Slab table jointing help

[Brian Holcombe]

My mentor/apprenticeship was in a machine shop. When I was in high school/early college years I worked under a machinist, with his nearly 50 years of experience in the field having repaired or worked on what seemed like anything and everything, his most important lesson was in how to investigate approach and create a plan of attack. You are doing that here, I think you will continue to find the improvement in process and result that you are looking for.

[Prashun Patel]

There are few times I've been so excited. Here are my results. I have to admit, I pushed HARD for my customer to allow me to leave a gap. She wouldn't have it.

I tried using a 4" straight edge jointed plywood as my reference. After 2-3 patient iterations, I couldn't close the gap. So, I prepped my router and my circular saw and debated which to use. Then I realized that a big problem with this slab is having a poor work surface to work on. It would have taken a lot of work to get those slabs co-planar and shimmed enough such that when I walked over them with either power tool that I would not get any flex. They're just too wide to reach around.

So, I persisted, really out of necessity, with the jointer plane. I remembered Tom King's post below to 'learn to see straight'. I tried it by sighting down the edges. To my surprise, I was able to find the offending bow at one of the corners. It took 3 simple passes to true that up. I'm happy enough with my results that I think I'll glue it up now.

Another thing I noticed is that it was tricky to maintain a square edge. Upon close inspection, I was able to see residual tell-tale saw blade marks.

So, my lessons learned:

1) Be patient
2) Learn to see straight
3) Learn to see square
4) Rock the straight edge and blend high-lows
5) It's easy (for me) to miss the leading edge of the board. The blade is tricky to engage right on the leading end. I had to avoid the temptation to dial down the depth and instead flipped my edge guide so that I was planing off the edge instead of onto the edge. This was a time-consuming process because I had to recheck and calibrate the edge guide each time I flipped it. But SO worth it...
6) Be patient

This may be second nature for most, but for me, it's been a revelation and a huge learning and victory for me. Thanks for the help, truly!

( I look forward to all your responses to my next thread three days from now: "Help! Everything moved on me!!!"

The third picture shows where I damaged the corner of the left piece a little. It's jointed below that, though, so I'm leaving well-enough alone.

[David Weaver]

I promise that after another one or two, it will become almost like second nature. Squareness is aided a lot when the work is little if the plane is set up to cut perfect even depth from left to right on the blade (or more clearly, if the edges on the left and right cut at exactly the same depth - smoother-ish camber is fine).

I agree with tom about seeing things. You'll be surprised how much you can see. Glad that you persisted!!

[Pat Barry]

First off - congratulations on sticking with it and getting it done. I certainly can appreciate a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction with this effort. Question: In the fourth picture I am confused by the white material between the two boards. What is that? Also, with regard to squareness, how do you feel about how the bottom side of the joint came out? The top fitup looks great.

[Sean Hughto]

I think that the far board is a hair higher and the white is a reflection of light on the edge of the board. I assume Prashun will use cauls and also need to flatten the whole top after glue up. Lots of rough planing marks right now.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I retract my early comments re: sapwood.

In this instance, where you were able to mantain what looks to be a perfect book-matched alignment, it would not look nearly as good without the sliver of sapwood in the middle.

I "get it". I like it. thanks for the education on design using the features available.

YOu will,of course, keep posting build progress photos, right?

[Prashun Patel]

The bottom side is largely pretty good. I have some minor clean up to do, but I feel comfortable doing that now without compromising the top fit.

That white is residual sap wood. I know, not everyone will like that aesthetic choice, but it felt right to me to leave it, so I shall leave it. Bookmatches sometimes make mild suggestions to some beholders. This accomplishes that for me. I'm being intentionally vague about that.

[Kent A Bathurst]

The bottom side is largely pretty good. I have some minor clean up to do, but I feel comfortable doing that now without compromising the top fit.

That white is residual sap wood. I know, not everyone will like that aesthetic choice, but it felt right to me to leave it, so I shall leave it. Bookmatches sometimes make mild suggestions to some beholders. This accomplishes that for me. I'm being intentionally vague about that.

With the live sapwood edges, that bit in the middle realy ties the whole thing together, IMO. Nice design detail to offset / enhance the outer edges, plus it clearly defines the 2 slabs as "the whole tree".

[David Weaver]

First off - congratulations on sticking with it antd getting it done. I certainly can appreciate a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction with this effort. Question: In the fourth picture I am confused by the white material between the two boards. What is that? Also, with regard to squareness, how do you feel about how the bottom side of the joint came out? The top fitup looks great.

Pat, is it safe to assume you're talking about the bits that look like a white line right in the middle? It's just the edge of the far board sticking up a little from the near one. It probably just looks bright because it's facing directly into the camera/light source.

(I just noticed that Sean already said the same thing.)

[Gary Muto]

Congratulations Prashun. Great work and a very nice design.

[Brian Holcombe]

Nice work! I am looking forward to seeing what you have in store for us for the base.

[Prashun Patel]

Thanks, but sadly i am not making the base. I am purchasing a steel one.

[Pat Barry]

Pat, is it safe to assume you're talking about the bits that look like a white line right in the middle? It's just the edge of the far board sticking up a little from the near one. It probably just looks bright because it's facing directly into the camera/light source.(I just noticed that Sean already said the same thing.)

Yes, that's right. On my monitor I couldn't tell if it was that or wood filler or a whitish glue line

[David Weaver]

I saw it the same when I first looked at it, as maybe an interim picture or something, and had to look twice to notice it's just wood proud of the line.

[Pat Barry]

That white is residual sap wood. I know, not everyone will like that aesthetic choice, but it felt right to me to leave it, so I shall leave it. Bookmatches sometimes make mild suggestions to some beholders. This accomplishes that for me. I'm being intentionally vague about that.

I like the sap wood there. I was worried that you would be losing too much of that in the edge jointing process. Its nice to see that it survived the process. It really does add interest to the top.