the one that has delaminated has only done so along a small portion; the majority is held well and has not in the slightest impeded my ability to work on it.

But if it's 'several' I'd make a reasonable effort to joint them.

[Bradley Gray]

If jointing & planing is inconvenient at this time and you have clamps available you could clamp them without glue and tighten every day or to for a while - likely the fit will improve

[Pat Barry]

If you can close them up with relatively light pressure then they should be good for glue-up IMO. If it were me, a man without a jointer, then I would scuff sand the surfaces (by hand) with 120 grit (to remove the surface oxide) and glue them up a couple at a time. One thing I would do is to establish a straight reference edge with something solid that I could clamp to in order to get things started properly. I have used the machine cut edge of a scrap piece of plywood that is long enough to use for the length of your boards.

[Dan Keeling]

Here's another idea to get straight edges: http://www.americanwoodworker.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.ImageFileViewer/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles.proje cts/workbench_5F00_oops.jpg_2D00_280x0.jpg

[Andy Pratt]

Re-joint them, they bent that way for a reason and clamps don't resolve that reason! If you clamp it out and the glue strength remains greater than the wood movement strength you will be ok but with the dimensions you indicated it is very unlikely that that will be the case, so you should mill them again. 1/16" is pushing it for that length, 3/16" is not okay by any stretch.

[Edward Oleen]

There is a method I saw work quite well when I was a kid - sixty years ago now - when circular saws ("Skill Saws") we "new-fangled stuff" used by those too lazy to use a handsaw.

What you do is lay the pieces to be joined down so they are parallel and separated by just under the width of the saw's kerf. Then you run the saw down the gap: this cuts the two edges to match each other. NOT NECESSARILY STRAIGHT, mind you, but matching each other.

It's called the "poor man's jointer". It works - I saw it done, and the table top is still tight. Of course, the boards were then fastened together using hot glue and dowels every 6 inches.

With a 3/16ths gap to make up you'd probably have to do it a couple of times, but....