Thursday, December 12, 2019

How to make a simple solid wood table top













How to make a simple solid wood table top

Tools and materials I propose:

In this video I make a simple table top out of solid basswood. 

First of all I planed one side of my material flat. I then squared it with one more side on the jointer/planer.

With two sides flat and perpendicular to each other , I squared the third side on the table saw. 

Finally I passed all the boards through the thickness planer and my material was now flat and square. 

I then aligned the boards so that I liked the grain orientation. I then added alignment marks and also marks for the biscuits. 

I used my biscuit joiner to cut the slots for the biscuits. The biscuits hold the boards from sliding around during the glue up. 

I glued the top in three sessions. This way I had less stress about the glue drying. And I think it also helps to glue the pieces nice and straight. I also used a few boards to keep the glued pieces from bending. 

Once the two pieces were ready I glued them together. I also like to clean the excess glue with a wet rag. This saves me some time on sanding.

Once my top was ready, I used my circular saw and a guide rail to cut it to it’s final size. 

I did my rough sanding with 80 grit and my belt sander. 

I then rounded over the top edges with a block plane. Finally I sanded everything with 120, 220 and 320 grit. 

I finished the piece with water based, clear satin varnish. I applied several coats ( around 5 ) while lightly sanding between coats with 400grit. I also like to use my heat gun to speed up the drying process. 

I finished the underside first. Then I screwed the top on the table’s metal base. To avoid splitting I first predrilled pilot holes and then screwed the wood in place. 

Finally I flipped the table over and finished the top. 

The table came out great. But that was it, see you soon with a new project video!


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