Sorry for the long post – I thought it would be shorter – skip to the
numbered questions if desired.


So I’m still alive here in Duluth GA and I just completed a pair of walnut
nightmare stands for die Frau. 90% galoot build other than some sanding and
rough dimensioning early on. Hide glue all the way baby!


Now I’m on to a hall table to replace the Walmart Knotty Pine Barf Board
she brought to our union a decade ago. I need to get this done before the
Fall. Driving up from GA to hit Brimfield in September show her the Cape
and Newport, etc. and of course see all the family and old gin joints for a
wee bit. Anyway I already expect a U-Haul trailer and some of the earlier
generations of family furniture to come back. I really don’t want a hall
table from Brimfield cuz I already have the wood and mental plans for one.
So the goal – get this done on nuclear emergency time vs my standard slowed
down galoot time.


As for the hall table the top is at the moment going to be 16” x 48” - that
seems about standard and I expect to come close to that. Height between 27”
and 28”. I have two leftover pieces of black walnut from the aforementioned
earlier build and plan on making the top from a piece likely to be 12” x
44” – i.e., purposefully 2” short all the way around. The missing 2” will
be made from a 2” curly maple wrap framing the walnut on all sides. I
pondered an inlay line between the walnut and maple but really don’t know
what makes sense as a contrast from two already diametrically shaded woods
PLUS I’m not sure I want to tackle an inlay on this project. So I dropped
that thought


In detail, the length of the walnut will be 44” and to each long edge will
be glued a 48” strip of maple (extending 2” past each end of the walnut).
To the ends of the walnut will be a 2” long piece of maple that fills the
space, i.e., 12” wide. So the end maple boards will be 2” in the grain
direction and 12” in the cross grain (likely a glue up of a couple section
of 6” wide board offcuts. What you will see is all grain of all wood will
go in the same direction, but the top will still be a picture frame sort of
construct.

I don’t really want a floating panel of walnut in a frame of maple for a
table top.

My question or questions – we’ll see how this goes – are as follows:


1) I will have a tenon on the maple or walnut at the ends similar to a
breadboard tenon to ensure that I have adequate glue up on this end grain
to end grain connection. I’ve checked expansion of the woods and they are
within about 1/8” of one another over this distance…this seems similar
enough that I could glue the tenon in along it’s whole length rather than
pin it like one normally does with breadboard ends. Any major concerns with
this?


2) Assuming that I can glue the entirety of the tenon between the ends of
the walnut and maple AND I will be gluing the long piece of maple to the
short end pieces of maple along their mating edge at the front of the
table, I am leaning toward allowing a gap to occur at the back side of the
short piece to long piece connection via a floating tenon. This seems like
a better idea than gluing that whole frame up solid to a rigid (yet
movable) piece of walnut, even though all grain is aligned. Just not sure
if over these distances expansion of the two different woods is an issue or
not. Thoughts here? Of course if the back and two ends need allow for
movement I can make that happen as well.


3) My maple is ¾” S4S but has moderate tear out. I have been pondering how
to deal with this. My current thoughts are (a) sand all tear out down on
the maple prior to gluing it to the walnut. I may be able to taper the
maple from a glued edge to the outside by some amount for example ¾” down
to 5/8” or ½” should I find that I need to sand a full 1/8” plus off the
maple; or(b) fill the tear out with blond shellac and maple dust. Does
anyone have a thought on these options or any other?


Scott G in Duluth GA