MikeG.
Established Member
Riot, it's great that someone new is coming to woodworking. We all love that, and we're all here to help. Just please understand that you're in amongst quite a few people who are somewhere on the continuum between talented amateur and expert, and we're all cringing at the mistakes you are about to make. If you approach people with a bit of a gentler manner seeking advice then I'm sure people will give it freely. Woodworking is not just a process and a series of skills. There is underlying knowledge necessary to be successful, which is why Youtube is not the best way of learning.
You have revealed a lack of understanding of the basic construction of stuff made of wood. Wood moves more or less constantly within set and predictable patterns, and allowing for this is an absolute fundamental of the craft. Many decades ago I planned to cash in on the boom in waxed "farmhouse" pine Welsh dressers by making one out of construction grade pine from my local builders merchant. I was really proud of the result when I brought it in to the house from the workshop. Within a week it had almost fallen to pieces, with gaps appearing everywhere, doors becoming un-openable, the worktop had split open and cupped, and white strips of unfinished timber appeared alongside many of the junctions. I took it back out, re-glued everything, trimmed the newly appeared overhangs, screwed cross-battens on underneath the worktop, and re-finished it. When I brought it back in the same thing happened again, and the timbers of the top split wide open. I ended up taking it completely to bits and storing the wood for later use.......two weeks work completely wasted.
What people here are trying to do is save you going through that same disaster. You can take heed, or you can chuck away many hours work and quite a lot of money.
Let's start with flattening your boards. Conveniently, Youtube never shows people having twisted ("in wind") boards, or cupped boards, or bowed boards. They just show someone feeding their timber through a thicknesser and it popping out ready for construction. You cannot flatten a board in a thicknesser.* There are only two ways of flattening such boards, and they are either hand planing, or the use of a long-bed surface planer.......and by "long bed" I mean the in feed table must be as long as the board you are attempting to flatten. Pouring resin onto anything which isn't flat would produce something of a disaster, so you must start your learning experience with flattening.
Fixing your yew table top directly to a steel or wood frame will produce the same sort of results that I got with my first pine Welsh dresser. It will split the top. Whether that is along the junction between the resin and the timber, or along the length of the timber, isn't easy to predict, but what is certain is that your table will be ruined. Allowance has to be made for movement, with elongated holes, or better, with the use of "buttons". Have you ever looked underneath on old table? Do yourself a favour and go to an auction showroom or antique shop, and have a good look at how tables, dressers, drawers, chests etc were put together. Note the buttons. Note the dovetails (they're not for show, you know). Note the overhang at the back of the drawer bases.
I hope you are beginning to see the issue. You've arrived here and said "I've watched Youtube and am going to make a table, just help me with the toxicity of the wood I'm planning on using"....and we've all thought, "sod the toxicity of the wood, that's the very least of your problems". A table is a complex project, and you know so little that you don't even realise it's complex. You don't know what you don't know. Have a look through the "Projects" section of the forum and read through some of the builds, and you may begin to realise there is more to this woodworking malarkey than you first thought. Ask for help and advice, and do that knowing that we know that you don't know much. There are plenty of beginners on here, and a number of them have been guided by other members through to completing quite nice projects years sooner than they would otherwise have managed. Approach us an an asset, a resource to be tapped. Don't snap at the first person who shows some incredulity at your proposals, and hopefully you'll get a helping hand towards a long and successful adventure through the world of woodworking.
*You can't, but those prepared to construct a sled might be able to. You don't have the skills for that at the moment.
You have revealed a lack of understanding of the basic construction of stuff made of wood. Wood moves more or less constantly within set and predictable patterns, and allowing for this is an absolute fundamental of the craft. Many decades ago I planned to cash in on the boom in waxed "farmhouse" pine Welsh dressers by making one out of construction grade pine from my local builders merchant. I was really proud of the result when I brought it in to the house from the workshop. Within a week it had almost fallen to pieces, with gaps appearing everywhere, doors becoming un-openable, the worktop had split open and cupped, and white strips of unfinished timber appeared alongside many of the junctions. I took it back out, re-glued everything, trimmed the newly appeared overhangs, screwed cross-battens on underneath the worktop, and re-finished it. When I brought it back in the same thing happened again, and the timbers of the top split wide open. I ended up taking it completely to bits and storing the wood for later use.......two weeks work completely wasted.
What people here are trying to do is save you going through that same disaster. You can take heed, or you can chuck away many hours work and quite a lot of money.
Let's start with flattening your boards. Conveniently, Youtube never shows people having twisted ("in wind") boards, or cupped boards, or bowed boards. They just show someone feeding their timber through a thicknesser and it popping out ready for construction. You cannot flatten a board in a thicknesser.* There are only two ways of flattening such boards, and they are either hand planing, or the use of a long-bed surface planer.......and by "long bed" I mean the in feed table must be as long as the board you are attempting to flatten. Pouring resin onto anything which isn't flat would produce something of a disaster, so you must start your learning experience with flattening.
Fixing your yew table top directly to a steel or wood frame will produce the same sort of results that I got with my first pine Welsh dresser. It will split the top. Whether that is along the junction between the resin and the timber, or along the length of the timber, isn't easy to predict, but what is certain is that your table will be ruined. Allowance has to be made for movement, with elongated holes, or better, with the use of "buttons". Have you ever looked underneath on old table? Do yourself a favour and go to an auction showroom or antique shop, and have a good look at how tables, dressers, drawers, chests etc were put together. Note the buttons. Note the dovetails (they're not for show, you know). Note the overhang at the back of the drawer bases.
I hope you are beginning to see the issue. You've arrived here and said "I've watched Youtube and am going to make a table, just help me with the toxicity of the wood I'm planning on using"....and we've all thought, "sod the toxicity of the wood, that's the very least of your problems". A table is a complex project, and you know so little that you don't even realise it's complex. You don't know what you don't know. Have a look through the "Projects" section of the forum and read through some of the builds, and you may begin to realise there is more to this woodworking malarkey than you first thought. Ask for help and advice, and do that knowing that we know that you don't know much. There are plenty of beginners on here, and a number of them have been guided by other members through to completing quite nice projects years sooner than they would otherwise have managed. Approach us an an asset, a resource to be tapped. Don't snap at the first person who shows some incredulity at your proposals, and hopefully you'll get a helping hand towards a long and successful adventure through the world of woodworking.
*You can't, but those prepared to construct a sled might be able to. You don't have the skills for that at the moment.
) in diameter and still has to be sliced up. The rest I have sliced in to boards between 1.5 and 2.5 inches thick.
