WIP ... New Table Top

**John Samuel** · 29th December 2014, 09:50 AM

In 2002 I built my first large piece, a 1550 X 1550 mm table for our dining room.

Sadly, as a novice I knew zip about wood movement, and I buggered it up. The top was made from solid quarter cut Vic Ash, cut to make a diamond pattern radiating from the centre and stained to match the rest of the furniture in the room and finished with hand polished acid cured lacquer to a mirror finish. It was beautiful ... for a while.

So far, so good ... but then I put a solid timber border around the table, failing to allow for wood movement. Acid cured lacquer is brittle, and it cracked near the corners where the diamond pattern met the border timbers as the wood moved a tad. The miracle is that this is all the damage there was. Given it's size, and given that the top was screwed directly to the frame in a gazillion places, it was a minor miracle that I did not get major buckling or splitting. I suppose being quarter cut helped.

Now it is time to replace the top. I have decided to replace all the furniture in my house once I retire, piece by piece, so I wanted something simple, inexpensive and pretty that would do the job before I replaced it. Had a lump of Dillenia (very similar to reddish Silky Oak but more dense) measuring 80 X 250 X 1800 and some left over NG Rosewood. I cut this timber into 2.5 mm veneers. The Dillenia is for the top, and the Rosewood is for the balancing veneer underneath.

Here is a shot of the table (sans top) along with a shot of the cut veneers and a close up of the grain.

IMAG0707[1].jpg

IMAG0703[1].jpg

IMAG0705[1].jpg

The colours look all over the place, but this is a function of using a phone instead of a proper camera. The Dillenia is reddish, not golden as it looks in the flash pic. Once it is finished I'll take a shot with a proper camera and a bounce flash.

**John Samuel** · 30th December 2014, 01:48 PM

Here is a shot of the old top ... complete with cracking along the border.

Instructions 1.png
Instructions 2.jpg

**Christos** · 8th January 2015, 07:00 AM

Worth reading the dialogue for you work in progress.

**John Samuel** · 8th January 2015, 09:42 AM

Made half the top on Tuesday and the other half yesterday. Made a new vacuum press that can take a 1800 X 1200 panel. It works a treat. The half made yesterday was left in the vacuum press overnight because PVA glue was used. Here it is.

IMAG0709[1].jpg

Hope to get the two halves joined today, as I am away for a month starting Saturday. Luckily I have a 1500 X 1500 barbie table (made of ply) Her Indoors can use whilst I am away.

**John Samuel** · 23rd February 2015, 01:56 PM

Got the table top together and sanded off. All that remains is to rout the edge to match the other furniture in the dining room. I am using a raised panel bit.

Set up the router with the appropriate bit and bearing and luckily decided to test the cut on a piece of scrap. Disaster followed. The bearing came off the router bit and made a bit of a mess. In the pic below, I have reassembled the bearing. The black insert is a push fit, and the bearing came off the black insert, which remained screwed to the bit.

Bearing.jpg

Anyone have any experience to guide me here, or should I throw the bearing away? Inclined to toss it rather than risk destroying such a big job.

**Enfield Guy** · 23rd February 2015, 02:45 PM

Just get a new bearing.. Not worth the risk..

Cheers

**specialist** · 23rd February 2015, 07:44 PM

There is normally a nut or cap screw with a washer to hold the bearing on. I find it hard to believe that it would rely on just a friction fit for the bearing considering the speeds that it runs at.

**John Samuel** · 23rd February 2015, 10:06 PM

Specialist,

I am as surprised as you are.

**specialist** · 23rd February 2015, 11:08 PM

could you post a picture of the router bit? Maybe there should be a washer that is missing?

**John Samuel** · 27th February 2015, 05:26 PM

No,

The nut and washer are there. But the washer is smaller than the black insert, which turns out to be a push fit into the remainder of the bearing.

**specialist** · 27th February 2015, 07:09 PM

Get a washer that is bigger than the inner race of the bearing and all should be good.

**pjt** · 1st March 2015, 10:30 PM

Hi John,
Specialist is onto it, a larger OD washer will fix it, has to be big enough to at least capture the inner race, a nut and bolt supply shop should have something, take all the bits with you so they can see how big it needs to be.
If the bearing itself rotates without feeling clunky it should be ok.

Pete

**John Samuel** · 2nd March 2015, 03:01 PM

Thanks guys.

I'll try that. In the meantime I fastened a fence to the table top and did the routing against the fence. Worked fine.

Now putting sanding sealer on the top. Hopefully, lacquer tomorrow.

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