live edge trestle table part 4

next up it's time to glue the two pieces of bookmatched black oak together to form the tabletop. we choose to use a spline for this, which you will see below. step one, route a groove for the spline to fit into. we had to clamp the pieces on an edge so we could work with the side that will be glued.

with a few passes of the router, i had a nice and straight channel for the spline to fit into.

we made a test spline with a piece of scrap first, in order to get the perfect thinkness for our spline.

and when we were satisfied with the thickness of our test piece, we cut the near full length spline. i didn't want to reveal the spline at the edge that has the tree's natural edge, so the routed groove didn't go all the way through that edge. i did want a reveal at the edge that is closer in this picture. this spline is made from leftover mulberry, the same wood i made my credenza out of.

Here's a close up view of the spline, there's dried glue on the table that looks like a piece of the spline.

we used as many clamps as it took to get a nice squeeze out (when the glue starts to ooze out of the cracks of the two edges you are gluing).

it was super super dry this day in san diego, the glue dried even faster than it normally does. the glue process was even more hectic since we had to clamp the pieces vertical first (just like when we routed each piece) in order to apply the glue. then we had to take the pieces to vertical, brush glue on the spline, line it up, and clamp. i had no time to take pics during glue since time is so essential.

dad is doing a lean of relief, that everything went smooth.

link to part 5