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My uncle has asked me to build him a "Viking" table for his man cave in his garage. He wants it 4x8 and "big". Once I have the top built he wants to come over with chain, hammers, etc and distress the hell out of it before it's finished. The thickest material I've ever worked with is 4/4, but he wants this table around 6/4-8/4. To help save on money, would an acceptable process be to take 4/4 oak and glue it to a good quality sheet of plywood and just trim the edges? Or should I just go the route of finding stock that thick?
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks
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I'm not the best expert, but I don't think gluing oak to plywood would last long term. The oak will shrink, expand, during the seasons, plywood not so much . I think You would end up with broken glue joints and or splitting. If it were me, I'd go with solid wood. Also, after you build it, make sure you have help moving it, it will be heavy.
Jim
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Why not go with 8/4 pine. Given what he intends to do with it, I wouldn't think he would care much about what wood it was made of. Ken
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Not pine if he wants it stained dark unless you use gel or luck out and find pure quarter sawn. Dark stain with reverse grain pattern is what gives pine it's bad rap.
Carolyn
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One of those Home DIY shows, the guys took a huge slab of 8/4 walnut and proceeded to chop, hack, and whack the surface with various tools and such. I was really surprised that it actually looked like a 200 year old table and looked great.
I would go with 8/4 wood which should not be that hard to find. Search Craig's list for lumber. Oak, ash, or maple would work nice and are usually easy to find in 8/4. Poplar can look great. If its the green core wood that everyone hates, it actually turns to a beautiful mellow brown in short time. Walnut and cherry would also work, but more $$.
Matter of fact, I would only joint the edges but leave the top and bottom surfaces rough cut. Use a jack plane or sander to flatten/even out then beat up the surface.
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I agree that solid wood is called for here. A splintery wood like oak might not be as good a choice as a soft maple or poplar for the distressing bit. Pine is not a bad choice if you can figure out how to finish it.
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8/4 alder is the first choice here for dark distressed furniture It stains easily and distresses nicely
pretty easy to work with he will have a blast distressing it and you will find it a simple matter to finish it once he is done
Joe
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12-19-2016, 09:31 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-19-2016, 09:33 PM by Steve N.)
(12-19-2016, 10:18 AM)Ken Vick Wrote: Why not go with 8/4 pine. Given what he intends to do with it, I wouldn't think he would care much about what wood it was made of. Ken
Winner winner chicken dinner. Most of the reproduction houses that have made "Shaker" "Country" and such of the recent past used pine for cost, and it's ability to distress it so easily.
Joe, your Alder is our SYP, Fir, Spruce, etc.
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looks like you can age pine with ferric nitrate
https://www.sciencecompany.com/Ferric-Ni...P6384.aspx
Really old pine beams are very dark. Probably requires years of smoke from a fire though.
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With any luck you should be able to find some salvaged wood that is not too expensive. This table is made from salvaged maple. The first one was timbers salvaged from an old barn and the one we are currently working on is made from a very large oak motor crate. All of them are in the 3" thick range.
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Dave
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