Gluing up cherry panel

[Tom Miller]

As it turns out, the Craftsman 21829 (BT3100 look-a-like) did an incredible job cleaning up the edges! The joints in the final glued up panel are perfect.

Sweet! And congratulations!

Regards,
Tom

[onedash]

Be sure to wait several days to a week or more to flatten the top at the glue lines. Those areas will be swollen from the glue, so flattening too soon will result in a dip along those lines.

Regards,
Tom

Is this true???? I never heard that before. Even with biscuits I don't usually get perfect allignment on bigger panels. So the following day I usually go after them little ridges. Usually I use my glue scraper. So my kitchen table for example looks pretty flat but if you run your hand accross it you can feel that it is not perfectly flat...

[onedash]

The problem to me sounds like the lumber yard didn't properly prepare the lumber. If you run a warped board through the planer, you will get a thinner warped board. In order to properly prepare rough stock, you need to start by face jointing the board to get a flat face. Then, you would edge joint the board, refrencing the flat edge against the fend, and you will have a flat edge that is 90 degrees to one face. After that, you can plane the board to thickness, and rip it to width.
.

I'll second that. One time you can get away with this though is when making stiles and rails and even the panels I usually skip that first step.
I hit the edge on the jointer, cut to width on the table saw, and plane to required thickness. I made a bunch last night for my desk. no problems. I think it spoiled me though because I skipped it on some little walnut strips for a little door and i think its ever so slightly warped. I dont think it will cause any problems especially when I put the glass in, I ended up with less than perfect results by skipping it.

[JimD]

Maybe I am not very picky but I sand after letting the glue dry an hour or more and have never noticed a thickness change at the glue joint. I also have heard people talk about a thickness change from a biscuit in the joint but I have not seen one. I usually work with oak but have used maple, walnut, and cherry. I also use gloss finishes which I would think would make a surface irregularity more obvious.

My boards typically do not lie flat. Sometimes the board was flat to start with but when you cut it up, it warps because of stresses that were balanced when it was one piece but become unbalanced when it is cut up. Could also be something else. I don't worry about it. I clamp at one end and then gradually clamp across the pieces pushing the unclamped end up and down to make the surface as flat as possible. I am putting stresses into the top but it doesn't seem to cause much of a problem. I am also talking about pretty small "warping", say 1/4 inch or less in 2 feet. If it was a lot more than this, I might think twice about using another board and cutting the warped piece up into door pieces or something narrower (which I have also done before).

Jim