Brmorgan
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My friend's girlfriend asked me if I could build her a "rustic" looking dining table, so I suggested a Trestle style design and she said it was exactly what she was thinking. Originally I had hoped to find some old 2" Douglas Fir barn boards at abandoned homestead somewhere, and plane just enough off to flatten them while leaving the gray weathering in the cracks and dents. However we're still under 2' of snow or more, so that's not very practical right now. So I offered up some of the Birch planks that I've been keeping around to possibly build a workbench top out of:
I milled these out of an 18" diameter Paper Birch out in a swamp behind my Dad's place in August '07, just a couple weeks before trimming my fingers up on my jointer. There are 5 pieces just over 6" wide, and one at about 8". They weren't easy to get nice and flat, as they started out as 9' long, 2" thick planks which weren't too easy to maneuver alone. And only having a 6" jointer didn't help anything. To get the 8" done, I set the jointer as deep as I could, about 5/32", and made one pass to get a flat surface. Luckily it wasn't very warped and one pass was enough. After that I took a 1X6 that I knew to be perfectly flat and screwed it to the flat rabbeted portion of the 8" piece, and sent it through the planer. It looks just as flat as the 6" pieces that were jointed.
I know they're not really shop-grade or clear, but she wants a rustic sort of look so I think the knots and pinworm holes will keep with that idea. Also she wants it stained fairly dark to match some other furniture she has. It'll end up being 38" X 6' unless I also decide to put breadboard ends on it. I don't know if that would be a great idea though since I'm building it in a fairly dry climate and it'll be used in a more humid one.
I'll also be building a bench set to go with the table, which will probably be made out of the 1" birch pieces I have from the same tree, if they're not too warped to be usable. I'm juggling this project with a couple others but will hopefully have it done within the next few weeks.
I milled these out of an 18" diameter Paper Birch out in a swamp behind my Dad's place in August '07, just a couple weeks before trimming my fingers up on my jointer. There are 5 pieces just over 6" wide, and one at about 8". They weren't easy to get nice and flat, as they started out as 9' long, 2" thick planks which weren't too easy to maneuver alone. And only having a 6" jointer didn't help anything. To get the 8" done, I set the jointer as deep as I could, about 5/32", and made one pass to get a flat surface. Luckily it wasn't very warped and one pass was enough. After that I took a 1X6 that I knew to be perfectly flat and screwed it to the flat rabbeted portion of the 8" piece, and sent it through the planer. It looks just as flat as the 6" pieces that were jointed.
I know they're not really shop-grade or clear, but she wants a rustic sort of look so I think the knots and pinworm holes will keep with that idea. Also she wants it stained fairly dark to match some other furniture she has. It'll end up being 38" X 6' unless I also decide to put breadboard ends on it. I don't know if that would be a great idea though since I'm building it in a fairly dry climate and it'll be used in a more humid one.
I'll also be building a bench set to go with the table, which will probably be made out of the 1" birch pieces I have from the same tree, if they're not too warped to be usable. I'm juggling this project with a couple others but will hopefully have it done within the next few weeks.
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