I have never made anything as large as I am preparing to do (other than my bench top). I'm not scared, just wondering what you folks do for large tops.
Whenever I glue up panels, I usually match joint the edges and glue up. Then I mill the board with the usual process of flattening the face, edge, opposite face, etc.
This has worked okay for me but for a computer desk sized top I don't think my current method will work. Should I mill the boards to identical thickness and glue all the boards at one time? I should mention this is all by hand no thickness planer.
For bonus points: I could use some tips on design regarding material thickness. I planned to use 8/4 material for the legs and such as I feel this looks stronger. Should the top also be 8/4? The desk my wife has requested has trestle style legs. Is it considered bad form to laminate lumber for the legs ( if I were to use 4/4 instead)?
I know that's a lot of questions, thanks for looking!