Day 3 was exciting. The first slab of 4 was ready to come out of the clamps. The first process was to get the slab through the jointer and planer to get 4 sides square.
The comments on the pictures really tell the story.
The glue, while very different from my standard Titebond II or III really did not present any problems. I scraped off any excess that would have made the slab off on the jointer.
The big problem is just the mass of the slab. It is heavy and 8 ft long. Pushing this over the jointer requires the in-feed and out-feed rollers stands to be exactly the correct height and solid. Both are a challenge. I did became familiar with the “feel” of the process. Not that it became any easier, I just was able to control the material better. I had to push hard downward to keep the slab in contact with the jointer bed. This was workout. When I moved to the second side in the jointer, to create a square to the first side this became more difficult. A LOT of pressure had to be continually applied to keep the first flat side in contact with the rip fence on the jointer. I ended up with one side almost exactly square. The other side not as good. It will require some hand plane work to tune it exactly.
After milling the section ( slab ) finished at 6 9/16″ x 3 3/4″ So will take 4 sections plus one more piece to get close to the 28″ width I want. As for the thickness, I started with 3 7/8″ first cut from the 8″ stock. So I am sure I will end up with my 3 1/2″ target top thickness.
Getting that accomplished, I stopped and really cleaned the shop up.
I had some more time so I prepared for Day 4. I pulled all of the stock from the pile to mill 13 more top pieces. The pictures tell the story here.
So a BIG day of stock milling is in front of me. This may possibly be two days !!
I am starting to really wonder how I will handle the top once is it completely assembled.
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Enjoy the story from the pictures below
