HappyMonkey/HMD WOODSHOP

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by glatt

That's actually a challange to me. You need the edges of each plank to be very straight, otherwise they won't fit tightly and the glue joint will not be strong. Sometimes you can get away with an edge left by a table saw or that is already on the board when you buy it, but often you have to plane one edge of each board until they are nice and straight. You can then just glue them together.

A joiner (power tool) can make a good edge, but my dad uses a hand plane and a straight edge. Use a long straight edge to find bumps and valleys, and plane them down.

Or if you want the joint to be extra strong, you can cut a slot into each edge and fit a long thin strip of wood called a spline into that slot to support things a little more. And glue them together.

Here's a cross section example.

For me, the challange is when you are trying to put together a whole table top, because you have multiple pieces, and the glue starts to dry on you before you can get them all together properly.

You just have to get it all ready before starting to apply the glue. Or you can do one joint at a time.