Table Splitting

[treevesd]

Hello everyone. First post so bear with me here.

I just built an Oak Kitchen Table with a leaf in the middle. My problem is that the table top where I glued two pieces of the Oak together split before I could finish the staining. The table is finished in the respect of I have all the legs set, the lip on the bottom of the table. The runners for the table to slide from, ect. In fact I thought it looked pretty good. It has been taking me a while to get the table finished because of other things going on and I not being able to work on it everyday.

The table is 40" X 40" w/o the leaf. I have two 10" pc glued together and held with dowls for each 20" pc. One my 20" sets split right down the glue joint.

My thought process is to remove the stain I have on there, reapply the glue and try to squeeze the two pc's back together.

So the question is, is this OK or is there a better way to fix the table without having to get some more wood and then making a new top. I would really hate to have to make a new top.

Thanks for your input,

Tommy

[DPB]

Welcome to the forum, Treevo.<O</O

I think you need to discover why the top split in the first place. Attempting a remedy by simply re-gluing probably won't work. Until you remove the cause of the splitting, I expect that your efforts will be in vain.

A few possibilities are:<O</O

• • the timber had not acclimatised to your conditions. For example, if it had a high moisture content and was constructed in an unheated garage, then moved into your house which is heated - the timber contracted as it dried out.<O</O
  • you may have attached the top to the skirts in a manner that did not allow for any movement. As the timber moves to acclimatise, it is 'trapped' by your attachment method, and splits.<O</O
  • Or, you may have squeezed the joints so tight with clamps that you squeezed the glue out of the joint. Perhaps it did not split, it just didn't bond.<O</O

Assuming you determine the cause, then you may be able to clean up the joint and re-glue. However, depending on the glue used, it may not be possible to remove it. Yes, you can clean if from the surface of the joint, but depending on how it has soaked into the grain, it can form a barrier against successful re-gluing.


It may be a better investment in your time to replace the two halves of the joint with fresh timber.<O</O

[treevesd]

Thanks for the info. I will look into the cause and see what happened. At least I have a place to start.


Tommy

[Wood Borer]

DPB's advice sounds 100% spot on to me.