And so I finally reached the glue-up milestone. All the pieces are cut, sanded, drilled, routed, chamfered, planed, and ready to be assembled. It's hard to believe a dining room table can come from that pile of random boring looking boards.
I moved the table top aside to use the particle board on my workbench as a flat surface. I had rags and a squirt bottle ready to sop up glue. I measured the mortises again and cut the floating tenons. Everything was ready. Glue-ups are always a nightmare for me. I wondered what could go wrong this time.
I had 30 minutes left before I had to leave for my Lasik appointment (I know, cool, right?). I figured 30 minutes was more than enough time, so I started. I glued the eight tenons into the 4 aprons. Then I began connecting the aprons to the legs. After banging with a sledge hammer and tightening with a clamp, in an attempt to close the apron-to-leg joints, it hit me. The mortise measurements were correct...until one side of each leg's apron tenons were inserted. Ahhh! I had somehow overlooked the fact that I had cut the tenons such that each would occupy part of the same space; a HUGE mistake!
As the glue was drying, I franticly retrieved my reciprocating saw, clamped the aprons to a porch post, and proceeded to cut 1/2 inch off each tenon. It was a mess. I was dragging the freshly sanded legs across the concrete and banging it all over the place.
Eventually I reconnected the aprons to the legs, and attempted to scrape out half dried glue from the joints I had neglected for that last 15 minutes. That's when Melissa stepped outside and said it's time to go to your Lasik surgery.
Racking. That's the word going through my mind today. I'll have to discuss this with Brek. Most anything can be fixed. I may need to reinforce two of these joints. Glue-ups. The nightmares of amateur woodworkers.
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