With the top now flat, I’ll pause the sanding at this point to work on shaping the desk. I then flipped it over and hit the other side, making sure to hit the the edges too. It me a good 15 minutes to get through one side. This process takes time, so don’t rush it. Now comes the fun task of sanding, starting with 80-grit to remove any remaining glue and get it nice and flat. Once all the glue was scraped away, I let the top cure in the clamps for a full 24 hours. Ultimately I got really frustrated with both of those methods. I’ve also tried waiting until it dried and using a chisel. It’s a razor blade scraper but with plastic blades that won’t damage the wood! In the past I’ve tried wiping off the glue with a wet rag. I finally found the perfect tool for this. Don’t Let the Glue Harden!Īfter about 30 minutes, I can come back to scrape off the glue while it’s still soft. Alright, time to let this dry, but I won’t go too far just yet. I almost forgot to add clamps to the short section that overhangs my bench, so I’ll add them on top. I can now do a final tightening of all my clamps. I’ve put clear packing tape on the bottom edge so it won’t stick to the glue. These cauls are slightly tapered from the mid-point towards the ends. I can then go back and start tightening my clamps, checking that each board stays flat and the seams look good.įor extra insurance, I’ll use clamping cauls in the middle to make sure the panel stayed dead flat. Again, I’m not really tightening at this point. This will make sure the boards stay aligned and flat. I’ll then add some mini F-clamps to both ends, using one per seam. I can now lay my boards flat and start closing the clamps without tightening just yet, just a light twist until they start to bite. You don’t need biscuits for strength, but if you like them, they can help with alignment. First I apply a thick bead of glue to one edge on 4 out of my 5 boards, getting full coverage using a glue brush. The Glue up ProcessĪll right, so here’s my glue up process in a nutshell. They make a huge difference in keeping panels flat and getting tight seams without any gaps. It’s times like theses that I’m grateful to have all my Bessey K-Body parallel clamps. Glue ups can definitely stress me out, so to make it as stress-free as possible, I got everything ready. So instead of figuring out a way to carry it up two flights once it was all done, I decided to assemble it directly in my home office. Glue upĪlright, it’s time to get these boards glued up! After feeling how heavy each of these boards was, I quickly realized that once this desk top was assembled, it would be really heavy. Nevertheless, after flipping a few boards around, I managed to close most of the gaps and get a decent fit. I won’t lie, getting big boards perfectly square left me a little frustrated when I realized that there were gaps in my joints. With all the boards milled to their final thickness, the last step is to rip them to their final width at the table saw, running the jointed edge up against the fence. I was hoping to end up with 1-inch in thickness and ultimately ended up just a hair below the 1-inch mark. I checked the edge for square, then could move over to the planer to flatten the opposite face.įeeding each board one after the other, I could progressively lower the cutterhead until all the boards were flat and had the same thickness. With one face flat, I can flip that face up against my jointer’s fence in order to flatten and square one edge. It took several passes until the face was flat and let me tell you, working with long solid wood boards is quite the workout! I’ll start by flattening one face on the jointer, putting the cupped face down and keeping the pressure on the outfeed side. Using a straightedge I could line them up with the jointer beds and get to work. I picked up a pair of roller stands in order to support the wood both on the infeed and on the outfeed. This is my first time milling such long boards, and I quickly realized that my jointer wasn’t long enough to support them and be able to work safely. I’m starting with 5/4 rough sawn ash that I’ll mill on all 4 sides. There’s not much room to work on such a large project, but that’s why most of my tools are on wheels, so I can move things out of the way and make room to use my tools. The biggest challenge in making this solid wood desk top is the limited space I have in my workshop.
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