Christmas Dining Table

[Tpt life]

In the absence of the advice already offered, I would not have considered jointing the end grain. I’d have profiled the breadboard to match. 

[Chestnut]

15 hours ago, Chet said:

Strait edge and a long pattern bit in your router or some thin stock ripped and planned as a template with your router.

 

15 hours ago, ..Kev said:

This is a solid idea as well!  Either way, you'd loose a smidge of length.

I've tried this a few times and didn't have the best luck with it. I will try it again if i can't resolve it with the track saw method that Kev posted.

 

3 hours ago, wdwerker said:

Even when cutting with a quality tracksaw you need a steady stance and even pressure. Stumble over a cord band the saw will jiggle just enough to affect the cut. Shift pressure on the handle to reach further and that can show in the cut too. Practice the cut without the saw running and eliminate obstacles, hose/cord snags etc. I also practice the cut by cutting a 1/2" too long which removes any deflection from the offcut piece.

So the track is defiantly bent.... how in the world would that even happen the amount of beam strength on  that width of aluminum is not something to sneeze at. It'd take more than a knock to do this. This is over a 50" strait edge though the bend looks more like a kink than an even uniform bend.

[wdwerker]

That's why my tracks live in their boxes standing in a protected corner of the shop and get treated like they were made of glass. $330 for an 11' straightedge is brutal but worth it when you need a very long glue joint. It joins with my 75" track and a 6 ft level is used to make sure the joint is straight.

[..Kev]

35 minutes ago, wdwerker said:

That's why my tracks live in their boxes standing in a protected corner of the shop and get treated like they were made of glass. $330 for an 11' straightedge is brutal but worth it when you need a very long glue joint. It joins with my 75" track and a 6 ft level is used to make sure the joint is straight.

Currently, mine hang from their screw hole in an out of the way place so they can't get damaged.  I may have to find a new solution for the long one in the new shop.

[wdwerker]

High ceilings are a mixed blessing. I can stand an 8' tall Bookcase up on my assembly table and lean 16' boards against a wall but all the heat goes up there first. Sucks when you are paying for that heat, better come summertime. 

[Chestnut]

Mine hang on a screw behind my mitersaw so that nothing can get to them. I'm going to blame it on my 400 mile move and 2 months they spent in storage. Never know what may have happened. It's only off by about 1/64th over the length so it's not awful but for critical work like this it shows up.

I found a solution and it's probably not advisable but it worked.

Realized i had nearly 70" above my jointer.... I glued on a block on the trailing endgrain to support the fibers and it worked really well gap is closed.

2 minutes ago, wdwerker said:

High ceilings are a mixed blessing. I can stand an 8' tall Bookcase up on my assembly table and lean 16' boards against a wall but all the heat goes up there first. Sucks when you are paying for that heat, better come summertime. 

Put dust ports down low and your filter stack way up high.... air mixing at it's best. I suppose it's counter productive most of the year for you though.

[bleedinblue]

Holy smokes...jointing end grain, and on a huge piece like that?  All I can say is I'm glad it worked!  

[Isaac]

2 hours ago, wdwerker said:

High ceilings are a mixed blessing. I can stand an 8' tall Bookcase up on my assembly table and lean 16' boards against a wall but all the heat goes up there first. Sucks when you are paying for that heat, better come summertime. 

What type of heating do you have? sounds like a circulating fan of some type, to drive that warm air down, would be helpful. 

[Isaac]

2 hours ago, Chestnut said:

Mine hang on a screw behind my mitersaw so that nothing can get to them. I'm going to blame it on my 400 mile move and 2 months they spent in storage. Never know what may have happened. It's only off by about 1/64th over the length so it's not awful but for critical work like this it shows up.

I found a solution and it's probably not advisable but it worked.

Realized i had nearly 70" above my jointer.... I glued on a block on the trailing endgrain to support the fibers and it worked really well gap is closed.

Put dust ports down low and your filter stack way up high.... air mixing at it's best. I suppose it's counter productive most of the year for you though.

Glad it worked, but this seems really dangerous. 

[wdwerker]

I've got a 12" duct w a duct booster fan & thermostat but it stirs up dust when I'm spraying so it doesn't get used much.

[Brendon_t]

Dude way the F to go. That takes balls when everyone and their mom says not to do it. I personally don't see the problem. It's a one off cut that you don't do often but you have the jointer, I'd have used it too.

Jointing by track saw was my preferred method when I needed two glue faces on a 9" counter.  Figured even if the saw was funky, it was evenly funky and the Domino's would keep it from slipping.

[Isaac]

6 minutes ago, Brendon_t said:

Dude way the F to go. That takes balls when everyone and their mom says not to do it. I personally don't see the problem. It's a one off cut that you don't do often but you have the jointer, I'd have used it too.

There is a reason people tell you not to do it. Mark even did a video on it awhile back, I believe. I think it is both dangerous and prone to damaging the work piece, though you are right, nut pulled it off here.

[bleedinblue]

Marc's mishap was done with straight knives, I bet helical head and backing up the cut made a big difference.

My luck, had I tried this I still would have screwed it up tho. 

[Brendon_t]

2 minutes ago, Isaac said:

There is a reason people tell you not to do it. Mark even did a video on it awhile back, I believe. I think it is both dangerous and prone to damaging the work piece, though you are right, nut pulled it off here.

While I do agree it is not something that should be common place, there's a time, and a place.  Everything we do in the shop are calculated risks. Lots of akward handshakes made on the table saw every year.. we still use them. He knew his and his machines capabilities. Weighed the odds, and made a call. He nailed it.  Feel free to link the video, I've never seen it.

[bleedinblue]

8 minutes ago, Brendon_t said:

While I do agree it is not something that should be common place, there's a time, and a place.  Everything we do in the shop are calculated risks. Lots of akward handshakes made on the table saw every year.. we still use them. He knew his and his machines capabilities. Weighed the odds, and made a call. He nailed it.  Feel free to link the video, I've never seen it.

It was not recorded, he just talked about it in a safety related video. 

[Chestnut]

@Brendon_t @Isaac Yeah so all of the Don't joint end grain stuff I've read and watched over the years popped into my head. All of those were jointing a 6" of end grain on a board that was like 24" long which has support issues. The top is 58x40 and i glued 6" board behind it for both blow out protection. Blue is right i do have a HH so that was another thing i thought about. The final thing is the top weighs like 75 lbs there is no way a 2hp jointer set for a 1/128th cut is going to be able to grab and throw that much weight.

I did some test passes with the jointer off and it felt stable and feasible so i set the cut depth for as little as possible and went for it taking things slow and steady. I had no issues. I firmly suggest to never do this though.

I went this way for 2 reasons I'm not just matching 1 bread board to the end i have to do it 3 times per end. 1 for the bread board and once for each side of the extension. It all started to get complicated and add up and this took me 2 min. I've ruined too many parts with the strait edge trick. It's actually that trick that motivated me so much to get the PJ882 or bust.

[drzaius]

4 hours ago, Chestnut said:

I found a solution and it's probably not advisable but it worked.

If you were a real man, you'd have followed @wtnhighlander 's lead &  turned that jointer upside down to run it across the end of the board 

[Isaac]

I won't beat that horse anymore, but just one last question, are you saying you have to do this several more times for similar conditions on the table top?

[Chestnut]

32 minutes ago, Isaac said:

I won't beat that horse anymore, but just one last question, are you saying you have to do this several more times for similar conditions on the table top?

Just regular jointing for the other parts.

Not sure if you saw Chets build that gave me this diea but this will allow it to make sense.

Regular BB end

Pull it open.

Drop in an extension leaf.

All the remainder of the jointing will be edges.

2 hours ago, drzaius said:

If you were a real man, you'd have followed @wtnhighlander 's lead &  turned that jointer upside down to run it across the end of the board 

I don't think I'll ever be a real man if that's the measuring stick.

[Brendon_t]

Totally agree on all parts.  

[Jfitz]

Wow.  gutsy jointing!!   

Love the design for the extension breadboard end. 

[Chestnut]

So i think i figured out a good way to get the top mounted to the legs. I wanted the table attachment point to be directly over the legs or as close to as possible. The rails that the drawers slides are mounted on do not offer much strength and if i did any mounting there my concern would be that wood movement would mess with the function of the table. Which i didn't really want. My base is super light so the screws aren't needing to hold a lot of weight to move the table.

Here is my solution. I made some blocks that were shaped to blend in.

I was about to grab the forstner bit to attach some figure 8 fasteners to the block and realized that it was going to be a PITA to drill on these small guys with a forstner bit so i opted for a different method. Over to the band saw i set the fence to take a cut that would give me a notch the perfect thickness.

A wack with a chisel and i had a perfect step for the figure 8 fastener. Now i don't need to clean up a circle to allow for some additional movement.

Securing the blocks was easy. I clamped them to the rail and then predrilled some holes for a couple #8 screw. I didn't have a ton of faith that the screws would be enough so i glued the block as well. When the table needs to be taken apart this part will go with the top drawer slide extension assembly. Taking the table apart will be as simple as removing 4 blots, one from each leg and lifting the top off.

I really like this whole knockdown design. If for some reason i needed to store the table i could fit the whole thing in a bedroom closet and not even need to remove the hanging cloths.

[Chestnut]

@Chet Did you apply finish to your top will all parts assembled on the base or did you do each part separately? I'd like to get the base out of my shop so i don't damage it. Every day is in here is another day i could drop something on it.

[Chet]

I finished everything in parts, base separate from top and the leafs.  Mine is pretty heavy, I couldn't imagine trying to muscle it around for finishing fully assembled. 

[Chestnut]

Just now, Chet said:

I finished everything in parts, base separate from top and the leafs.  Mine is pretty heavy, I couldn't imagine trying to muscle it around for finishing fully assembled. 

I finished the base while i was working on the top and than the few Christmas gifts that got in the way. I'm starting finish on the top parts now. I have the non extended table top that will be the 1 piece that i finish as a completed part just because it's easier to do it that way than separated

Thanks again for all your help and input. Your help and ideas helped tremendously. I know you got the idea from someone else but if it wasn't for your post i'd have never found it.