Thread: Hall Table a Pressie -WIP

I have the bulk of the "table runner glued up

This is actually the second time I have glued up the runner as the first attempt some of the tile strips lifted on the ends overnight so I went back to square one.
This attempt is a bit dissapointing also as the runner has warped both across the board and down the length .

Across the width there is about 1.5-2mm and about 3mm over the length .
What bugs me most is the separation between some of the tiles .

The biggest gap is about 0.5mm.They bug me . Gaps on something like WW's cross banded moulding , when filled , would blend in I would have thought but here I think they would stand out like the proverbial DB's and say that I could'nt be bothered .

Any suggestion as to how I could correct the warps by application of heat/water gratefully recieved .
Should I tile/veneer the underside ?
Should I just plane out the warp ?
Should I start again and pick a day when the humidity is "average" , not that I know what the humidity was on the day I glued the tiles.

Looking forward to some advice.

I can imagine your frustration! I normally veneer in "average" weather – as you suggest. I also veneer on timber such that the natural shrinkage will cancel the pull of the veneer. Occasionally, I will intentionally warp the ground and then veneer it in anticipation of the veneer's pull.

There are no hard and fast rules for these steps, just experience. I had to undergo further learning when I first moved to Australia. It took me a year or so to adapt to the highly variable Melbourne climatic changes. Even then, there have been a few extreme weather events here that gave me cause for concern, but nothing that couldn't be remedied with judicial applications of size.

Planing/thicknessing is not gonna leave u much thickness of veneer at the ends, altho nothing ventured nothing gained.
If I were having these probs I might try a few things like veneer both sides, the unseen side only needs to be something that's um unseen
or like WW says pull a curve in the substrate before veneering (this should help with gaps)
either dampen the veneered side to expand it into a curve or mechanically (clamps)
may have to do both dampen then clamp to bench or something ridgid with the curve in then allow to dry
maybe use some good quality multiplyboard as the substrate
substrate with a higher moisture content than the tiles say 12 to 14 % and/or have the tiles very dry 6% (at a guess this will help with gaps)
I think u were using horse sauce, I'm not sure how this goes as far as the tiles sucking up moisture from the glue and expanding but maybe here u could use a non moisture type glue epoxy or such
just a few thoughts, hope something works out for u cos it is frustrating to put all that work in and have it turn out no good, let us know how u go


Pete

FWIW Ive been taught that what you do to one side of a board you must do to the other side to prevent what happned to your runner.
Now i don't think i would do all the tiles like on the top but would put a slice of the same stuff on the bottom side. ( same thickness & width &length.)
Just my humble opinon.
Rich.

I have decided to start again (3rd time) but this time I will use West system epoxy and tile the underside of the top as well .Last time I cut individual tiles and glued them with horse sauce into strips of 4 tiles . To save time , I cut a length of square section into four, book matched them and glued them together .
Made a sled to run on the BS


Cut strips



and then glued the strips ( tacked them with hot melt glue)to make the runner.



I now have the runner ready to finish







And no shrinkage gaps between the tiles and no bowing.

That is going to generate a few blisters with the end grain wood being saturated with epoxy .

Well done! That should hold the blighters down.

I was wondering what was happening

that looks very nice

it's great that you are persevering

That a great result. Getting over one hurdle at a time.

Good going with the tiles,
I was looking at your sled u made up to cut the slices and specifically the depth stop, I'd be worried I would forget the clamp in a moment of brain failure and try and cut thru the clamp bar, I like to use a magnetic block on the table as a depth stop in those instances.


Pete

Originally Posted by pjt

Good going with the tiles,
I was looking at your sled u made up to cut the slices and specifically the depth stop, I'd be worried I would forget the clamp in a moment of brain failure and try and cut thru the clamp bar, I like to use a magnetic block on the table as a depth stop in those instances.


Pete

Everytime I reset the stock I said to myself " Peter don't forget to take off the clamp"
The magnet is a good idea as that could be left in place until all the tiles are cut . I have a magnetic base so I will rig up an adistable stop on that next time .

I believe I have crested the hill with the runner section of the table glued together.



I used horse sauce to glue the border and the wenge strips as this was a lot quicker .



Just need to do a bit of filling with 5 Min aradite where the wenge tore a bit and finish sanding which is hard work with the wood saturated with epoxy.
My original intention was to bleach the runner as I was hoping to have a whitish look . The ash when bleached was quite pale with the harder sections darker but applying a finish changed things .Decided to do three samples and apply sealing sander and one coat of WOP to each .



No bleach on this sample




One application of bleach




2 application of bleach

The LOML favours not using any bleach and I am inclined to agree but I would appreciate comments about this .

So now to finish the table top and at last get onto the rest of the table .

a la naturale

Peter, that's looking spectacular!

I'm for the unbleached tiles. You get the subtlety of the darker diamonds,that are lost with the bleached samples.

cheers,
B-D.

Un-bleached. Very nicely done!