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| Thread ID: 60145 | 2005-07-24 02:20:00 | Woodworking question - how to join large pieces of old timber? | Greg (193) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 374960 | 2005-07-24 04:31:00 | www.woodzone.com I would tongue & groove the joint and use two-pot adhesive but what tools do you have to do this job? Put cramps (clamps) on both sides of the job. Good luck, sounds like an interesting project. |
Dusty (3931) | ||
| 374961 | 2005-07-24 04:44:00 | I think I'll plane it down to about 75 mils, so it looks nice and chunky. Re "biscuits" I haven't got a clue about that kind of join! :dogeye: As they are about 200m to start,can we come and watch you plain to 75m? ;) The glue I used was called Structan,a one pot designed for that job. |
Cicero (40) | ||
| 374962 | 2005-07-24 04:45:00 | Sounds an interesting project Greg. Won't the table weigh a ton though using railway sleepers even if the top is cut down? Hope we get to see some photos of the finished product. :) | Jen (38) | ||
| 374963 | 2005-07-24 04:49:00 | gees . . . . . If my Mrs bought us a new house I'd get her a hand crafted rimu table . . . . . and maybe even a chair to go with it . . . . . . |
Metla (12) | ||
| 374964 | 2005-07-24 06:04:00 | Greg The narrower the planks the more stable the finsished article will be and the easier it is to pull the pieces togther tight with cramps (wide boards will be hard to move) . Railway sleepers (ties is an acceptable term) are usually 8"x5" - 9"x4" with variation in between and sometimes 6" or more thick . Have the sleeper ripped down the flat so the planks aren't too wide . All you have to do is get it to an approximate thickness (say 80mm if finished is to be 75mm), as per Cicero, the edges you're going to join are the ones that have to be accurately planed so that they but up nicely with no gaps . I usually use dowels or bicuits when laminating, they're used to align the timber and stop it slipping when it's cramped up, sometimes I don't bother . I use a 2 pot high viscosity epoxy for jarah, cramp it nice and tight with sash cramps then plain to desired finish . These days, I hand plane and scrape most of the furniture I make, but you might want to chat to your lacal joiner or cabinet maker about putting it through a thicknesser and finshing it of on a drum sander . You'll need to know what width the thickenesser will take . If you want a rustic look, have the edges of the sleepers skimmed so that they fit together in a reasonable fashion, drill 13-14mm holes through the edge, say every 4-500mm, so that when the sleepers butted together in their final positions, all the holes align . Get hold of some 12mm reo bar, allow about 75mm extra length over the width of the table top to each bar once a 75mm right angle bend has been put on one end . Cramp it up, feed the bars through the holes and smash the spare ends of the bar over with a sledge hammer, while someone holds a heavy sledge hammer or similar on the other end as a counter . I haven't tried this yet, but if the steel is fairly hot when you assemble the top, it should shrink to give a tighter fit . Skim the top if you want to bring out some grain, oil and wax to finish . BTW, watch out when your cutting or machining recycled timber, It's not unusual to find nails or even bolts hidden in it . |
Murray P (44) | ||
| 374965 | 2005-07-24 06:22:00 | Correction, I use a low viscosity epoxy for jarah. | Murray P (44) | ||
| 374966 | 2005-07-24 06:23:00 | I'd go for biscuit joins - they are strong and forgiving of slight misalignments, much more so than dowels. I wondered about the sleepers being saturated with something - if not creosote then oils from the rolling stock. And aren't sleepers made of Jarrah? Lovely timber, but very hard. You will need very sharp tools and frequent resharpening to work it. If this is going to be a big table, you will also need to consider wood expansion/contraction due to changes in temperature/humidity when you are deciding how to join the top to the carcase. |
Tony (4941) | ||
| 374967 | 2005-07-24 06:28:00 | These days, I hand plane and scrape most of the furniture I make, but you might want to chat to your lacal joiner or cabinet maker about putting it through a thicknesser and finshing it of on a drum sander. You'll need to know what width the thickenesser will take. BTW, watch out when your cutting or machining recycled timber, It's not unusual to find nails or even bolts hidden in it. Not many joiners will let recycled timber near their machinery. |
PaulD (232) | ||
| 374968 | 2005-07-24 06:40:00 | Just musing.... The density of Jarrah is about 835kg/cu. metre, so a dining table top say 1.8m x 1.2m x 75mm thick will weigh around 135Kg, then there are the legs and the carcase..... Hmm, it is going to be heavy :) | Terry Porritt (14) | ||
| 374969 | 2005-07-24 07:21:00 | Thx for the hints folks. I'm really looking forward to making it a reality. | Greg (193) | ||
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