Carpentry and Woodworking - help building large table

Hi all.

I'm building a large table, 12' x 42". I'm planning to build it out of pine that I had cut down and dried from our woods. My first attempt didn't work. I used a joiner/planer to even out the board and glue them together, but the surface ended up terribly uneven.

So, how would you do it? What glue? What steps, etc?

Any tips appreciated,
Nate

Use biscuit joints to keep the edges of the boards aligned. You will still need to sand smooth.

Biscuit joints, dowels or splines...all will help keep the boards in line.

You need to be careful when sanding pine, especially old growth. The grain is much harder than the sap wood and it's very easy to wind up with a irregular surface (even if the joints are smooth).

Also consider a breadboard design for the ends of the table to help keep the table stable as well as the biscuits.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to pick up a biscuit joiner.

One of the biggest problems I'm having though is getting uniform boards (approximately 2x4 to start with) through my joiner. At 12 feet long, there is too much variation. Any tips on this?

Nate

Check your knives on the planer to make sure they are sitting correctly. It sounds as if you have a skewed knife causing an irregular angle on the plane.

because the table is fairly large and you are using a softwood as the top you are going to have a lot of movement across the width of the top.

consider this;

make a torsion box the size of your table top using your pine on the side and end pcs and some secondary wood for the grid. cut your boards to approx 1/4" thickness on a bandsaw and have them thicknessed on a wide belt ( most larger wodshops will do this for you for a fee ) to 5/32" or so and then bookmatch them to your torsion box, top and bottom.

the top will look like a solid pc of wood that has no movement , wont get crooked, warp etc.

good luck

lokahi

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to pick up a biscuit joiner.

One of the biggest problems I'm having though is getting uniform boards (approximately 2x4 to start with) through my joiner. At 12 feet long, there is too much variation. Any tips on this?

Nate

Sounds like you need two tables the height of the planer surface to support the board and keep it level during planing. Maybe a helper would do? Hope the wood has been dried to reduce warpage and bowing! Good luck. The breadboard end pieces ar necessary. You will also need some cleats on the bottom side to help keep everything level and straight.