This post continues my documentation of my EC&I 831 Learning Project, where I am making my own coffee table.
Now that I had my boards cut down to the lengths I wanted and the edges squared off, it was time to put the top and bottom shelf surfaces together.
The best way to do this is with wood glue.
To keep things all aligned, I created a triangle with my pencil, like suggested by this video:
It was also critical to use clamps. The clamps ensure that the boards straighten out and the table top will actually be flat. This video was useful for outlining the need for this and ways to ensure it.
I was surprised to learn that the glue will actually be stronger than the wood. This means that the wood will break before the gluing will separate. He goes into planing which I will be creating an entirely separate post about.Here are some images from my experience gluing both the top of my coffee table and bottom shelf of the table together.
There are a ton of tips and resources online for gluing the wood together. They can get very technical very fast. So, like other aspects of the learning project, I think it’s best to have someone experienced with this nearby (like I did) so they can help you identify any potential trouble spots early on.
