how to “raise” over and unevenly sanded solid oak antique table leaves so now they are 1/8" below table frame and uneven

[jil]

I used a belt sander for the first time and took off way!!! too much wood from 2 white oak table leaves.  They still fit in the table frame but are unevenly sanded and 1/8” below the frame!  Since the original leaves are wide (36”) with hand-made tongues and groves that fit into the table frame, I do NOT want to replace them.  I would like to raise and level the surface with a product that will allow the natural wood to be seen.  I‘d like recommendations for a polyurethane or other product that’s easy to work with and will do the job.  It can take a few days to dry as I have a protected area where they can dry.  

I’d also like recommendations on the best way to protect the tongues and grooves (both on the leaves and on the table frame, so whatever product doesn’t gum or guck them up.

Thank you and Happy New Year blessings!

JJ

[Von]

Hi JJ and welcome to the forum. Yeah, I've been there - belt sanders can easily take off too much, a random orbital sander is usually a better choice unless your intent is to remove material.

To your question, I don't think you want to try to make up 1/8" with finish as that would be a lot of finish. A bartop poly would be the only thing I can think of that would come close. If the leaves sit on the frame, could you put shims of some sort on the bottom, between the leaves and the frame, to bring them up to the right height?

 

[Beechwood Chip]

Are there dowels, pegs, or tongues that align the leaves to the rest of the table top?  If so, it's going to be hard/impossible to make the tops level while keeping the original alignment joinery.  

Any chance you can flip the leaves over?  Are the bottoms similar to the tops?

If you can get a veneer that's close to the original, you could fill the 1/8" with some inexpensive wood and glue the veneer on top of that.  The edges will show the different layers, though.

I'm going through Marc's checklist of "how to handle a woodworking mistake"

1) live with it: accept the fact the leaves are 1/8" lower than the rest of the table

2) hide it (with wood filler, etc): this really won't work with a 36" x 1/8" void

3) do it over: get some matching lumber and make new leaves from scratch

4) celebrate it: fill the void with some nice looking contrasting wood, epoxy, glass, marble, etc and call it a feature

[wtnhighlander]

1/8" is quite a bit of fill. If replacing the leaves, or sanding the rest of the top to match are nit viable options, you might get away with a bar top coating like @Von suggested, but an epoxy version might work better than polyurathane.

[Tpt life]

I wonder if processing a little bit deeper, and using glass might go better. Just pondering, not necessarily sold on that idea. 

[jil]

Thank you all soooo much for your ideas.  Flipping and sanding the leaves seemed easiest so I checked them, but that doesn't seem feasible since they have hardware holes in them.  Sigh!

I'll look into bartop coating, epoxy, and fillers, to see which I might be capable of doing TBI injuries suck! so this will take a while.  Will post if successful.

Wishing you all a wonderful year and great success on all your projects!