Joining Tops and Backs

Oh things are getting really fun now!

We started the morning by putting our pieces of top wood into the oven to toast most of the remaining moisture out.

Meanwhile, we examined our pieces of back wood and made decisions about which side would face out and which edges would become joined as the center seam. Many things factor into that decision... the grain, figure and flame of the wood...any flaws... etc. Then we used a big machine called a jointer, the job of which is to make an edge clean, smooth and 90 degrees.

We did the same thing when the top woods came out of the oven... and then we joined the two halves with good old Titebond wood glue using a rope clamp (in the picture). This is such a cool design... so simple, just a couple of wooden stretchers and some clothesline-like rope. The board is sandwiched between the stretchers. The rope is wrapped around one end... passed across the flat surface and pulled tight and wrapped around the other end... this process is repeated so that the rope goes across on both sides of the stretcher, front and back. Once it's all roped up... you make any final adjustments to the alignment (if you can, it's already tight)... and then push those stretchers into a wedge shaped angle, which creates the clamping pressure in towards the middle (horizontal) seam. Old world technology, and it works!

Oh, and "joining" tops and backs does not mean joining tops TO backs... it means putting the two bookmatched pieces of wood together to make the top and to make the back.