10 Tips for Better TABLE TOPS
What’s it take to make a table top? You just edge-glue a few boards together, sand ‘em, and there you go, right? Not so fast. Not if you want something that looks great and represents quality workmanship. After all, a table’s top is its most prominent feature. Sure, it’s basically just a panel, but you can screw it up any number of ways by mismatching boards, milling them incorrectly, or improperly joining them, among other errors. If you want to create table tops that dress up rooms in style, and that show people you know your stuff when it comes to woodworking, check out these 10 time-tested techniques.
1 Start with good material
A good table top starts with good material. If you can, buy boards graded FAS (firsts and seconds). An FAS-graded board must be at least 6" wide, 8' long, and 83.33% free of knots and defects (depending on the species). Unfortunately, many small mills don’t sort by grade, in which case you’ll just have to do the best assessment you can on your own.
