[KevinEF7]

Hey guys, Ive been collecting this wood from work as I had an interest in turning it into a DIY dinner table, mainly because it is beautiful hardwood all with grains running the same way I figured would look great stained and urethaned, and unlike wood you buy at the store, its has sharp edges, not rounded. We get alot of it through work but most are damaged in some sort of way, but I occasionally find piece like this that are "perfect" with no damage and perfectly straight and flat. If you can tell from the pictures, each piece has a "groove" on the bottom that runs the enire length, I plan to put that side on the bottom of the top though so hoping that isnt a problem.

Im a little lost on the procedure on actually turning it into a table though. The pieces are 42" long and 3.5" wide and 1 3/8" thick. My idea is to glue them together on there sides with a quality glue, clamp, cure, sand the top smooth. I could waste another year looking for more piece, but as of now I have 23, which would give me a table length of about 80". Is that to big?

This picture is of the bottoms of the pieces, you can see the grooves

An issue that I see with that is my biggest clamps can only clamp 56", would a leaf be an option? Im not even sure Ive seen the brackets for a leaf at any store. Im also curious if simply gluing the top together and clamping would be enough to hold it for many years, or if it would require strips of any sort underneath with screws.

As for legs, there are premade options, but I also like the idea of possibly using 2 or even 3 pieces of the wood I have glued together (grooves on the inside so they are not seen) to keep the overall look a little more uniform.

Im open to all ideas heres, Id just like to have a finished table I can sit around at with my wife for quite a few years knowing I built it. Figured Id ask some advice from some more experienced before I just jump in without some tips :vs_cool:

 

[de-nagorg]

I would look around at a "flee" market, auction, second-hand store for an old table with a solid frame to use as the base.

Remove the old worn out formica / wooden top, and use my wood as a new top. It has all the hardware already to use for a leaf and attaching to the top.

I would use biskits to join the lumber together with a good urethane wood glue, clamped, then sanded and finished with my choice of finish.


Hope to see the finished project at completion.


ED

 

[KevinEF7]

What is the recommended poly glue? Im assuming PL premium is not possibly the best for a long lasting joint that shouldn't ever twist

 

[carpdad]

If you mean glue them to make a long table:
1. it's going to be really heavy furniture.
2. the grain will look odd. Usually the grain is with the long side.
3. if you glue them as such, you will want rails under the pieces as a part of the structure. With the rails, the pieces may break if you tried lifting the table from the ends. If you use rails, the top pieces must be planed to the same thickness.
4. I would consider using the lumber you have only if I can resaw them into thinner pieces, plane and joint them into furniture grade lumber.
5. Many pieces of straight grain lumber made into a table with big area is not going to look good. It will look like Ikea furniture or fake grain furniture.

80" table is huge. 5-6' table is good for most dining rooms. You will need chairs and room to move the chairs as well.

 

[KevinEF7]

I could make the grain go with the long side of the table if I did the lead option, or made the top out of 2 seperate "tops" and put them together with dowels or such or went ahead with the leaf option

 

[SeniorSitizen]

If that much table is needed and with that 42 inch lumber I'd probably build 2 tables with bread board ends making them about 46" long x 30" wide. Then if they had to be moved a crane wouldn't be needed.

 

[47_47]

That is dunnage and wouldn't use it for furniture. I would use it to get your technique down, experiment with and make a workbench, potting table for the garage or similar.

 

[MushCreek]

That looks like southern pine; not exactly nice hardwood. Still, it could be made into a rustic table top. I would glue it together so that it would run lengthwise. Stagger the end joints a lot so they are not close to each other. The hard part is going to be getting it anywhere near flat. I just made a 42 X 90 maple top for my kitchen peninsula. I used biscuits and a lot of big clamps to join it together and Tite-Bond glue. It still took a lot of sanding to get it really smooth and even.

 

[jimn]

Grain seems awful large for slow growing hardwood. Maybe it is but looks like more like a softwood . You probably need to run this thorough a planner and a joiner to get the surfaces perfectly square to glue up into a table top. An 80 inch long table is going to be heavy.

 

[de-nagorg]

What is the recommended poly glue? Im assuming PL premium is not possibly the best for a long lasting joint that shouldn't ever twist

Titebond is a great brand, as well as Gorilla Glue.

PL Premium is more of a construction adhesive, used in industrial applications.

It should work, just be aware that you will have excessive squeeze out, and it is a PIA to scrape off.


ED

 

[KevinEF7]

I do have 2 bottle of 600ml gorilla glue type 2.

The wood wont need to go through a planer at all, they are all extremely flat, all the same thickness within .01" (easily sanded I believe once joined to remove most/all surface imperfections) and the best part is the sides are crisp 90* corners, so when I butt them up to eachother there will be no dip/gulley, should be completely flat and easy to stain and urethane.

Lets say to get the grain "right" running lengthwise I made 2 tops instead and joined them together, what would be a good method to hold/join both pieces on the ends that touched eachother? Basically forgetting about a leaf, and simply making 2 tops that needed to be permanently butted together, would doweling work and a brace underneath.

Sounds like I may just have to scour google images of underneath table tops a while

 

[SeniorSitizen]

Lets say to get the grain "right" running lengthwise I made 2 tops instead and joined them together, what would be a good method to hold/join both pieces on the ends that touched eachother? Basically forgetting about a leaf, and simply making 2 tops that needed to be permanently butted together, would doweling work and a brace underneath.

You stagger every other piece a distance equal to the width of the lumber when gluing the two separate tops, then glue and drive the two halves together. i.e. a 180° box joint.

To get the length you want 3 sections may be necessary.

 

[danpik]

I admire your ambition with this but, that is not hardwood. It is pallet grade pine. It can be used for what you want though. Once you get the edges trued up in a jointer, use the tight-bond II wood glue or Elmers carpenters wood glue to glue up the assembly. I would caution you with trying to make the pieces longer by end gluing as the seasonal changes in the wood will tear them apart quickly. Once you have the table top assembled and ready for finishing, you will need to put a sealer on that wood as any stain you will want to use will get real blotchy looking without it.