I'm making a side table.

The top is Queensland Maple (a cabinet grade hardwood) I joined three 200mm
(8"?) boards together with a biscuit joiner, For reasons probably related to
my shortcomings in the talent department the surface is uneven and I need to
fix it.

I believe I have two options.
1. A jig I designed a while ago which will pass a router over the whole
surface at a constant height. which will make the boards flat and square,
but will add a lot more time to the final finish
2. Go out and buy a belt sander and do the job that way.

Are there others I haven't considered, if so what? What would be the best?

Oh and buying new timber and joining it properly isn't an option atm. Q
Maple is spendy stuff.

TIA

Mekon

"Mekon" wrote in message
...
I'm making a side table.

The top is Queensland Maple (a cabinet grade hardwood) I joined three
200mm
(8"?) boards together with a biscuit joiner, For reasons probably related
to
my shortcomings in the talent department the surface is uneven and I need
to
fix it.

I believe I have two options.
1. A jig I designed a while ago which will pass a router over the whole
surface at a constant height. which will make the boards flat and square,
but will add a lot more time to the final finish
2. Go out and buy a belt sander and do the job that way.

Are there others I haven't considered, if so what? What would be the best?

Odds are you didn't face joint the boards, so they weren't flat to start
with. That is what causes unevenness for me with biscuits.
Anyhow, some people claim they can use a belt sander like a scalpel, getting
great results. I have never had that experience; I only use it for hogging
off wood.
For your problem I would use a ROS with 60 grit. It will take a while and
the surface won't be flat, but it will work.
If your budget allows, find a lumberyard or woodshop with a large planner or
sander (as appropriate to the amound of wood you need to remove) and pay
them a few dollars to fix it. Should cost about the same as a belt sander.

The router device will reduce some local high spots, but won't do much for
low spots. To do it with a router you would have to build a frame to put
the whole assembly in, and run the router in a carriage along the top of the
frame. That would be very time consuming and unreasonable unless you
planned on doing a number of them.

Mekon (in ) said:

| I'm making a side table.
|
| The top is Queensland Maple (a cabinet grade hardwood) I joined
| three 200mm (8"?) boards together with a biscuit joiner, For
| reasons probably related to my shortcomings in the talent
| department the surface is uneven and I need to fix it.
|
| I believe I have two options.
| 1. A jig I designed a while ago which will pass a router over the
| whole surface at a constant height. which will make the boards flat
| and square, but will add a lot more time to the final finish
| 2. Go out and buy a belt sander and do the job that way.
|
| Are there others I haven't considered, if so what? What would be
| the best?

Were I in your shoes, I'd take the top to a local cabinet shop and
have them run it through their big sander - specifying that you'd like
it flattened and that you'd like a fine grit finish pass. Ask if
they'd mind if you watch - they almost certainly won't, and the
experience may change the way you think about "flattening".

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto

Mekon wrote:
I'm making a side table.

The top is Queensland Maple (a cabinet grade hardwood) I joined
three 200mm
(8"?) boards together with a biscuit joiner, For reasons probably
related to
my shortcomings in the talent department the surface is uneven and
I need to
fix it.

snip

As Morris suggests, time to find a commercial drum sanding shop.

Forget a belt sander, you can't get there from here.

Lew

On Mon, 8 May 2006 07:21:47 -0500, "Morris Dovey"
wrote:

Mekon (in ) said:

| I'm making a side table.
|
| The top is Queensland Maple (a cabinet grade hardwood) I joined
| three 200mm (8"?) boards together with a biscuit joiner, For
| reasons probably related to my shortcomings in the talent
| department the surface is uneven and I need to fix it.
|
| I believe I have two options.
| 1. A jig I designed a while ago which will pass a router over the
| whole surface at a constant height. which will make the boards flat
| and square, but will add a lot more time to the final finish
| 2. Go out and buy a belt sander and do the job that way.
|
| Are there others I haven't considered, if so what? What would be
| the best?

Were I in your shoes, I'd take the top to a local cabinet shop and
have them run it through their big sander - specifying that you'd like
it flattened and that you'd like a fine grit finish pass. Ask if
they'd mind if you watch - they almost certainly won't, and the
experience may change the way you think about "flattening".


ditto. Find a cabinet shop with a 30" wide belt. They shouldn't
charge much for a single panel.

Frank

Belt sanders are to the sanding world what skew chisels are to the turning
world - a lot of people seem to be afraid of them. I've flatten panels with
belt sanders very successfully. First, a good belt sander(or any sander for
that matter) is designed to operate under its own weight, you don't have to
push down on them, just guide them. (I like the Bosch 3" x 21" because it
has a low center of gravity and not tippy like some of the bigger ones) If
it doesn't seem to be taking off as much as you would like, don't push down,
just go to a coarser grit. I usually start at 60g.

Start by drawing pencil lines cross-grain. This will reveal low spots as
you work. Sand 60 degrees diagonal to the grain making several full passes.
Then reverse the diaganol and make the same number of passes the other way.
Be careful not to round over edges. Repeat this proceedure untill all low
spots are gone. Resist the temptation to work on any specific area and just
think full passes. When all low spots are gone, make full passes with the
grain until all diagonal scratches are gone. Spritzing with alcohol and
viewing panel in a raking light will help reveal scratches. At this point I
proceed to 80g, 100g, then 120g with the grain to further reduce the scratch
pattern. Then I get out the random orbit and go 120g, 150g, and sometimes
180g and done.

Next time, don't rely on bisquits for alignment. They are designed to be a
bit sloppy so the bisquit can expand as it absorbs the glue. Besides, a
well jointed panel glue-up doesn't need the added strength of bisquits since
the glue joint will be stronger than the wood anyway. I've gone back to the
old tried and true clamping caul method. Good luck whatever you decide.

"Mekon" wrote in message
...
I'm making a side table.

The top is Queensland Maple (a cabinet grade hardwood) I joined three
200mm
(8"?) boards together with a biscuit joiner, For reasons probably related
to
my shortcomings in the talent department the surface is uneven and I need
to
fix it.

I believe I have two options.
1. A jig I designed a while ago which will pass a router over the whole
surface at a constant height. which will make the boards flat and square,
but will add a lot more time to the final finish
2. Go out and buy a belt sander and do the job that way.

Are there others I haven't considered, if so what? What would be the best?

Oh and buying new timber and joining it properly isn't an option atm. Q
Maple is spendy stuff.

TIA

Mekon

Mekon wrote:
I'm making a side table.

The top is Queensland Maple (a cabinet grade hardwood) I joined three 200mm
(8"?) boards together with a biscuit joiner, For reasons probably related to
my shortcomings in the talent department the surface is uneven and I need to
fix it.

I believe I have two options.
1. A jig I designed a while ago which will pass a router over the whole
surface at a constant height. which will make the boards flat and square,
but will add a lot more time to the final finish
2. Go out and buy a belt sander and do the job that way.

Are there others I haven't considered, if so what? What would be the best?

Oh and buying new timber and joining it properly isn't an option atm. Q
Maple is spendy stuff.

TIA

Mekon


You now have the perfect excuse to buy a Performax. g

Dave

In article ,
says...

I'm making a side table.

The top is Queensland Maple (a cabinet grade hardwood) I joined three 200mm
(8"?) boards together with a biscuit joiner, For reasons probably related to
my shortcomings in the talent department the surface is uneven and I need to
fix it.


Hmmm, the reason could be right there - most of our antipodean timbers are not
quite stable enough to go joining 200mm boards together without getting into
problems with them warping and making everything very uneven. If at all
possible, I'd recommend you rip the boards down to between 75-100mm before
joining.

I've even got into trouble joining 6x2 totara for a coffee table top, I was
careful of how the grain ran (alternating direction), after joining I put a
s/steel ruler over the top and you couldn't see light under it -- 6 months
later the thing had assumed a zig-zag shape.

What I am trying to say is: you may well get it flattened now, but it may no
longer be flat in a little while. Check the individual boards and make sure the
trouble really does lie with the joining. Consider breaking it down and
flipping every other section if the boards are misbehaving.

If, on the other hand your problem is simply a wee step between boards, then I
personally would clean up with a finishing plane and then a cabinet scraper. My
Ulmia plane takes off very fine shavings and is much quicker than a belt sander
:-)

-Peter

--
=========================================
firstname dot lastname at gmail fullstop com

"Mekon"
I'm making a side table.

The top is Queensland Maple (a cabinet grade hardwood) I joined three
200mm
(8"?) boards together with a biscuit joiner, For reasons probably related
to
my shortcomings in the talent department the surface is uneven and I need
to
fix it.

I believe I have two options.
1. A jig I designed a while ago which will pass a router over the whole
surface at a constant height. which will make the boards flat and square,
but will add a lot more time to the final finish
2. Go out and buy a belt sander and do the job that way.

Are there others I haven't considered, if so what? What would be the best?

Oh and buying new timber and joining it properly isn't an option atm. Q
Maple is spendy stuff.

TIA

Mekon

I guess it all depends on what you want.
1. Send it out as other have said. But then can you say you built it?
2. Buy a widebelt sander and sand it yourself. Very expensive.
3. Make a router carrier and surface it. Not to hard, time consuming, but
if you build it right, it will work on many other projects.
4. Buy a belt sander and again, sand it yourself. BTW, not all that
difficult. See Max's post.
5. Sand it with a ROS. This idea will take you the rest of your life and it
still won't be flat.
6. Get some winding sticks and a good hand plane. This too will take some
time but you will be rewarded with the lessons learned and personal
satisfaction of doing it by hand.

The real lesson learned, use cauls to clamp the top flat. I rarely use
biscuits or dowels on long grain to long grain glue ups.

Dave

Max Mahanke wrote:
Belt sanders are to the sanding world what skew chisels are to the
turning
world - a lot of people seem to be afraid of them. I've flatten
panels with
belt sanders very successfully.

snip a belt sander technique described by Max

If you truly want to flatten a top with hand techniques, borrow the
"long board" method used by boat builders to fair a hull.

Start by spraying a spit coat of something like black lacquer on the
surface.

Make a long board from 1/2"-5/8" plywood, say about 4" x 48" with some
handles on one side.

Glue some 24 grit (flooring paper) to the other side with rubber
cement and you are ready.

Start sanding at 45 degree angle and alternate at +/- 45 using full
strokes.

Continue process until black is gone.

Check your work with a fairing batten such as the back side of a 3/4 x
3/4 x 1/16 x 96 aluminum angle which will allow you to measure the
flatness to less than 0.0010".

Continue process until your arms feel like they want to fall off. When
they do, your top is flatG.

Finish out using a ROS and progressively finer grit paper.

Now you know why I suggested going to a commercial drum sander shop.

Lew

"Mekon" wrote in message
...

Are there others I haven't considered, if so what? What would be the best?

Oh and buying new timber and joining it properly isn't an option atm. Q
Maple is spendy stuff.

Well, I'd use a plane. Belt sanders are scary things, and they find no
skill in my hands to guide them.

Location is everything. Your trees are not our N American trees. Just
hacked up a NASTY hard maple about 15 inches in diameter 8 feet long for
bowl blanks. Had he been a sawlog, he'd have been worth money, but what is
too full of embedded bark around branches will go up the chimney winter
after next. Hard maple goes for about a buck a board foot in selects up
here. This log was about six bucks as firewood.

Lew Hodgett wrote:
Max Mahanke wrote:
Belt sanders are to the sanding world what skew chisels are to the
turning
world - a lot of people seem to be afraid of them. I've flatten
panels with
belt sanders very successfully.

snip a belt sander technique described by Max

If you truly want to flatten a top with hand techniques, borrow the
"long board" method used by boat builders to fair a hull.

Start by spraying a spit coat of something like black lacquer on the
surface.

Make a long board from 1/2"-5/8" plywood, say about 4" x 48" with some
handles on one side.

Glue some 24 grit (flooring paper) to the other side with rubber cement
and you are ready.

Start sanding at 45 degree angle and alternate at +/- 45 using full
strokes.

Continue process until black is gone.

Check your work with a fairing batten such as the back side of a 3/4 x
3/4 x 1/16 x 96 aluminum angle which will allow you to measure the
flatness to less than 0.0010".

Continue process until your arms feel like they want to fall off. When
they do, your top is flatG.

Finish out using a ROS and progressively finer grit paper.

Now you know why I suggested going to a commercial drum sander shop.

Lew
That sounds like an incredible amount of work! Also, fairing a curve
with a bendable sandpaper backer is a far cry from what the OP is
looking for.

Dave

Just goes to prove, the first liar never has a chance. Your method is
definately superior if your going for .001" even tho I think a 4' board on a
side table is a bit over-kill. I'll admit that the belt sander is not the
method to flatten a conference table but for side tables I'll stick with it.
I've gotten side tables flat enough (and in less time than the long board
method) to take a high-gloss rubbed finish that looks perfectly flat in
raking light. I like to save my poor old arms for rubbing out finishes
which power tools are not that good at. But to each his own.

BTW, Klingspor Abrasives does recommend a 60 degree angle for the most
efficient stock removal and I've found that to be true.

"Lew Hodgett" wrote in message
.net...
Max Mahanke wrote:
Belt sanders are to the sanding world what skew chisels are to the
turning
world - a lot of people seem to be afraid of them. I've flatten
panels with
belt sanders very successfully.

snip a belt sander technique described by Max

If you truly want to flatten a top with hand techniques, borrow the
"long board" method used by boat builders to fair a hull.

Start by spraying a spit coat of something like black lacquer on the
surface.

Make a long board from 1/2"-5/8" plywood, say about 4" x 48" with some
handles on one side.

Glue some 24 grit (flooring paper) to the other side with rubber
cement and you are ready.

Start sanding at 45 degree angle and alternate at +/- 45 using full
strokes.

Continue process until black is gone.

Check your work with a fairing batten such as the back side of a 3/4 x
3/4 x 1/16 x 96 aluminum angle which will allow you to measure the
flatness to less than 0.0010".

Continue process until your arms feel like they want to fall off. When
they do, your top is flatG.

Finish out using a ROS and progressively finer grit paper.

Now you know why I suggested going to a commercial drum sander shop.

Lew

Max Mahanke wrote:
Just goes to prove, the first liar never has a chance. Your method is
definately superior if your going for .001" even tho I think a 4'
board on a
side table is a bit over-kill.

snip

SFWIW, took over 4 years to fair out a 55 ft sailboat.

Standard long board consisted of two thicknesses of Luan door skins,
about 4" x 48".

You could twist those boards to follow a compound curve.

The 24 grit paper would wear out in less than an hour sanding epoxy
based fairing compound.

BTW, used at least 3 boxes of 24 grit floor paper. Would buy it from a
flooring distributor and cut pieces as req'd.

If I hadn't found a guy with a lot of talent, I'd still be trying to
fair out that boat.

Did it once, never again.

BTW, the long board was only for final hand strokes.

Lots of time with a 9" right angle sander equipped with 16, then
36,then 60 grit.

IMHO, wearing a hair shirt in direct sun light would be easier than
fairing a hull.

Lew

Lew Hodgett wrote:

: If you truly want to flatten a top with hand techniques, borrow the
: "long board" method used by boat builders to fair a hull.

: Make a long board from 1/2"-5/8" plywood, say about 4" x 48" with some
: handles on one side.

: Glue some 24 grit (flooring paper) to the other side with rubber
: cement and you are ready.

: Start sanding at 45 degree angle and alternate at +/- 45 using full
: strokes.

: Continue process until black is gone.

: Check your work with a fairing batten such as the back side of a 3/4 x
: 3/4 x 1/16 x 96 aluminum angle which will allow you to measure the
: flatness to less than 0.0010".


You're gonna want to do something to that 4' piece of plywood to make
sure it remains dead flat, otherwise it's going to follow whatever
peaks and valleys the boards have. It'll make them smooth, but not flat,
unless you rigidify things.

-- Andy Barss

"Lew Hodgett" wrote in message
.net...
Max Mahanke wrote:
Belt sanders are to the sanding world what skew chisels are to the
turning
world - a lot of people seem to be afraid of them. I've flatten
panels with
belt sanders very successfully.

snip a belt sander technique described by Max

If you truly want to flatten a top with hand techniques, borrow the
"long board" method used by boat builders to fair a hull.

Start by spraying a spit coat of something like black lacquer on the
surface.

Make a long board from 1/2"-5/8" plywood, say about 4" x 48" with some
handles on one side.

Glue some 24 grit (flooring paper) to the other side with rubber
cement and you are ready.

Start sanding at 45 degree angle and alternate at +/- 45 using full
strokes.

Continue process until black is gone.

Check your work with a fairing batten such as the back side of a 3/4 x
3/4 x 1/16 x 96 aluminum angle which will allow you to measure the
flatness to less than 0.0010".

Continue process until your arms feel like they want to fall off. When
they do, your top is flatG.

Finish out using a ROS and progressively finer grit paper.

Now you know why I suggested going to a commercial drum sander shop.

Lew

"Lew Hodgett" wrote in message
.net...
Max Mahanke wrote:
Belt sanders are to the sanding world what skew chisels are to the
turning
world - a lot of people seem to be afraid of them. I've flatten
panels with
belt sanders very successfully.

snip a belt sander technique described by Max

If you truly want to flatten a top with hand techniques, borrow the
"long board" method used by boat builders to fair a hull.

Start by spraying a spit coat of something like black lacquer on the
surface.

Make a long board from 1/2"-5/8" plywood, say about 4" x 48" with some
handles on one side.

Glue some 24 grit (flooring paper) to the other side with rubber
cement and you are ready.

Start sanding at 45 degree angle and alternate at +/- 45 using full
strokes.

Continue process until black is gone.

Same process as using jointer p;ane. Yes, it works well.


Check your work with a fairing batten such as the back side of a 3/4 x
3/4 x 1/16 x 96 aluminum angle which will allow you to measure the
flatness to less than 0.0010".

With you until this point. You can use this to tell if the panel matches the
aluminum reference piece to within .001 but it won't tell you if it's flat.
That piece of aluminum will not be anywher near that close.


Continue process until your arms feel like they want to fall off. When
they do, your top is flatG.

Finish out using a ROS and progressively finer grit paper.

Now you know why I suggested going to a commercial drum sander shop.

Lew

"Teamcasa" wrote in message
...
6. Get some winding sticks and a good hand plane. This too will take some
time but you will be rewarded with the lessons learned and personal
satisfaction of doing it by hand.
Actually, this is a rather quick and accurate method. By planing diagonally
then finishing up with the grain, flatness is quite easy to achieve. DON'T
use a scrub plane. They are to short and dig very good holes. You need
something long. #6 or #7 would be good. If you have never done something
like this before, now's not the time. Find the shop with the wide belt
sander.

Andrew Barss wrote:

You're gonna want to do something to that 4' piece of plywood to make
sure it remains dead flat, otherwise it's going to follow whatever
peaks and valleys the boards have. It'll make them smooth, but not
flat,
unless you rigidify things.


If you can get a piece of 1/2" (9 ply) or 5/8" (11) ply birch ply to
bend when being used as a 48" long, long board, you are a hell of a
lot better man than I am, which is entirely possible.

You are also using it improperly.

Lew

In article ,
Mekon wrote:
I'm making a side table.

The top is Queensland Maple (a cabinet grade hardwood) I joined three 200mm
(8"?) boards together with a biscuit joiner, For reasons probably related to
my shortcomings in the talent department the surface is uneven and I need to
fix it.

I believe I have two options.
1. A jig I designed a while ago which will pass a router over the whole
surface at a constant height. which will make the boards flat and square,
but will add a lot more time to the final finish
2. Go out and buy a belt sander and do the job that way.

Are there others I haven't considered, if so what? What would be the best?

Oh and buying new timber and joining it properly isn't an option atm. Q
Maple is spendy stuff.

TIA

Mekon



You could check around your area for cabinet shops that would run the
top through their wide belt sander for a (usually reasonable) fee. I'm
not sure, but I believe Woodcraft stores may be able to help also.
--

Larry Wasserman Baltimore, Maryland

Lew Hodgett wrote:
: Andrew Barss wrote:

: You're gonna want to do something to that 4' piece of plywood to make
: sure it remains dead flat, otherwise it's going to follow whatever
: peaks and valleys the boards have. It'll make them smooth, but not
: flat,
: unless you rigidify things.


: If you can get a piece of 1/2" (9 ply) or 5/8" (11) ply birch ply to
: bend when being used as a 48" long, long board, you are a hell of a
: lot better man than I am, which is entirely possible.

: You are also using it improperly.

I'm completely confused. You say that a 48 inch long, four inch wide
piece of plywood is capable of staying flat enough to make another
board flat to within a few thousandths of an inch. This
implies that the piece of ply will not flex, beyond a couple thousandths,
as you apply pressure to it using a couple of handles.

Steel would do that. Plywood would flex at least an order of magnitude,
probably two, beyond that. That is, I would expect a four-foot long piece
of half-inch ply to easily flex at least a tenth of an inch along its length
as you apply differential pressure to it.

Do you really say what I think you do?


-- Andy Barss

Lew Hodgett wrote:
: Andrew Barss wrote:

: You're gonna want to do something to that 4' piece of plywood to make
: sure it remains dead flat, otherwise it's going to follow whatever
: peaks and valleys the boards have. It'll make them smooth, but not
: flat,
: unless you rigidify things.


: If you can get a piece of 1/2" (9 ply) or 5/8" (11) ply birch ply to
: bend when being used as a 48" long, long board, you are a hell of a
: lot better man than I am, which is entirely possible.


To clarify, are you talking about a piece of ply which is
5/8" in the dimension perpendicular to the surface being flattened?
or is it rotated so there is 4" perpendicular, and a 5/8"
surface with sandpaper on it?


I can imagine the latter being inflexible to the extent you
describe it, but no the former.


-- Clarifyingly yours,

Andy Barss

Andrew Barss wrote:


I'm completely confused. You say that a 48 inch long, four inch wide
piece of plywood is capable of staying flat enough to make another
board flat to within a few thousandths of an inch. This
implies that the piece of ply will not flex, beyond a couple
thousandths,
as you apply pressure to it using a couple of handles.

Steel would do that. Plywood would flex at least an order of
magnitude,
probably two, beyond that. That is, I would expect a four-foot
long piece
of half-inch ply to easily flex at least a tenth of an inch along
its length
as you apply differential pressure to it.

Do you really say what I think you do?

Perhaps this will help.

You use a long board in conjunction with a fairing batten.

Take a few strokes with the long board, then check your work with a
fairing batten.

Using the back edge of a 3/4" x 3/4" x 1/16" x 96" aluminum angle as a
batten, you litteraly look for daylight between the work surface and
the angle.

A 1/32" gap looks bug enough to drive a truck thru G.

Lew

If this is a one time project I like the time saver anwser. If you are
are interested in working wood which I assume you do than I would
suggest to learn to fix your mistakes which as stated before proably
were due to not face jointing.The anwsers above that I like is to
either cut and re glue or buy a used # 6 or 7 plane, and make some
winding sticks. I purchased one on e-bay, flattened it on glass and put
a hock blade in it and use it often. Take some swipes on the back side
to learn. The pencil mark idea is a good one as well. Remember what
ever method you use will yeild a thickness which is less than you had
planned and depends on how off you were. If you started over would you
have use for the old top?

"Mekon" wrote in message
...
I'm making a side table.

Thanks all for your answers. I appreciate them all.

A couple of people have suggested that the cause of my problem is that I
didn't face joint the boards. I did face joint them, the problem is not that
there are gaps in the joint but that one board is higher on one side and
obviously lower on the other.

I can't start over for a couple of reasons beyond that the original purchase
almost required me to discuss the project with my bank manager.
Resawing the boards apart would leave either the top too narrow or require
another board.

I called around and my board is now 20mm wider than the 400 maximum possible
on the few places that will sand this for me and anyway
Dave (Teamcasa) struck a nerve when he suggested that if others do it I
might not be able to say I built it myself.
The 'router carrier' that he suggests sounds like the jig I made a while ago
without knowing what I was making. Reinventing the wheel I suppose.

There are no Woodcraft stores in Brisbane Australia.

I googled for winding stick pictures but found nothing.

I'll post pics in alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking and on my site, so the
curious can see what happend next!

Thanks again

Mekkon

Winding sticks are easy to make and many past magazine issues have
articles.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...76&cat=1,41182

In article ,
says...

A couple of people have suggested that the cause of my problem is that I
didn't face joint the boards. I did face joint them, the problem is not that
there are gaps in the joint but that one board is higher on one side and
obviously lower on the other.


I thought that was one of the possibilities, having had similar problems with
bisquit jointing when I started out with that technology.

The best remedy for that, in my opinion, is a very sharp finishing plane, at 45
degrees or even 90 degrees across the grain to get rid of the step (run plane
towards the high step so's not to get tear-out), then a cabinet scraper or
maybe a random orbital sander to clean up.

-Peter

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firstname dot lastname at gmail fullstop com

A couple of people have suggested that the cause of my problem is that I
didn't face joint the boards. I did face joint them, the problem is not
that
there are gaps in the joint but that one board is higher on one side and
obviously lower on the other.

Ah yes. Some swear by biscuit joiners, I swear at them. biscuits add little
or no strength to a joined top. If your equipment/technique is good enough
so that you can use biscuits to aid alignment, then go for it. Mine isn't.

I don't have any difficulty aligning glue-ups by hand. What I don't do is
any more than 2 seams in a clamp-up, usually only one.

Next time, try aligning the boards manually. If the seams are well-jointed
(that is, you do not have to ben the wood to close the joint), I find that I
can glue the next seam in 15 or 20 minutes.

Cheers,

Steve


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