Heartwood pine table - process - table top

[Henry W]

This is the first of a few threads that I am planning that detail my fabrication of this table initially described in this thread (started earlier today)
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/forums/showthread.php?p=353122#poststop

Here is the finished product in it's final destination:

I purchased S4S stock from the Heartwood Pine Floors Inc in Pittsboro, and it was quite usable straight from them. It is a good thing too because at 10'+ most of these pieces would have really 'stretched' my capabilities to process. For TS rips I can open doors to process longer materials, but I don't have jointer and I would have to take my planar outside to process anything longer than about 6.5'.

I simply culled the material that would not make it - either not perfectly straight or had a defect that would not work well for table top. I ordered 18 pieces (expecting to make other projects as well), needing 8 pieces for the top.

One of the eight pieces had about an 1/8" bend at about the 8' mark. I dry fit this and found that could close it reasonably well with clamps, so I just went for it.

I laid out my best combination, and then mixed them up again as my wife and I considered other possibilities. That was cool - the first time she has helped me grain and color match! Here is the end result.

With 8 pieces I had to glue up in parts, 3, 2, and 3 pieces each:
1.

2.

3.

For these 2 and 3 piece glue ups I used all the pipe, F-stype, and Al track clamps that I own. I also used most of a 16 oz bottle of Titebond 3 in the first two glueups. I went to my local (Raleigh) Woodcraft and wouldn't you know it, they had a sale and there's no more 16 oz bottles TB3 in stock! It was a choice of a gallon or many 8 oz bottles. Since I was using the better part of 8 oz of glue on one glueup, I just decided to go for the gallon size. Does anybody need 16 oz of TB3? I clearly did not starve any of these joint from their just amount of glue - but I was sorry that I was not more judicious in cleaning off the excess while it was still wet.

Then came the crux of it - gluing three individual glue ups into one big one. For the 40" reach and a 10' long piece, I needed about 10 clamps.
Well the shame of it, I only had 2! NCWW to the rescue:
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/forums/showthread.php?t=35796
Chris has graciously loaned me 6 (or more?) clamps that could span the need size. It was great to meet him and get a shop tour while I was at it. Many thanks Chris.
Here's the final glue up:

I did not use biscuits or dowels in the glue up, just TB3 and clamps. Before progressing with flattening or sanding the top, I had to scrape a lot of glue off; I should have scraped that off when the glue was still soft - lesson learned. I usually do not have as much excess glue - but rarely have I had to go for a walk along the length of a glue up to cover the entire edge with glue. I guess I chose to err on the side of too much rather than too little glue. I used a paint scraper and found that filing the edge to create a burr made a huge difference. I did not prep this entirely like a card scraper, but just filing the edge helped tremendously.

In the earlier general post on this table someone commented that flattening a glue up that size must have been fun. Well I tried my best to align the surface during glue-up to avoid doing much flattening. The ends of a few boards were not so cooperative, but for the most part any ridges were 1/16th or less. I also admit that the entire finished table top was not a perfect plane; there were some gradual undulations.
I used my 6" RO sander with 60 grit paper to level as recommended by the folds at the Heartwood Pine Floors place (wood supplier). They had apparently just finished a 15' long conference room table and used a floor sander to level that. I considered renting one, but when I tried my Ridgid ROS, I figured I could do it facter and cheaper than renting a floor sander (not faster unless you account for the time to pick up and drop off the rental machine). Norton 3x paper was available in HD when I needed it - thankfully I generally do not need 60 grit paper for my projects, but I did here. I also love that Ridgid ROS! A ShopVac on there keeps it fairly dust-free. I chose to do the roughest 60 grit stuff outside on the picnic table (we may not remember, but we have had a few warm days in January) and then finish sanding in the shop.

Here's the table top (now inside the shop) sanded to 100 grit, before staining.

I only sanded to 100 grit because this piece was not going to be a high gloss, super smooth, grain filled table top. In fact the request was the "more holes and knots the better - as long as the holes don't go through to the floor." With that kind of a surface, I did not see the point in fine grit sanding. There are residual nail holes, knot holes, and simply grain voids in the surface - and I like it that way. It did however challenge my notion of a "properly sanded and prepped surface."

Here is the top after stain:

At this point I moved it out of the shop (so I could move on to making the base) and into the basement where I applied polyurethane - several coats of oil based wiping varnish in a satin gloss. Once again a high gloss finish was not the aim here - the opposite in fact. I wanted the protection needed for a kitchen table, without a lot of shine.

At least one more, if not two, threads to follow - dealing he fabrication process, challenges, and complications in making the base.

Henry W

 

[Sealeveler]

Looks great,you'all done a fine job matching up the grain.Thanks for the write up.
Tony

 

[Glennbear]

Thank you for sharing the build process thoroughly :icon_thum I have used the "60 grit planing method" on a few occasions myself and sometimes it is the best way to go. I have also used a paint scraper for glue removal and it worked so well I am surprised more folks do not do the same. The handle makes things so much easier than a card scraper. :wsmile:

 

[leftoflefty]

Great write up! Thanks for sharing. I can't wait to read the rest.:thumbs_up

 

[Bill Clemmons]

Thanks for sharing the building process Henry. That table is not only beautiful, but massive as well. Great job! :eusa_danc

Bill

 

[Jeff]

Henry,

I've enjoyed your WIP commentary; very informative. I can also appreciate your pain with glue line clean-ups.

Here's a nifty tip that I picked up from Marc Spagnuolo (aka The WoodWhisperer). Let the glue dry for about 30-45 min. and gently slide a chisel along the line. The stuff is kind of rubbery at that point and peels quite easily. A second "skimming" along the line is usually necessary too, but the result is pretty good. After curing, a little work with a card scraper or cabinet scraper yields a pretty good surface along the line. The biggest problem is the clamps getting in the way during the process. :icon_scra

 

[Henry W]

Re: Heartwood pine table - process - table top finishing

I was asked in the original thread about finishing. I gave the following (long!) answer there and will copy it here.

I was trying, but failed, to create a somewhat pickled/whitewashed look because that is what the kitchen island has. Someone else tried and failed in that attempt too - you can't really see it but in the background of the last picture (the table at destination) there is a room paneled with pine boards (horizontally). The finisher there tried various combinations of stains to mimic the kitchen island, and could not do it. I could not match the island either, but i cam every close to the neighboring room pine walls!

I ended up using MinWax pickling stain (hard to find by the way), which is a water cleanup stain, that I custom mixed with the darkest brown water based stain that MinWax makes (Ipswitch Pine I think). These water based stains combine well (and NOT with their oil based stains; I knew better but had to try it anyways). They do not "stain and seal" as Minwax oil based stains do, they simply color (they are really very thin paints). The pickling stain states that the product should be wiped off before drying. I used the mixture in a "flood on and controlled wiping off" manner, being cautious not to flood the imperfections/nail holes/knots/ knot vacancies etc.
I let that dry and then spot stained any lighter areas using the by then saturated wipe off cloth.

Protective finish was several coats of wipe on Polyurethane - first ones were purchased as wipe-on poly, and the rest were a thnned mix of oil based polyurethane and solvents.

Michael Dresdner (http://www.michaeldresdner.com/) author of several of my books on finishing taught me that buying wipe-on varnishes was more expensive - they are simply thinned versions of full strength varnish. For small project I am happy not to have to mix stuff, but with a can of as purchased WipeOn Poly covering only 50-60 sq ft (i.e. not completely covering one coat of my table top on both sides), I started mixing my own.
- The second piece of wisdom that i applied from Dresdner is to use a Scotchbrite pad to apply poly. Poly urethane goes on in individual layers - unlike shellac the top layer does not disslve part of the next layer to combine one thick layer. For polyurethane the layers are distinct. That is one reason that they suggest sanding between coats, the existing layer is abraded to create some 'tooth' for the top layer to hold on to. During the build layers Dresdner suggests not waiting too long between coats (especially if using thinned poly) and using a scotchbrite pad to sand between coats, and apply a top coat simultaneously. For a final layer I think he suggests sanding first and then a final top coat.
All of this is what I have used after reading his advice many years ago (5, 8, who knows how many). So if you want to know precisely what he says, please go look at the source material (his books) and don't take my word for it. His and Jeff Jewitt's books provided me with the confidence to plunge ahead on projects ((ans still screw up!).

The finish on this piece was not intended to be high gloss smooth... because the table top was not that way either. Protection from usage with low sheen = satin polyurethane. Wipe-on method is easy, low tech, and generally consistent.

Henry W