Help!! Tear out.

[Froggy]

I can remember seeing a thread for tear out recently (but didn't read it) so forgive me if this repeat stuff.
I've almost finished a dining table in Oak and went to plane the table top and now have several quite deep gouges
Is there anyway to deal with this other than cutting the table top into strips again and putting it through the planer?

 

[harryc]

You could try using a card scraper to remove as much of the marks as you can or my method get the belt sander out

Harry

 

[Froggy]

Yes, I did think about using a belt sander, as I have one of those attachments that help keep the sander flat and prevent further gouges, but I'm thinking it could take a long time and a lot of replacements sanding belts before I get through 2/3mm of oak over a surface area of about 2m2!! :?

 

[yetloh]

If it really is that deep, scraping is going to leave an obvious hollow, so there is no easy answer. You could try filling it and no doubt a furniture restorer could do an invisible repair, but it would become obvious over time as the wood will darken and the filler will not. It really does seem to come down to reducing the thickness all over or sawing out the offending part and re-jointing.

I really do sympathise - I know that horrible sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach when you know you have f****d it up.

Jim

 

[Froggy]

You're absolutely right there Jim. I think it's worse when you're near the end of a job as I am with this. Made me feel bad all day yesterday, but....Thanks to Harry I did give the belt sander a go and to my suprise and joy I've managed to get rid of the gouges with no obvious dip in the table :lol:
I didn't take the amount of work that I thought it would, which is why I discounted that option early on. Thanks very much for the push Harry...it's made my day.

 

[yetloh]

Glad you managed to rescue it.

It reminds me of the time, at the end of a long hard day, when I put the screws through the buttons, put the oak table top in position and gave it some good whacks with the mallet to mark the positions for the screw pilot holes, only to discover I had the top the wrong way up and now had eight nice clear deep dents in the face side of the table top. A feeling of utter despair ensued as the underside had a big holey knot in it.

In the calm light of the next morning the solution became clear - use hide glue and pieces of end grain to repair the holes around the knot. In retrospect I think I prefer the top as it is - more character - but after ten years I still remember the trauma as if it was yesterday!

Jim