Table Top Gaps -Finished - Purists Beware!

Earlier this month I posted a thread requesting information about repairing the gaps on a round table. It is now finished and photos attached.

Many responded by saying that the top could be removed, joints planed and all re glued before reattaching the top.
I agree that this is the best option, but in this case the top was well and truly fixed with screws and wooden brackets as well a being very well nailed from the top into the rails. A lot of damage would occur to lift the top panels.

So, to fill the gaps, but with what! I nearly took the advice or fitting a veneer strip in a routed groove. But decided that a filler was better in this case. Most wood fillers will crack along the joints in time, so a flexible filler was used. After a lot of research, I decided on black SikaFlex 11FC. This is a polyurethane adhesive-sealant. This was put into a 3mm routed groove that cut away all the dirt, grease and splits down the gaps.

The table was then finished in teak stain, sealer and wax. The black joints are very acceptable in the darker timber top.

Comments or criticisms on this result are welcome.

Hilton

Well done Hap. I like it.

see what you mean about it being nailed down. The filling and finish look great:2tsup:.not a crit but why not dark oak as I am guessing that it is oak timer?:)billym

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Originally Posted by billym

see what you mean about it being nailed down. The filling and finish look great:2tsup:.not a crit but why not dark oak as I am guessing that it is oak timer?:)billym

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I generally use the old and available Wattyl stain and have used the Teak colour for many years. They have a Golden Oak, but his is too yellow.
What brand gives a dark oak colour?
Hilton

Hi Hap97

That looks great. Very glad you didn't go with a veneer inlay, you would just have had more troubles down the track.

Cheers
Michael

Awesome, now I know how to do it too. Thanks for the show and tell. Yours looks great.

These are some photos of preparing the gaps.
This Sikaflex product sands quite well, but I noticed that the polyurathane sealer did not dry properly. I wiped it with turps and the wax finish was then OK. The Sikaflex does stay flexible and is soft when pressing it. But it is OK.

Don't know why I didn't get in on this earlier.

Beaut job.:2tsup::2tsup:

If you want to conceal nails you use a narrow chisel and lift up a section of the timber, drive and punch the nail and the glue the lifted piece back down. Very hard to detect when stained, sanded and finished.

I didn't see this thread before either.

The top should never have been nailed to the base, but that presumably occurred before you decided to rescue it.

I believe the best solution would have been to remove the top and re-joint the boards. It's not as difficult as you'd imagine, though you would have had to reshape the top, making it concentrically smaller.

If you were adamant about not removing the top, a better (in my opinion) method of disguising the splits would have been to dovetail the split and finish it to a point so the slot didn't end abruptly, thereby drawing one's eye to it.

A thin dovetail slip could then be knocked in which could have been stained and polished with the rest of the table and you most likely would never have noticed the repair.

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Originally Posted by Woodwould

If you were adamant about not removing the top, a better (in my opinion) method of disguising the splits would have been to dovetail the split and finish it to a point so the slot didn't end abruptly, thereby drawing one's eye to it.

A thin dovetail slip could then be knocked in which could have been stained and polished with the rest of the table and you most likely would never have noticed the repair.

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Hi Woodwould, I've enjoyed reading your gems and this looks like being another pearl of wisdom! But I don't understand what you mean to dovetail the split and finish it to a point. I don't understand the rest either, but I think that will be apparent once I understand the first part!

Cheers
Michael

Sorry, I can clearly see the process in my mind's eye, but sometimes I don't succeed in conveying my meaning.

Since he has a router, I would have routed out the split using a small router bit (if indeed there is such a thing) to the end of the split. Then I would use a chisel to reduce the end of the routed slot to a sharp pointed 'V' (in plan view).

The tip of the dovetailed oak filler slip would obviously need to be planed to a perfectly matched 'V'. When all's done and polished the pointed end wouldn't be as noticeable as a half-round or a square-ended slot and slip.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Woodwould

Sorry, I can clearly see the process in my mind's eye, but sometimes I don't succeed in conveying my meaning.

Since he has a router, I would have routed out the split using a small router bit (if indeed there is such a thing) to the end of the split. Then I would use a chisel to reduce the end of the routed slot to a sharp pointed 'V' (in plan view).

The tip of the dovetailed oak filler slip would obviously need to be planed to a perfectly matched 'V'. When all's done and polished the pointed end wouldn't be as noticeable as a half-round or a square-ended slot and slip.

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You mean like this? size exagerated of course.
Cheers
Michael

:huh:

Sorry again, I should have emphasized a small dovetail router bit.

Here's a quick drawing of what I'm desparately trying to describe:

Like ships in the night! When I first viewed your query, there was no attached drawing, but of course, as soon as I posted my reply, your drawing had magically appeared! :U

Alright, I'm a complete dunce. :doh: I initially only clicked on one of the thumb nails and saw a split that didn't run the whole way across the table.

Now that I clicked the other thumbnails and have seen the extent of the splits, I wouldn't even consider trying to fit dovetail slips, I would definitely have dismantled the top and closed all the splits and reshaped the edge.

Sorry for the confusion! :B

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Woodwould

Like ships in the night! When I first viewed your query, there was no attached drawing, but of course, as soon as I posted my reply, your drawing had magically appeared! :U

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Got your idea now. Don't know where my image disappeared to at first try.

Cheers
Michael

I agree with WW

I would have taken the top off and bggr the nailholes, that table will always look rustic so a bit more damage wouldnt matter. That filler will be hell to remove next time round.
sorry but thats MHO.

Astrid

I have always been in the "Take it off and joint it properly" camp since I first saw pictures of this table in a previous thread.

If the top was not going to be removed, a better solution would have been to simply refinish it the way it was with the gaps and make a feature of them. Many old tables only had the planks pushed up together. If the gaps were too wide, the planks could have been clamped up as close as possible and a wooden butterfly routed in from underneath across the joins.

If the filler stays flexible, it will get damaged and kids for sure are going to see it as something to poke and dig at.

None-the-less Billy, you have done a good job of it and it looks flat and clean... much improvement over the original! We all have our own opinions and expectations and the main thing is that you are happy with it.

Cheers,

Chipman:)