[Amitabh]

Hello

First off... i am a amateur and mad respect to carpenters... but i need help..

i have done a few projects, with simple cuts... this one, i think, was a bit more complicated for me.

i am building a new kitchen table, 60" round. i am working on the table top right now. 2x4x8 pines glued to together to form sections of the table top. With a 2x6x8 cross beam.

There are 4 sections, each section is getting 2x4s in a pattern. I cut the 2x4x8 into 4 equal parts. i.e. squares, and then cut on the diagonal and then criss crossed each diagonal piece.

when you look at the picture, there are parts where the two pieces are flush, and others where there is a gap. how do i fix this...

thanx in advance for the help

 

[kwikfishron]

It looks like you're using framing lumber to build this table so that gap you're concerned about is only the beginning as the wood dries.

Call it character and finish your round table, it's going to be just fine.

 

[joecaption]

No biscuit joints, or a Kreg tool, just glue?
What are you using to cut it?
Have to agree poor choice of material to make a kitchen table from, to soft, no jointed edges so the low areas that will be a night mare to clean.

 

[Amitabh]

lol... yes framing lumber.... poor choice, but my first table, i did want to try it first, before i spend more on expensive lumber.

being in canada, the thickness of S4S lumber 1" is only 3/4" at my local big box - so i would have to get two of them (glued), to get any thickness.

sorry, left out that detail, i am biscuit joining everything, first time, and i love it.

could i put the two pieces back to back and then run a circular saw across the diagonal to make the edges similar? (line up the back and bottom of course).

could i use wood filler? its too big of a gap i think, food or water would fall through

tool wise, i have

circular saw
mitre saw
jigsaw

 

[ChuckF.]

Even if the miter cuts were perfect on the day you made them, you will always have that problem with miter joints. That's because as the moisture content of wood varies it shrinks and expands, but it shrinks and expands across the grain at a different rate than with the grain.

 

[Millertyme]

Best way to get a long cut straight is with a router and a straight edge with a pattern bit.

 

[Amitabh]

thank you everyone for your advice..

i am going to finish it off and try my best to get a straight line on the diagonal, with an even gap.

 

[carpdad]

Instead of the pieces, put a square in its place with darker wood. Carry the square to the middle and across.

 

[1acre]

I built my workbench out of 2x4's. I did use my jointer and planar to dimension the wood, and get rid of the ridge.

 

[Amitabh]

wow... great job..

i think i am going to scrap this table, after looking at the table top again, i realized for a kitchen table, it will not be straight, a ton of ridges. i would have to plane or sand down at least 0.25"

i think i will redo with non-framing lumber that has been dried, and has clean edges.

:vs_sob:

 

[1acre]

I don't know what a real lumber yard charges, but most offer to mill your lumber for you, either on a BF or LF basis. It will probably be cheaper than buying S4S @ a big box store and a nicer product. I've always found S4S @ the big box store to be no better than framing lumber sometimes in terms of warping.

 

[123pugsy]

wow... great job..

i think i am going to scrap this table, after looking at the table top again, i realized for a kitchen table, it will not be straight, a ton of ridges. i would have to plane or sand down at least 0.25"

i think i will redo with non-framing lumber that has been dried, and has clean edges.

:vs_sob:

A cheap and excellent way to learn.

Nothing lost, I would think.

 

[ChuckF.]

I made a nice work table frame once from 2x4 pine studs; cut 1/4" off each side on the table saw and then ran them through my Ryobi 12" planer. I routed stopped coves into the four edges. Looks good. The trick is to work them enough that they are no longer recognizable as 2x4's.

 

[Amitabh]

thank you ChuckF

i need to invest in a router, table saw and planer still...

:vs_sob:

 

[Scottg]

This is an older thread, but just for fun...

* Just for fun, if you were to have tried to salvage it at all, one option is sawdust. That is, take a bunch of sawdust from the same kind of wood; of which you probably had lots of sawdust anyway. Mix it up with some wood glue. Then stuff it into the gaps. After that, sand everything down and finish. Sometimes you can't even notice a problem. Though generally, this technique is used for smaller gaps.

* Now, as to wood expansion and shrinkage... even with 'good' wood that's kiln dried, "trapping" it with edge boarding is begging for splitting trouble over time, depending on where this is kept. Even kiln dried wood with 5% - 10% moisture content will move. This is why breadboards at the end of many tables - if done right - they use mortise and tenon joinery and only glue the center part, with the ends pinned with dowels to allow for movement. So, something like Kreg jig is awesome for joining the long boards. But for the end, you need to search for "breadboard attachment tenon" and similar.

Heres a great article on understanding wood movement:
http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/A_Finish_Carpenters_Guide_to_Understanding.html

* Another thing strikes me as possible here though... did these joints start out this way? Or did they move? That is, I wonder if you're miter saw, (or table saw miter gauge), is perfectly aligned. I see that some corners match, but others don't. So maybe it's just being more careful with the cuts. One suggestion I'd have in this regard is work on getting the 45 deg angles perfect. If you have to give it a couple of tries, that's fine as long as you leave the tail end oversized. Then you can either join up everything and cut down the whole sides to size on a table saw, or just trim the 90 degree ends prior to joining up; after the trickier angles are done. This would probably be best way to do this with whatever kind of wood you're using. As for the joining, I'd suggest either biscuit joiner or some kind of dowel / deadlocks in the ends. Kreg can certainly do angles, but you have to be even more super careful about strongly clamping the pieces before driving the screws as you don't have a lot of leeway for error with this design.

Hope some of this helps. (Even if you've likely long since move on from this project!)

Scott

 

[PandJ]

experience only comes after learning phase. Finish the table, use it and start planning another one with new wood.....or you could even layer over another type of wood over this one. First projects are never perfect....even the pros see the mistakes in their work no one would ever notice.

 

[Canarywood1]

And since this is a learning project, neither one of those cuts are true, that is what's caused the gap, when making the small pieces always cut from a large piece, so you have something to hang onto.

 

[Mort]

Miter joints are tough. Even if they're off a 1/4 degree they won't turn out right. Your trick with running a circular saw through the gap should work though.

In any case, might be good to not throw it in the fire pit just yet, you can practice some techniques on it. Hand planing, sanding, finishing, it's a perfectly good test piece for a lot of those things.

 

[carpdad]

Also you really can't dress the surface that's full of knots. They will cut differently, esp with hand planer or sander on soft wood.