Maple glue up

[john verge]

I am building myself a kitchen island and plan to do an eastern maple counter top. I plan to edge glue a few boards together to make a counter top about 8' long by 38" wide and the boards are 1" thick. I was told that maple is closed cell thereby making it hard to glue. Is there a special glue to use i wonder or would splines and glue suffice.curious if people have had any experience here?
A couple of pictures showing the island carcas and the dovetail joined baltic birch drawer sides. Definitely wont use plywood again as its not much fun routing ply. It splinters badly so you have to sandwich between two boards.

[Chris Hall]

How did it come out in the end?

~C

[john verge]

Thanks for asking. It turned out ok. The drawers all have the blumotion hardware which is nice for closing and the top is maple which i have applied 8 coats of tung oil to. However, the finish is less than ok. I find it a bit uneven and a bit tacky. I did apply a couple of coats with fine steel wool but maybe it needs to be waxed? Still needs pulls so once i figure on those will post up with the final. Also i have to decide on that opening as to whether or not i will spice rack it or leave it as a cookie rack storage. Of course then i will probably put a door on it.john

[John Whitley]

[...] the top is maple which i have applied 8 coats of tung oil to. However, the finish is less than ok. I find it a bit uneven and a bit tacky.

HI John,

First, I'll assume your tung oil is actual "100% tung oil", versus the many other varied finishing products labeled "tung oil" (w/o "100%"). Oil finishes will become tacky if excess is left on the wood; they need to be entirely wiped off after each coat is applied. Related, some large-pored woods will bleed oil back out and will need to be periodically wiped down until the bleeding stops. I doubt the latter is the issue, given that you're working with maple.

None of that was clear to me until I read Bob Flexner's Understanding Wood Finishes, which sorted out a lot of the mythology wood finishes. See also Flexner's Wood Finishing 101, another excellent resource. I really find these books to be vital because they cut through so much folklore, marketing nonsense, and outright misinformation from the finish manufacturers.

At this point, the tackiness might eventually fully harden up, but you'll probably want to strip with paint stripper and have another go at finishing.

[Chris Hall]

John nailed it on both counts: the likely reason for the tackiness of the finish and the advice he gave to take look at the Flexner books. You can probably get them through your local library.

I would suggest that Tung Oil, either the real stuff or the wiping varnish, is not the best choice for a light wood like maple.

Here's a product you may wish to consider, but not sure if it is available in Canuckistan yet:

http://www.vermontnaturalcoatings.com/o ... re-finish/

Easy to use, no metallic driers, and cures quickly. Otherwise, for a work surface or tabletop, polyurethane is likely a good choice. Of the varnishes, it dries and cures with the least amount of yellowing.

[john verge]

Thanks for the advice John/Chris. So i believe that there was residual tung oil ( 100% pure) left on the surface which was not wiped off. So i have lightly sanded the top with 400 silicon carbide paper. The surface now looks even and flat and not at all tacky. So i plan to apply another coat with a bit of steel wool as they reccomend, let cure for a bit then wipe off the excess well. Then i plan to wax it and buff it to a high gloss and see how it performs. If this program goes sideways then i will scrape it down and revisit it again. Feeling optimistic though that this process should work. The last coat which i applied found me slapping it on and quickly wiping it off then leaving for 2 weeks. I'm sure that i had left loads of residual on as a result. Thanks again guys.

[Sal Cangialosi]

I have also been working with Tung oil. What I found is that Flexner's point about it needing many coats is spot on. On one cherry top, I had used as many as 12 coats after which it did develop a very rich low lustre sheen. The other aspect that makes tung oil difficul (at least for me) was the time it takes bewtween coats to dry. In the end, I was happy with the result; but not sure it was commensurate with the work.

[john verge]

Thanks again for yet another insight! The plot thickens. John