The guy two bays down from me brings in wood from Guyana, and specializes in Angelique. He asked me to make a bench top for him glued up out of Angelique. This is almost a sin, but for him it’s like you guys heading to the local hardware store for construction grade stuff, only cheaper. I get to keep all the offcuts. Bench will be 4’x9’ for doing slab work on. Likely will be 4” thick- will know once I mill it all.
This wood is properly vetted and cleared through proper channels. It is not illegally harvested. I wouldn’t touch it if it were. You do have to be careful out of Guyana.
I will glue it up in four 12” wide sections and use threaded rod to through-bolt those sections. I don’t see any better way for a top this friggin big and heavy. Open to suggestions. I will use a jig to drill holes in each board prior to gluing so there are holes through each lamination, and then the four laminations, once cured, will get bolted together.
Why? (I know you’re going to ask.) It is what he wants. He wants it out of Angelique to show off the wood he sells, and he wants it this big for working massive slabs of Angelique. Who am I to argue? It will certainly be a challenge. I seem to be slowly turning into “the glue-up guy.” I have been building so many glued up tables lately. Another customer has a 53” wide, 100” long mahogany table that I glued up yesterday. Yet another has a 48”x108” mahogany conference table that will get glued up Tuesday. I just finished making 16 tables for two different restaurants: 8 mahogany, 8 pine.
B89D8650-8457-4F27-8E2C-3FE9C44A3DF5.jpg 71D0C30F-DA80-4428-A903-D051F8CEF9A4.jpg