Looks good.

Thank you!

How did you plane/sand the top after the glue up?

I didn't glue all eight boards at one time. I glued the inner four boards
first and the next day I glued on the two outer boards on
each side for a total of eight. So only four boards were glued at each
time. I think this dramatically simplified my glue-up. After each glue up,
I scraped then sanded. With the exception of a few divots from scraping to
long in one spot : ( she is very flat. The top rests on the aprons nicely
all the way around.


Someone asked me to repair a table they had damaged with a candle by
ripping out the damaged part and putting in new boards. I declined
because I had no way of getting a perfectly flat surface afterwards; too
darn big. What did you do?

I don't think (although I am still a neophyte at this) you need a flat
surface. If all your joints are at 90 degrees, with good even clamping
pressure it should come out flat. My top during both glue-ups was resting
on bar clamps on the bottom, with bar clamps also spanning accross the top.