Reply To: First Table
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Fair enough. I will share some of the lessons I learned.
1.) Don’t laminate legs from thinner stock unless you absolutely have to. The boards I had to choose from were almost impossible to match. Th legs didn’t end up looking too great because of the grain mismatch. I remember Paul saying something to the effect that when one laminates legs, “it ends up looking like you didnt care”. In my case he was right. Next time I will buy 8/4 stock. One of my glue lines also ended up showing a gap several days after glue up. (See lesson two)
2.) Let your stock acclimate for as long as you can possibly stand it. I waited two weeks. I figured two weeks in Arizona heat and single digit humidity would do. I was wrong. After the legs were glued up and shaped; vertical checks opened up on one of the legs parallel to the laminate glue line and on the glue line itself. Luckily I was able to fill the defect with superglue and it turned out looking half way decent. Speaking of defects – see lesson three
3.) Your plane can never be sharp enough or set well enough. I cant count how many times I was planing and hearing the sweet “swish, swish” of a plane working properly…but on the next pass there was that terrible sound as the plane stopped dead in its track..leaving a grand canyon size divot in the middle of your freshly laminated table top.I definitely need work on plane setup and technique; and I will definitely be more picky about the boards I purchase. Beautiful, swirling grain is not a novice woodworkers friend.
4.) Last lesson. Joint freeze is real. And it sucks. It struck me on the second joint during glue up. I was not ready for it. The joint in question was very tight. Too tight it turns out. I actually broke a clamp trying to squeeze it together. When that failed I blindly beat the hell out of the joint with my chisel hammer and a block until it submitted.
So overall it was was a nightmare..I cant wait to do it again.