Your way and how I did it ?

[Craig D Peltier]

Hi, I recently built a 6/4 ash dining room table with two leaves in it. Its 70 and extends to 106. So 2 18 inch leaves.
I matched the 70 inches and then matched the 36 inches for same grain where thye meet. Thsi I guess is just a preference whether client is going to leave the leaves in or out most of time. If in I would of used 10 foot planks.
So what I did was I glued up half table an half table and then same with leaves. The problem I had was when I put them together end to end they didnt quite line up and had to belt sanded to meet flush.
Then on the leaves once you put them in they didint meat flush to main table or to themselves which required more sanding. I had to be careful not to sand very much off of main table since they matched up flush when closed.
So if I were to do it again should I maybe glue it up the full length 70 inches and then crosscut it with skill saw to hopefully have the same slight warp? Should of I made it the entire length and crosscut it 4 times and not end to end matched when the leaves were out?
Obviusly a real flat glue up would help (mine was pretty dang flat but nextime I would pay much closer attention) , I stored the leaves on there ends for maybe 7 days in shop that could hav warped them slightly.
So was there a better way? It was 1.25 thick KD ash.

Thanks

[keith ouellette]

Thats a tough one. I have never built a dinning room table so my opinion doesn't count for much but this is what i probably would have done.

I would figure when the table is not being used it would be displayed without the leaves so I would have matched the grain where the table broke in two. I would have made the leaves a little thicker than the table and then planed and sanded them flush. If the table had a decorative edge I would have put that on last after the leaves were flushed to the table but I don't know if thats right or not.

[Bob Vallaster]

I built one in soft maple, 2 leaves, similar dimension, with boards running the width as you did. Final thickness was ~7/8". I was very selective in picking flat boards to start with and had minimal mismatch between table halves or leaves after gluing. Maybe I was lucky.
Although I had bought metal fingers (called "table top evener"---http://www.selbyhardware.com/t4.htm) to align parts as they close, I never had to use them---the parts draw together flat with nothing more than bullet-shaped dowels (called "alignment pins"---available in brass, plastic or hardwood).
It has been in service for 2 years and has stayed flat at the seams.

At 1 1/4" thickness, an edge is unlikely to flex to accommodate the shape of its neighbor, so I think you're right dress the mismatch by hand. You might want to mark edges meant to abutt (A-A, B-B, C-C, and A-C). Make your matches permanent by installing dowels or alignment hardware. The upside is that you have plenty of material to trim-to-fit, the thickness will not be seen when edges are pulled tight, and the bottom doesn't have to be perfect.

Bob V.

[Craig D Peltier]

I built one in soft maple, 2 leaves, similar dimension, with boards running the width as you did. Final thickness was ~7/8". I was very selective in picking flat boards to start with and had minimal mismatch between table halves or leaves after gluing. Maybe I was lucky.
Although I had bought metal fingers (called "table top evener"---http://www.selbyhardware.com/t4.htm) to align parts as they close, I never had to use them---the parts draw together flat with nothing more than bullet-shaped dowels (called "alignment pins"---available in brass, plastic or hardwood).
It has been in service for 2 years and has stayed flat at the seams.

At 1 1/4" thickness, an edge is unlikely to flex to accommodate the shape of its neighbor, so I think you're right dress the mismatch by hand. You might want to mark edges meant to abutt (A-A, B-B, C-C, and A-C). Make your matches permanent by installing dowels or alignment hardware. The upside is that you have plenty of material to trim-to-fit, the thickness will not be seen when edges are pulled tight, and the bottom doesn't have to be perfect.

Bob V.

I delivered the table today. Client was happy. I did use dowels an eveners. They helped but I guess next time I may do as the first replier says but that may not even work due to if I left it too thick it will be too much to sand and then if I leave it to thin it may not be enough. I guess making sure its really really flat when gluing up and then storing it flat while here would help.

Thanks

[Steve Jenkins]

When your store the parts in your shop it's best to store them on edge with a sticker between the panel and the floor if it's concrete. At that thickness they should stand on their own ok unless you have a dog bouncing off them.