Table update 3 – assembling the table top
The table top is now biscuited, glued and clamped and the glue should be cured by morning 🙂
Having set up the router on the Triton Mark 3 saw bench, and set up the biscuit jointer attachment I set about cutting slots for the 28 biscuits that make up the top – four biscuits per join, across seven joins (eight boards).
Relaxing over lunch I thought I’d check out what other users have said about the biscuit jointer attachment, and was surprised to find several advising against the Triton version on the basis that they couldn’t joint long boards to make, for example, bench or table tops. So I thought I’d set the record straight – you can cut biscuit slots in large boards. In fact the sliding extension table makes it very easy to handle large boards, such as when jointing pairs of boards to make up a table top.
And here’s the proof!
To make the table top I biscuit jointed the boards in pairs, and glued and assembled them and clamped them for about 2 hours, then I took the board pairs and biscuited them, finally setting them onto the Torquata panel clamps for the final full width glue-up. I set the lower clamp legs across the table frame, then laid out the boards in sequence and ran a glue line along each length, inserted the biscuits and closed the seam. Then onto the next and so on until the whole table top was assembled. Then I added the clamp upper and the hardware and clamped the whole thing tight.
Tomorrow I’ll make the breadboard ends – hopefully out of Australian mahogany-like jarrah to match the table aprons.
Cheers
Jerry
