Pedestals

Well, now we're getting down to the nitty gritty - the pedestals for this table.

After a whole lot of searching for the "right" pieces, these two were chosen. The problem? Wasn't sure if they'd be sound enough to use for their intended purpose. The one on the left was really punky. A lot of dry rot. Hoping the core was sound and that there'd be enough of it left after grinding to be usable. The one on the right didn't survive a forest fire. The charring in places was over an inch in depth. Again, wasn't sure it'd be salvageable, but was hopeful.

Bark stripped from pedestal number one. Dry rot deeper than anticipated. Oh, well. Keep going and see what happens.

A LOT of worm holes I'd like to keep, if possible. Adds character to the piece.

Lots of grinding, lots of dust in the shop - still too cold to do this outside. Couldn't save the worm holes. The wood was just too soft in those areas, and would eventually cause some problems down the road. Pretty nice looking piece, though, if I do say so myself.

Eyeballing the second pedestal. Not so sure I even want to try saving this one. Oh, what the heck - give it a try!

Results, results, results. This one really surprised me. There are a couple of structural issues involving cracks that I'll need to address, but overall, this one definitely has appeal.

In looking at the two, the ends intended to be the tops are too small to provide stability for the tabletop. That dang thing is heavy! Don't want someone getting up from the table putting their weight on it to help lift and winding up with the table tipping over into their lap!

What to do? What to do? Aha! Make a crown! It'll involve cutting each pedestal down a bit, and planing the tops and bottoms again, but this should work!

The trick is in finding pieces that come relatively close to matching the pedestals. Not as easy as it sounds! Luckily, two pieces were available, and the fun began.

To plane them down using the router planer, each piece had to be secured to a 2x6 and then secured to the table. No movement! That's a good sign, for sure!

Adjust the height of the sled, and we're ready to rock and roll.

Set the crowns on top of the pedestals, and whaddya know - just under 31 inches total. Leaves some wiggle room to play with in getting the overall table height down to the 28-29 inch goal.

Next step was to attach the crown to the bottom. Luckily, three pipe clamps did the trick. One short dowel helped guide the location of each crown. Some popping and cracking along with a whole lot of glue seeping out all over everything, and everything is good to go.

I mentioned earlier there was a large crack that needed attention. The solution? Drill a very deep hole and use a long lag screw and lots of glue to snug the two sides of the crack back together. In order to accommodate the screw, a larger hole had to be bored out to hide it. Once that was done, more glue into the void along with a dowel used as a plug.

Once the glue set, it was a simple procedure to cut off the dowel and sand it flush to the contour of the pedestal.

And here are the results of all that effort.

And here is the second pedestal also ground down to look almost like the crown and the pedestal were meant for each other.

Tools used were the angle grinder pictured above and a long necked electric die grinder. Switching from the angle grinder chainsaw wheel to flap sander happened more than once in this process, and the results were more than satisfactory. The grinding attachments for the die grinder included a round carbide tipped ball and a longer, narrower 2 inch carbide tipped crevice rod (shown in photo above). One of my next investments will be to get a couple of fine grit grinding attachments as these two are course and leave way too many striations that I can't get to with any kind of sander including my hands.

Next post will include more progress on the pedestals.

Glue-up.....to Dowel or not to Dowel - that is the question

Ok, so this is the part I've been dreading probably most of all - the glue up. The reason? I'm never sure the edges are going to line up perfectly because that damn glue makes them so slippery.

I've heard there really is no need for dowels or biscuits when gluing because the glue is actually stronger than the wood itself. THAT really sets my mind at ease!

All the pieces and parts are ready (at least as ready as they're going to get). Now it's a matter of putting them together and deciding to go ahead with the dowels. I have a dowel jig that worked on another project I did a very long time ago with pretty good results. Wonder if I might be able to get similar results this time around? Well, gonna give it a try because slippage is not an option here, and the dowels will line things up and hold them in place if done right.

2" long by 1/2" diameter dowels should do the trick. Just remember to mark the pieces all the same when drilling the dowel holes. Otherwise they won't line up and the process will need to be done all over again.

Sure do wish I had more clamps than I actually have! Wait, maybe a ratchet tie-down will work. Give that a try as a last resort.

Each piece and part is going to have to be done individually which will take a lot of time and patience.

Can you believe the glue instructions say to only leave the clamps on for 30 minutes? Don't want to "stress" the glue overnight. Seems like it's just not enough time, but every time I take the clamps off, the glue seems to hold just fine in previous projects.

Well, here we go. First up - one side rail attached to one of the cottonwood center slabs. Get all the glue applied and spread out on both surfaces as uniformly as possible. Slowly tighten the clamps alternating from one to another to help keep the pressure as uniform as possible. Hear some cracking and popping as the two pieces are slowly pushed toward each other. The gap gets smaller and smaller. Finally, they meet, and the glue squished up through the seam. Quick, get a wet paper towel and wipe up the excess as much as possible! Keep tightening until it seems the clamps won't go any further.

Wait.....wait.....wait.....

30 minutes go by. Still seeing some "liquid" properties of the glue, not sure if it's time to take off the clamps yet. Leave them on for another 15 minutes.

Finally take them off, and VOILA....one side rail attached to one cottonwood center slab!

Repeat for the other side rail and cottonwood slab:

Did I mention, the ratchet tie down idea isn't something I'll use in the future? It's too hard to get it situated just right, and too difficult to ratchet down to an equal pressure to the clamps.

Now for the center rail of juniper. Attach it to one side first. Let cure overnight.

Attach to other side next. Let cure overnight.

Now begin to worry about how to attach the end rails because the 4' pipes used so far aren't long enough to accommodate a 4' long tabletop.

Brain fart! Use what you already have. Don't worry about spending the money to invest in 5' long pipes. Use connectors to "extend" the length of the 4' pipes! DAMN, this might just work!

Well, I did have to invest in two 1/2" pipes 60" long for my smaller clamps. The grips weren't long enough to allow a connector contraption similar to the 3/4" pipes. Oh, well.

Set up:

Thought I might be able to do both ends at once, but the weight of the tabletop was just too much.

One end at a time. Let it cure overnight. Patience, patience, patience.

Now, the other end. Pull it in slowly using equal pressure on all of the clamps.

Both ends - DONE!

Pieces and parts no longer pieces and parts.

Next up - starting to work on the pedestals.

Coming together?

Well, after I don't know how many fits and starts, snags and snafus, ups and downs, and a whole lot of frustration, I can honestly say the pieces and parts are actually starting to look like some kind of a tabletop.

In order to get the right dimensions, things had to be laid out - sort of. The end and side pieces are, of course, still too long, but this photo at least gives an idea of what it should look like when glued up - hopefully.

Now a decision needs to be made - do I just go ahead and fill the gap with another juniper piece the way it is and leave it offset (one cottonwood slab is wider than the other). Or, do I glue-up the cottonwood slabs and then cut the one slab right down the middle to get two identical sized slabs on either side of the center piece? One way or the other, this is a necessary step in order to get the desired width of the tabletop of 36". Otherwise, the cottonwood slabs would have just been glued together and used for the center piece which would have left the width about 5-6" too short.

After much deliberation, contemplation, meditation, and soul-searching, my linear side won out - glue them up and cut right down the middle.

After all the pieces and parts are kind of cut to length, it's time to see if the dimensions are even close to being what they need to be. Width - not quite 36" wide, but close enough since this measurement was taken at the narrowest point of the natural edge.

Length - well, doggone it! It's a little longer than 48", but that's ok, too, since additional sanding and trimming will bring it closer when finished.

This is what it looks like with the juniper piece down the middle and two equal size cottonwood slabs on each side. All the pieces and parts numbered (gotta remember which pieces go to what parts, don'tcha know) and getting closer to glue-up.

Dang! It really IS starting to look like a tabletop. Now the sanding, trimming, grinding, and sawdust making begins in earnest!

Still have the pedestals to work on, and am thinking that might be something to do while waiting for the glue to dry once I get started on glue-up.

Pieces and Parts

Well, as stated in an earlier post, the walnut didn't work, but I'd still like to see some contrast. The only thing available right now is juniper - need lots of juniper.

Going on down that juniper road, though, isn't gonna be easy. These trees grow in some of the weirdest ways imaginable. Most taper from larger at the base to very skinny at the top making it very hard to find a consistent width that can be used.

A few years ago, a local fella said I could harvest some of his juniper that had died in a forest fire. Another friend in Bailey said the same thing. The result was a pile of stuff that may or may not be usable for this project. As with any kind of wood, the proof will be in the pudding once the chainsaw is used to discover what's inside, especially since this wood was charred badly in some cases (won't know how deep the charring is until it's gotten into).

Rough stuff that might work:

Need four "rails" for the outside of the table top (on the right side in the photo below). Looks like they're solid. The two on the left are going to be the pedestals.

Did I mention previously that my chainsaw skills pretty much suck when it comes to slabbing (still waiting for someone out there to buy me a sawmill).

Okay, these slabs vary from 4" to 7" thick in spots. That's why I say my chainsaw slabbing skills suck. Don't worry - I don't plan on EVER taking up chainsaw carving anyway!

The pedestals were a whole lot easier to cut to heights of 30". Eventually, they'll be at 27" to 28" high, and the table top will come in at somewhere between 29" and 30" high when mounted to the pedestals.

Time to set up the router planer and get to work shaving down the rails to a thickness of 2 1/2" to match the cottonwood slabs.

Lesson learned - the really long rails I've been using for planing these rails (and other sundry stuff) have way too much drag and cause way too many backaches. Luckily, I have a few spare doors that can be used as a sled of sorts (see photo above). The lengths of the rails are more than four feet. The router planer rails I decided to use are only four feet long. With the sled idea - problem solved! All I need do is secure the piece to the sled (door) using scrap blocks screwed into the door itself to prevent slippage in any direction, adjust the height of the rails, and BAM! Ready to go. When the router sled can't move any further, all that's needed is to slide the door (sled) down a ways, and continue planing to the end of the slab. Once the end is reached, start over from the other end by sliding the door (sled) back in the other direction. MUCH easier on the back, and MUCH easier to control!

After what seemed like an inordinately LONG time, all the slabs are milled down to matching thickness - well almost matching. There's still going to need to be some fine-tuning once glue-up is done, but pretty close is pretty good as far as I'm concerned at this point.

Now each slab has to have one straight edge in order to joint them and make sure there's one live edge for that good old "rustic" look.

This is one of those times I'm not sure I want to even try to do a straight edge on the tablesaw. So, the brand new circular saw will have to do. A straight edge guide will hopefully give me enough stability to be able to not mess this up too much as I cut.

The first time through I didn't adjust the depth - thought the circular saw could handle this depth of cut, but it couldn't. I went sidewise three cuts in before I realized I was going to have to make multiple cuts in order to get an almost perfect straight edge.

All told, I'd guess it took about 15 hours from looking for the right pieces to get to this stage.

Next up - fitting the pieces and parts together so it kind of sort of looks like a tabletop of sorts.

Convince me......Somebody, PLEASE convince me.......

That I'm making some progress, that is.

Some days seem to go better than others. Regardless, it almost always seems like the end isn't even close to being near for this conference table.

Every time I think things are finally coming together, something else happens to let me know it ain't over till the fat lady sings!

Got the cottonwood slabs planed down to size, and realized (after measuring, of course) they aren't going to be the desired 4' x 3' dimensions.

Maybe run a "spacer" piece of some other kind of wood right down the center? Sounds good, but how does it look? That's a 3/4" plank of mahogany in between. Certainly not big enough! Leaning toward making some juniper planks instead of this. At least I can make them the width I need to fill the space.

If juniper works for the spacer, how might walnut look along with it - at least for the end pieces? Those two pieces are certainly long enough to cover the ends, but contrast from the side rails just won't look good made from juniper (red on brown).

Better start looking for some juniper off the woodpile to see if there's anything that might work.

Convince me......PLEASE, someone! Anyone! PLEASE convince me I'm making some progress here!

Gettin' back in the saddle again......

Awhile back, I had a "run in" with my table saw. Needless to say, I lost that one!

17 stitches inside and out, and I was lucky the blade of the saw didn't take half my hand with it.

Anyway, this is what it looks like as of today. Healed up nicely, but still numb from the nail on up to the tip. Time to get back in the saddle and make a cut on that durn burn tablesaw.

Not as easy as I thought it would be. Been dreading this since the accident. Seems like every time the door to the shop gets opened, that saw is right there staring at me, teeth on the blade smiling in about as evil a "I dare ya - go ahead, I double dog dare ya" look as anything I've ever seen before.

Does the word "cringe" mean anything at all to anyone but me? Even with the blade guard on, the fear, the anxiety, the trepidation - they're all there no matter how hard I try to convince myself they aren't. No matter how hard I try to convince myself I've taken every safety precaution I possibly can, the feeling I can't even describe when my thumb hit that blade comes to mind.

Well, DAMN! It's either do it or sell the damn saw!

Set the blade to height. Set the fence to width. Hook up the shopvac for dust collection. Set the outfeed roller to height. Eye protection? Check. Ear protection? Check. Dust mask on? Check. Gloves OFF! Damn straight!

Double check everything. Triple check everything. Should I check it one more time? DAMN! Now I'm just being paranoid.

Turn on the shopvac. Take a deep breath, line up the slab with the fence. Keep it tight. Turn on the saw.

Even knowing what it sounds like, it still startles. Push the slab very, very slowly into the blade. The guard backs up and raises to the height of the slab thickness. I can't see the blade through the plastic of the guard. Doesn't make me feel any better, though.

Keep on pushing the slab. Make sure it stays tight against the fence. Keep hands AWAY from the blade even thought the guard is there to prevent me from doing something stupid again.

The slab hits an obstacle and stops. Oh, yeah - it's the outfeed roller. Push the slab a little harder and it rides up and over and keeps on going as I push it. Finally, the slab is all the way through without me having an accident. Phew!

Turn the slab over. Readjust the fence to take a kerf width off the blade side of the slab. Take another deep breath and repeat the entire procedure.

Still have all my digits.

Now I can leave the tablesaw alone until the next slab is ready.