Pro tips for table tops, counters and panel glueups 

Same Daniel, I believe that this was the very first time I saw or heard of it. Good tip!

That’s process I’ve been using for a number of years. Saves s lot of grief at glue up time.

Yup @ martino, you are correct. I have seen the sawdust tip many times as well. Thanks for reminding. Have a good one :D

If you go buggy it might be carpenter ants. Get it?

Yeah. My Grandfather thought some Woodwork was a perfect way to spend a weekend visit at Gram and Gramps.

Softwood furniture... Great

10 years ago I made two tables that were 6'x3', both out of the same boards from the same tree. One of them I alternated the boards on, the other I did not. They have been in my temperature controlled house the past decade and are both still dead flat. Maybe I'll check them again in another 10 years.

20 years ago fewer people had air conditioning in their homes.

That is awesome!

@@woodworksbygrampies1284 Thanks...I was happy with it...finally upping my game

@@j316finewoodworking6 That's the name of the game right. Improve from project to project. Have a GREAT weekend.

@@woodworksbygrampies1284 You're absolutely right...be safe and enjoy sir.

I can't speak to a video I haven't seen, but I don't know how they could make such a blanket statement like that. In my experience, if you put the right amount of glue on one surface, and those two surfaces meet properly, they will bond just fine. If you do not put enough glue on the single surface, or the two are not sufficiently pressed together to spread the glue, the joint could fail.

It does the same thing biscuits do.

All we are is dust in the wind James! haha :) :) Have a good one :D

I just use the widths I have. Looks more natural.

@@StumpyNubs - Thanks for the quick reply, I appreciate that. I see, thank you. Would there be any benefit to using the narrower strips, like I'm taught? Surely it would be less expensive buying materials, if I can use wider pieces. Thanks again.

amzn.to/3cSLaYp

@@StumpyNubs Thank you for letting me know! Hope you and yours are well in these odd times. I really do appreciate the videos and what you're sharing with us.

An hour is just a generalization. Just scrape the glue off when it gets lumpy. By that time you can gently move the clamps to get under them. I usually let my panels sit overnight, but a couple hours should be enough time to remove the clamps unless it is very humid in your shop.

Yes. Glue is abrasive. If one runs a lot of glued up boards with the glue line always at the same position in the planer nicks will be cut into the knives at those areas. That is with high speed steel knives. Not so much a problem with carbide cutters.

@@Sillyturner in my experience it's not abrasive, it's brittle and hard and can chip teeth. It's worse if you have straight blades as opposed to helical ones but it's still a pain in the butt to have to resharpen your blades

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_YMG2R2KsBY.html

@@StumpyNubs thank you. Really appreciate it.

Nothing, because each strip in the panel would have it's own tension, independent of those beside it. For a panel to warp, the tension of all the strips must be similar so they can warp together. Otherwise, they cancel each other out.

retired furniture maker here. a saw blade no matter how good will never give you a finish edge. it will always need planing, either on the jointer or by hand. when i dress timber in the thicknesser i always dress the sawn edge down to final size on it as well.

When I had an old contractor saw with a crummy fence I couldn't get a seamless panel for anything. After buying a new cabinet saw, calibrating it, and using a sharp glue line rip blade, there really is no visible seam at all. It was very satisfying to put those boards together the first time.

I usually leave it as long as I can. But I think you could remove the clamps after a couple hours.

I don't think anything changed except marketing budget for power tools like biscuit cutters and domino is much larger than for dowels 😀. I use dowels and never had issue.

Yes. I am still angry about the first two games of the 2002 playoffs.

It's tough to joint 10-ft edges without a long bedded jointer. I would tune up the table saw for it's best cut, and just skim the edges. Then use lots of clamps. Pine is soft enough that you can often mush it together enough to close hairline gaps. You may need cauls to keep the panel flat with all that clamping pressure.

@@StumpyNubs thanks James.

I am in a similar situation with six foot boards (walnut). I bought very long level for straight edge (I guess you can use strong long ruler as well), use it to cut with my circular saw (bought nice glue edge blade) and then do final pass with handheld router. I find router leaves better edge. I use Rockler bit so nothing too fancy. I do two passes, first one with one loop of painters tape around router base. I remove tape for final pass. Final glue up looks great. Hope this helps.

They are only glued along the grain. Boards swell/shrink along their width, not their length. When glued edge to edge they can all move together like they are one board.

I think they would work in the same way. But I am not sure you need something so robust for most glue-ups. Perhaps for that thick walnut countertop I showed in the video, though the biscuits worked just fine.

Boxes

I second what Craig said. Boxes are relatively inexpensive to make, but can be as complex as you like. Pretty much any woodworking skill can be honed by making boxes.

From my research, sawstop is the cheapest option of table saws with a safety device other than blade guard or push sticks. There are some fancy euro panel saws that don't kill the blade and can be used again once reset, but they are high end machines.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qSbS5zhH7cE.html

I beleive that Steve Ramsey calls that "rustic charm" :) Nice of you to point that out and share that. Have a good one :D

I don't see the point in most cases. You are essentially making a tongue and groove joint. It may help to align the edges, but biscuits are better for that because they do not count on the board being perfectly flat when you cut the groove. And a biscuit joiner is faster. Even so, you don't need anything to strengthen a long-grain edge joint. However, an end grain joint, such as a miter, will definitely benefit from a spline.

I still extend that invitation at the end of the Vlog videos (green thumbnail images) :)

@@StumpyNubs I'll have to catch up on those! I've been at a cold one deficiency!

why?

@@StumpyNubs Easy clean up, if a mistake is made warm water is all you need to disassemble. Plus after many years easy repair. But I still like your path of glue ups

@@ralhmcc47 Hide glue is typically used so joinery may be repaired, particularly on chairs. I can't imagine why you would need to repair a seam in a panel. Perhaps an argument could be made for hide glue in a panel glueup that has many pieces because hide glue has a longer open time. But the panel in this video had a lot of pieces, and Titebond 2 worked quite well.

It shouldn't be a problem for plaining. You just reverse the direction of your passes on portions of the panel that require it.

@@StumpyNubs would it not make more sense to have the grain running in the same direction on all boards then plain all boards in that one direction after glue up?

@@danthechippie4439 Not at all. Grain rarely runs in one direction down the length of a board. You may get the cathedral shapes running the same way (and you should do that for appearances), but the grain may rise toward the surface or fall away from it depending on the side of the board you use. You may try to flip all the boards so the grain all runs downhill, but this sacrifices appearance for a battle that is not always winnable. Grain can fall at the start of the board and then begin to rise again half way down its length.... Also think of the tops on antique furniture where the growth rings were alternated by flipping every other board (something that I think is unnecessary nowadays). That practice meant the grain would rise and fall differently from board to board along the width of the panel. The direction of the plane would have to be reversed from one boar in the panel to the next... My point is you aren't likely to plane a whole, wide glued-up panel in just one direction, anyway. So go with what looks best :)

I think it may be because the log grain to long grain glue joint is really strong when dried, so people think the pocket screws are redundant. If you're using them for clamping pressure, or in a hurry as mentioned, why not. Of course you have a good excuse to buy more clamps if you don't know pocket screws will work just fine ; ).