Thread: Help a dummy fix an old table

Welcome Tony
I'd like to get up your way some day and check out the air museum.

It’s not tongue and groove. They have used biscuits to help align the top planks. How is the top fastened to the aprons (side panels)? I would take the top off, separate the two halves (if it comes apart reasonably easily without damage), clean the joints, glue and clamp from the sides and top to keep it reasonably flat.
I know you don’t have any gear but you can’t do this with out some clamps. Cheap pipe clamps (eBay) and pipe (19mm or 3/4” from Bunnings) or T bar sash clamps from Bunnings would work across the sides and some Irwin ratchet clamps and lengths of wood from Bunnings would do to clamp it flat

See picture

F3D7BACF-CC1C-400E-9A81-07D5B370E92D.jpeg

When finishing, coat both sides.

I am no expert either, but want to explore a thought I have.
can you give a time line of events.
did the top split before you started sanding? or vice versa,
how long have you had used this table?

I suspect and please, forgive me if Iam wrong, but I suspect you have either owned or recently purchased table in used condition and thought it could do with some restoring, and started sanding, the top has become open to the elements and moisture has attacked, causing the spliting.

when doing what Lappa has suggested please please when painting/sealing/whatever to the top do the same underside of the table. Otherwise its like putting a jacket on one side of your body but not the other side, as in one side open to elements other side well protected.

Dont ask me how I know this last bit of info.

Wood changes dimensions with changes in moisture content, and a well designed table will have the top attachments arranged so they can cope with a reasonable range of movement as the top expands and contracts. This is normally achieved by using fixing hardware that doesn't rigidly fix the frame and the top, such as directly screwing through the aprons into the underneath of the top. Common attachment options include figure 8 tabs where one end is crewed into the top of the apron and the other end is screwed into the underneath of the top. This allows the tab to rotate slightly to accommodate changes in top width due to expansion and contraction. Another option is to use offset tabs attached under the table top with projections into recesses in the inner face of the aprons, again allowing the top to move relative to the frame as it expands or contracts.

From your pics, it appears that your table has spent a lot of time outside, destroying whatever protection it originally had, and then causing a fair degree of shrinkage and warping to the top. It is common for timber to warp and bow if there is a difference in moisture content between the faces of the timber, e.g. the top is exposed to heat and sun and dries out while the underneath is kept out of direct sun and is somewhat cooler and less prone to having it's moisture evaporate. It is considered normal when making cabinets and tables to have similar coatings on the exposed side and non exposed side of panels and sealing edges etc to either limit moisture transfer significantly or at least ensure that similar transfer rates apply to all surfaces.

With regard to repairing the top, it was probably made specifically for interior use with interior grade adhesives, rather than weatherproof ones. Interior grade adhesives frequently fail if exposed to moisture and significant UV radiation, so it may be possible that you would need to separate all of the joints in the top, clean them up and reglue the entire top. Simply attempting to repair the obviously failed joint may simply transfer the issue to the next weakest joint, until they have all failed and been repaired. From the pics posted, at least one of the boards at the failed joint has twisted and it will probably be beyond basic beginner level skills to get that to smoothly abut the board on the other side of the failed glueline.

depending on how in love with the table you are.

grab a tub of this:
Poly 450g Exterior Timber Filler - Bunnings Australia

slap it in the gap.
grab some 80 grit sand paper and try and sand as much of the hump out as your arms will let you
sand the whole table with 120 grit sand paper
sand it with 240grit paper if you really want to go there
coat it with an exterior grade polyurethane coating

call the hump a "rustic feature" and move on

Buy a couple of those two part epoxy glue syringes from bunnings and work into the gap once mixed thoroughly. Pull the two sides together with some racket straps run around the whole table top. Wipe off the glue that comes out and sand the whole thing after 24 hours.

Sent from my SM-A115F using Tapatalk

Thank you all for your advice. This is just the level (and range) of advice I was after.

Answering a few questions below.

Originally Posted by Tonyz

can you give a time line of events.
did the top split before you started sanding? or vice versa,
how long have you had used this table?

I suspect and please, forgive me if Iam wrong, but I suspect you have either owned or recently purchased table in used condition and thought it could do with some restoring, and started sanding, the top has become open to the elements and moisture has attacked, causing the spliting.

when doing what Lappa has suggested please please when painting/sealing/whatever to the top do the same underside of the table. Otherwise its like putting a jacket on one side of your body but not the other side, as in one side open to elements other side well protected.

Its a table we have owned for many years and has sat outside for many years. It split before I sanded it.

when doing what Lappa has suggested please please when painting/sealing/whatever to the top do the same underside of the table. Otherwise its like putting a jacket on one side of your body but not the other side, as in one side open to elements other side well protected.

Ah thanks for the tip. As this table has weathered over the years I have sanded and applied protection to the top a couple of times, but never the bottom.

Originally Posted by malb

Wood changes dimensions with changes in moisture content, and a well designed table will have the top attachments arranged so they can cope with a reasonable range of movement as the top expands and contracts. This is normally achieved by using fixing hardware that doesn't rigidly fix the frame and the top, such as directly screwing through the aprons into the underneath of the top.

Yes that is exactly how this table is built (screws direct from the apron to the top). The legs of the table (one leg at least) has become a loose. I speculated (based on no knowledge of wood work whatsoever) that maybe the legs bowed inwards "pulling" the table surface apart via the screws underneath. But it's probably the moisture thing you've all talked about.

so it may be possible that you would need to separate all of the joints in the top, clean them up and reglue the entire top. Simply attempting to repair the obviously failed joint may simply transfer the issue to the next weakest joint, until they have all failed and been repaired. From the pics posted, at least one of the boards at the failed joint has twisted and it will probably be beyond basic beginner level skills to get that to smoothly abut the board on the other side of the failed glueline.

I've unscrewed the tabletop from the table, so I can now work with the top separately. My plan is to drill some metal stays to the legs, to fix the loose legs, then deal with the top. The metal stays kinda spoil the "pure woodwork" look of the table (even though there are screws hidden underneath). But its pretty subtle, and at my level of skill (and care) its "good enough".

Originally Posted by havabeer69

depending on how in love with the table you are.

grab a tub of this:
Poly 450g Exterior Timber Filler - Bunnings Australia

slap it in the gap.

call the hump a "rustic feature" and move on

That sounds like the right advice for my level of "non-handyman-ness". If I'd read that first I probably would have done exactly this. But now that I've unscrewed to table from the top, I'm going to borrow some clamps from my father-in-law and try a more complex fix. It will either go great, or I'll learn a painful lesson. You might hear from me again if it all ends in tears.

Assuming you are intending on gluing the 2 halves back together make sure you sand the 2 mating surfaces well getting back to clean timber so the glue gets good adherence. Use exterior glue too.

Before.jpgAfter.jpg

Before and After attached (not sure why its turned the after upside down). Pretty basic for alot of veterans of this forum I'm sure. But as my first attempt at restoring anything I'm happy.

Thanks all for your help.

Tony

That's a lovely restoration! With the screws through the apron into the top - are the screw holes in the apron oversized for the screws or a tight fit all the way through?

A great rescue and restoration of beautiful lumber.

I wouldn't call it a tight fit, but not oversized either, they go in fairly easily.

That's on one "half" of the tabletop. One I prepped and glued the smaller half of the tabletop back to larger half, the screws on the smaller half no longer lined up with the old screw holes. So I drilled new (undersized) holes (in both apron and tabletop) and screwed them in. So the holes on that smaller half of the tabletop/apron are a tighter fit than the original holes I'm using for the larger half.

Sorry for the awkward sentence I don't know woodworking terminology.

I was asking because there is your question at the start of why the split happened in the first place. One thing will be if it was exposed to the weather and the glue used wasn't waterproof, it'll be a matter of time before the glue fails. In your case, this does appear to be the case as you could see the biscuits used when laminating the top together.

Wood will move at 90 degrees to the grain direction. If you look at your top, the grain is running along the long lengths of the table, so the movement is going to be mostly along the shorter width of the table. If the screws going through the apron are rigidly fixing the top to the apron, the top is pinned down on all sides and can't move, so eventually it will either crack or (maybe fortunately in this case) the glue will be weakened enough by the elements that it gives way (mind you, if the glue gets weak enough it would lose it's holding power even without wood movement).

The solution is fortunately not difficult, you could use z-clips, figure 8 clips, or turnbuttons to attach the top to the apron. Another solution is to use a screw and a washer. Drill out the diameter of the washer to a depth you can recess it into the apron along with the screw head, then drill the screw hole through the apron large enough that you have a few mm clearenace to either side of the screw shank. Only washer should be pressing against the apron. This oversized hole should only be in the apron, screw into the top should be tight. Effectively if the top shrinks or expands, the screw and washer will move with the top, so you'll avoid your top cracking or cupping. Screw and washer would probably be your go to since you've already got the screw holes - but the limitation will be your apron thickness. You can have the centremost screws on the short aprons screwed down tight without ill effect as you'll want that part to be 'anchored' and your expansion/contraction happen to either side.

Hopefully this wall of text makes sense! I should draw a picture...