Building and cutting a 6 foot round solid oak top.

We started with 5/4 solid oak we hand-picked at Auburn Hardwoods in Auburn, CA.  Next we made a pattern on the floor of half of the 6 foot circle.  We joined the edges of the boards, cut them to the desired width on the table saw and then built half circles using the pattern.  We started in the middle with boards a little over 6 ft. and then made each consecutive board a little bit smaller so as not to waste too much material.

One challenge we had at this stage was how to get the top sanded once it was all glued up.  There is a shop in town that has a time saver (a big sander with a conveyer belt which sands pieces flat) that is only 48″ wide.  So we glued up 6 half circles, had them sanded, brought them back to the shop and glued two halves together to make 3 tops big enough to get a 6 ft. round out of.

How to cut a 6 ft. circle?  I was going to use a router mounted onto an extension board attached to the top in the center with a pin.  But as we all know, routers can produce hideous tear out as it enters and exits the end grain, especially on Oak.   So a fellow woodworker suggested we use the bandsaw.  It

Cutting the circle

turned out to be a wonderful suggestion.  Instead of building an out-feed table for the bandsaw, it turned out that the table bases were almost the right height.  So we leveled the bases (which actually have a pipe resting in a bearing in both the center of the base and top allowing a pivot point for the top) with the bandsaw, and made sure it was perpendicular to the blade.  This was a little tricky and took some time on the first top, but after that it was smooth sailing.  The cut produced by the 5/8″ bandsaw blade was awesome.  It took very little sanding to get it smooth, no tear out!!

Here are some pictures showing us cutting.

Peter cutting one.

Monica cutting one.

The set up!

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