friend is expecting triplets in May/June.

i'll make them a custom dining room table and matching benches as my gift.

went shopping today, got some red and some white oak.

she likes the "rustic" look, so we bought all their rustic white oak for the table top, everything else will be red oak. plan to fill in the knots/holes with 2 part epoxy and some turquoise dust. it's a thing out this way.

had to temporarily expand my workbench to accommodate this project with some scrap plywood pieces, now it is 12 feet long and 4 feet wide. more work another day. have to figure out how to straighten the edges of the top pieces. have to build a temp sled i think.

Another kudos DAB. You're a good man. Nice load of lumber. Following this build-a-long.

Heck ya Dab! What a wonderful gift! Is this a surprise or do they know at this point?

That's a big project!! Looking forward to the build updates.

17 hours ago, John Morris said:

Heck ya Dab! What a wonderful gift! Is this a surprise or do they know at this point?

they know about it, she helped pick out the lumber.

31 minutes ago, DAB said:

they know about it, she helped pick out the lumber.

That makes it even more rewarding. I did the same type of thing with a project for a friend. She joined me to pick out the wood and then I shared progress pictures along the way. She isn't a woodworker so she better understood the build steps which made it extra special when it was completed.

Edited April 15Apr 15 by BB1

she grabbed a pic of me and the lumber all loaded in the back of the truck. told her to send it to hubby and explain "all you have to do now is put it together", just like IKEA....well, maybe some extra steps involved. more work planned tomorrow, to get a straightening sled made and get the table top pieces straightened on the edges and ready to glue, after a light pass or two thru the planer. need to pick out the exposed sides. 2 part epoxy ordered, with some turquoise dust to mix in. will try a trial piece before attacking the top. she thought that that would be cool. ok.

Edited April 15Apr 15 by DAB

1 hour ago, DAB said:

explain "all you have to do now is put it together", just like IKEA...

🤣🤣🤣

Fellow Chevrolet man I see👊

today's progress was getting the table top pieces edges straightened.

lacking a large jointer, plan B was to cut a scrap piece of 3/4 ply to 8 foot long and 12" wide.

then can attach that with some temp screws to the underside of each piece, run the plywood against the fence (set at 12"), and rip one edge straight. then can detach the plywood, flip the work, and run it again thru the TS to final width.

12" was wider than any of the pieces, so i knew i could run the ply against the fence and get a straight cut.

test fit up, looks like it will glue up just fine, will use some biscuits and a caul or two to keep it flat.

next is to run each piece thru the planer. that's another day.

not much progress last few days, had to build a table for the church (see other thread). did manage to chisel out some of the knots from the knot holes, to create space for epoxy later. need to plane down each board, then one big glue up with biscuits, and then wait for the epoxy to arrive.

a joyful update: last thursday the mom gave birth to 3 little boys. now i have to get back to work!!!!

got the table top glued up this morning, will let it cure all night. then much sanding and then fill the knot holes with 2 part epoxy mixed with turquoise dust. it's going to look cool.

she wanted "rustic", she's getting rustic.

Looks great, she’ll love it!

after too many delays, finally got the top out of the clamps. scraped/sanded off the glue squeeze outs, turned it over and gave the underside a good sanding with 36 and 50 grit on the belt sander, chiseled out a few spots of glue. this top is incredibly heavy, almost too much for me to move around. more sanding tomorrow, both sides, then trim the ends off, chamfer the corners and edges, and then fill the holes with epoxy mix. after that, prep and attach the apron/skirt boards. then figure out where to put it while i work on the legs. ugh. this is the under side of the top.

Even if it was lighter, I doubt moving something that size around would be easy. Looks like a 2 person job to me.

14 minutes ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

Even if it was lighter, I doubt moving something that size around would be easy. Looks like a 2 person job to me.

it's about 40x92, so almost the size of a sheet of plywood, but 1" thick of solid white oak. ooooofff.

Call in the cavalry too big to risk damage to yourself. Looking good from here

did a little epoxy test today, drilled a 3/4" hole in some scrap oak, taped off the bottom with some blue tape, and then filled the hole with epoxy. came back 3 hours later to check on things, and discover the blue tape didn't hold the epoxy in. small mess, all cleaned up. ok, trial #2, clear packing tape. check tomorrow morning perhaps. stuff says it needs 24 hours to cure up. i'm thinking i may end up hot gluing some hard board onto the bottom where the holes go thru if the tape alone won't suffice. thankfully, my wife had a hot glue gun, so dug that out of storage, will take it down later.

interesting results from my epoxy test.

clear packing tape worked well on the bottom of the hole, no large leaks, just a little bleed past. but of more interest was the "top", over the course of the day i let it sit, the top sunk down about 1/8" into the hole, while the bottom was nice and flush to the surface of the wood, due to the packing tape, and the larger bits of turquoise were nicely visible, while the top was rather muddy.

so....

this has me thinking what i want to do is make the pours from the underside, tape off the top of the table. if the epoxy sinks down on the underside, who cares. still need to see if the excess flash bit sands well, or if it will take the matte poly well.

this is why you test.