(upbeat country music) (upbeat country music continues) (upbeat country music continues) (wood thumping) - Jiminy, brother!

How heavy do you think this glue- up is?

- Too heavy for us to lift.

(Scott chuckles) - We can do the impossible here at “The American Woodshop".

This is my big brother, John.

He was always an inspiration to me as a child.

Helped me build a tree fort when dad didn't show up.

Thank you for that.

- You're welcome.

- Now, today it's all about the harvest table.

This is almost 12 feet long, and over 200 pounds of just the glue-up on the top.

Learn how to make your own today on “The American Woodshop".

Don't go anywhere.

- [Narrator] “The American Woodshop" with Scott Phillips is brought to you by, - [Speaker 1] Since 1928, Woodcraft has been providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsman.

Woodcraft, helping you make wood work.

- Pro tools (upbeat music) for tool pros (upbeat music continues) Rikon tools.

- [Speaker 2] Woodcraft Magazine, projects, plans and web links designed to help you make wood work.

- [Speaker 3] PS Wood, home of Timber Wolf Swedish Silicone Band Saw Blades, and super sharp scroll saw blades.

- [Speaker 4] A bed to sleep on, a table to share meals.

A house that feels like a home.

The Furniture Bank of Central Ohio providing furniture to neighbors in need.

- Look at this glued up tabletop for the conference table or harvest table.

12 feet long, 52 inches wide, and the wood is just so beautiful.

- Scott, do the boards come like this?

- Oh heck no!

They come hit or miss planed and kiln dried, okay?

And there's a story there.

Back when I was five years old, I first went to the log yard where you're about to go and see the entire process of how they make the world's best walnut.

Let's head there now.

This is why I do this job.

We're at heaven if you're into the lumber business.

Tom Coble, Vice President at Hartzell Hardwoods, one of the world's leading exporters of wood, truckload quantities only.

Okay, behind us, tell us what we're looking at, Tom.

- We are looking at stacks and stacks of green white oak.

Around the corner is walnut, but this is all lumber that has come in green.

We process it, grade it, put it on sticks.

It sits in this shed for a period of time where we then put it into a dry kiln later.

We dry it and then we process it, get it ready for shipment to customers.

- Okay, now here's what every woodworker on earth needs to know.

Moisture content needs to be between 6% to 8% for it not to crack up.

So every year this company, check it out, sells millions of board feet of kiln dried wood.

They bring in green wood here.

They have how many kilns?

- We have 27 kilns here.

We have another nine in Kirksville, Missouri.

- Okay, and so what's a kiln?

Well, it's a steam box, and there are different types of kilns, okay?

But these are all steam kilns.

And so you run it through cycles on one inch thick lumber.

Walnut?

- Yes.

- [Scott] How long does it normally take you in a normal kiln to dry it?

- It's between two and three weeks.

Walnut comes in, by the time we receive it green, put it on sticks and get it through our kiln, it's about a month.

An eight quarter, two inch thick can take up to three to four to five months depending on a bunch of factors and time of year and so on and so forth.

- [Scott] So why steam, why does that dry it?

- Yeah, so walnut trees, as you know, the sapwood is very white, the heartwood is very dark.

Customers pay a premium for walnut for that really dark, chocolate brown heartwood.

So the sapwood, when the log is cut into boards, the boards come in here, that sapwood is very light and white.

So what we do is we steam it at a very high pressure.

And that takes that sapwood and bleeds that heartwood color through the sap and makes it that chocolate brown color as well.

- Since I came down here at five years old with my father who was head buyer, I learned one thing.

Jimmy Hartzell was the guy who, kind of, perfected the steam process to bleach the color.

So the Hartzells have always been innovators.

Now we going to look at one area, it's just phenomenal!

The next time you go to buy lumber and you think, "Man, that's expensive."

Just think of the labor that went into this.

From the woods to the trucking, to the delivery, to the milling, to the kiln.

I mean, my gosh, the steps are just staggering.

But I will tell you, I've been around this log yard, this business for 63 years.

I started working here when I was five.

I was painting the ends of logs, got paid a nickel a log.

I made good money.

Okay, so this is in my soul.

So when I come back here, I see all these visions of memories and the way you guys have improved this.

Way to go.

- Thank you.

- My hat's off to you.

- Thank you.

Thank you.

- Yes, yes.

- It's an honor to be working with people that honor heritage like this.

It's an amazing Hartzell business.

- Thank you so much.

- Hats off.

- Thank you.

- It's so much fun to work with a local company that I have roots with.

Thank you Hartzell, my hat's off to you.

Now, look at this glue-up.

There are seven boards here that have been kiln dried.

Now you know that's 6% to 8%, that way it's a stable glue-up.

Now wood's going to expand and contract over the course of a year in a humid then dry condition.

And so seven boards right here.

If you look, right, long running seams right here, I pre-glued this up and alternated the clamp, so the glue-up would be flat.

I'll set this out of the way, had some spacer boards there, so that I can do the next thing, which is, look at this glue-up, look at these seams.

Those are nice and tight.

Here's how that happens.

The first thing, since these boards are so long, good luck ripping a straight edge on a table saw unless you've got a $20,000 saw.

So use a track saw and a track saw you can lay a track on the long boards.

Then rip a good straight edge along each side.

Once you have the edges ripped straight, those could be used for a glue-up, but it's better to take those boards to a big jointer with a big in-feed and out-feed, so you can keep that edge flat to the surface of the tables and the board up against the fence.

And with feather boards to help hold the board against the fence and you joint that long edge.

And that's how I end up with these beautiful glue seams.

And you want to use a good wood glue here, something that's, well, built to last.

So pay good money for it.

So that's how you do the tabletop glue-up.

I'll take all the clamps off, but I've got clearance here on top of my work table.

And whatever you do, be sure to read, understand, and follow all the instructions that come with the tools and products you use in your wood shop.

Work safely, so to that end, hearing protection on, these are safety glasses.

Now, what I used is a bow jig, and that's just a piece of oak that flexes, and there's a heavy duty string back here in a notched piece.

Turns it into the arc that I need.

And I used a white marker, laid out the lines, left and right to create a slight oval end on this.

And I'll cut this with a jigsaw or saber saw.

And the key is buying a heavy duty bi-metal blade.

If you look at that, those are carbide teeth on the end and that's a thicker shank.

And we have clearance from the work piece below, the work table, so now I'm just going to leave the line, cut this out, and then you'll see the profile.

This is looking good.

Hold this sole flat to the workpiece as you make the cut.

(jigsaw whirring) Now, there we go, that's all the way off.

And I use these auto action clamps to hold it, so that way it wouldn't bust out and tear the wood.

And that is the perfect smooth arch and save this pattern now.

That becomes a pattern for the other end.

That way the arches will be identical.

So the next thing to do, setting these aside side, out of the way safely, is to sand this.

And whatever you do when you sand wear an N95 dust mask, you don't want to breathe wood dust of any species.

(sander whirring) Well that's that, the top is done and sanded to perfection, ready for a finish after it's tacked off.

Let's talk about the castle joint leg.

This joint was first started in Japan on the Imperial Palace around 800 AD.

So it's been around a while.

And basically if you take the spacer block out, which is half the thickness of the apron, which is four and a quarter, you can see that kind of looks like the tower on a castle.

Thus the name, but there's the glue-up, a little bit of squeeze out there.

And this is down the thickness of the apron, four and a quarter.

These work pieces are 30 inches long.

So once the table sets on top, that's the conference table height, 31 and a half inches.

Now to do the glue-up, what you do is you end up cutting that middle board to that precise length to allow the apron to slide right in there.

And so here we go, we've got excellent work pieces here, and I like to use a really great wood glue that is actually rated for exterior use.

It seems to hold up better in moist interiors.

There's glue on one side, and I put extra on there, four beads up and down, because I know from experience when I put this, marry this onto the baseboard and slide it around, press it together just like that.

I'm sizing the joint and I'm transferring the glue to the other side, and there, that just that rubbed joint, it's ready to stick, ready to clamp.

And then the same thing here.

Bring that up, and these boards were hit or miss from Hartzell.

Again, the rub joint makes a difference, rubbing that back and forth, spreading it out, it starts to tack faster.

I rotate this up on that silicon pad, get the ends flush.

And that first board's already started to stick.

And now what I can do is clamp this up, make sure it's square on the end.

That's key, that bar on there.

And I'll clamp this up, let it dry.

And that's the best way to make the legs.

Once the glue-up is cured out, remember that one's down four and a quarter inches, the same width as the apron board.

And this is just a block of wood from the apron trim that just barely fits in there.

It has to be nice and tight.

And I'll rotate that around to this side.

So you can see the layout, which is very simple.

It's just squared up left and right, like so equal distance on both sides, flush with the top, needs to go up just a hair.

And layout is everything.

The joint can't be perfect if your layout's wrong.

And the whole idea is with this white marker on the dark walnut, I can see that line and I want to leave that line as I make the cut with a quarter inch six TPI tooth per inch blade silicon steel.

You can only get good cuts if you're using a good blade.

Now turn on the dust collector, whittle away this, rotate it around, trim off the end, and then it's on the apron boards.

Let it come up to speed.

(saw squeaking) Leaving the line.

(saw squeaking) That's perfect.

(saw squeaking) So that's how the castle part of the castle joint is formed.

Now we need four aprons, two short.

That's what you see here, and two long.

And the notches are reversed on the long ones, but, and you can use a jigsaw for that, because it'd be ungainly.

But I can cut this out on the band saw.

And so I have the layout done.

So that's four inches in from each curve on the end.

Identical curves, so once I get that cut out and sanded, then it's time to do the assembly of the legs to the apron.

So let's get this going here.

First cut off the curves.

(saw squeaking) Behave the line.

(saw squeaking) (saw squeaking) These aprons are nine feet long, four and a quarter wide, inch and three eighths thick.

And the whole idea without knocking anything over is to line them up so you can slide the cross aprons in, and the notch of the bottom apron locks in to the notch, the reverse notch, of this apron like so.

But I have to get the other apron, long running apron in.

And this is a test of your coordination.

Curved down because quite frankly this requires some grace and some, a bit of luck.

Off you go.

Okay, that's good right there.

And then that's down like that.

I know from experience, the persuader is always a nice thing to have just to do the technical tap to get everything seated properly.

That looks pretty good right there, no sawdust in the joint.

Oh, let's see, nope, I know I've got to swing this around like that.

Best side is out, I have that marked.

And now the moment of truth, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

(hammer knocking) Nice and tight, 1 2.

(hammer knocking) 2 taps right there on the castle joint.

Let's see if we get that lucky on the back.

Here we go.

We want the best face out.

That's that.

When you do have defects in lumber, use it.

Just plan it so that it's hidden on the inside.

(hammer knocking) Okay, and that is a rock solid assembly.

Now you go, "But how are you going to lift this by yourself?"

I'm not, I use these ratchets, the straps and pipe clamps, just the pipe to raise this.

Four of these off the rafter.

So I'm going to clear all of this off from underneath and then bring the apron up and under.

So that looks really good and that's rock solid.

But let me show you one other thing that you need to understand, and that is these corner braces have pocket holes, heavy duty, half inch pocket holes for these heavy duty wood screws.

Number tens with a washer.

And the way this is designed, this actually goes on that side just like that, so that the slot is perpendicular to the side rails, so that when this is screwed in from below, look at what happens.

It allows the wood top to expand and contract.

So the idea is it's summertime, it's moist now.

The wood is expanded like a sponge.

It does that as much as it can be.

It's at the end of summer.

So it's going to start shrinking down.

As it shrinks, that screw moves with the wood, that allows for expansion and contraction.

So I'll get these all put in, and I'll show you how cut the miter and how to do the pocket holes.

Let's get set up for that.

(saw whirring) There you have it.

Now that's how you cut the 45 degree angles for the miter that go into the pocket hole jig.

And since this is drilling, I'm getting this stuff off.

And this 45 is flat to the jig and this is- the jig is clamped to plywood.

(drill whirring) Boy that bit, the half inch bit, that's a bear.

But that's what it takes for these heavy duty screws.

So here we go.

That's how you cut the pockets, and it just nibs through so that the cutting tip of that bit goes right into the side rails.

Now this is important.

You see this slot and how that's made.

When this is braced in over here you can see the table, and to the apron.

These slots are designed so that the wood, when it expands and contracts across the grain, about a 16th of an inch per foot of glue-up, that screw will be positioned right in the center.

So that allows room for movement.

And the way to make that, the easy way is to use a quarter inch drill bit.

Brad Point and do it this way.

You drill one hole right in the center of your layout line.

You want three slots per corner brace.

And once you have your one hole drilled, then you drill two more, one on each side.

And it helps to have two inch foam board underneath, so that when you punch all the way through the other side, you don't mar your work surface.

And there are a bunch of different ways you could cut these, but this is the easiest way.

Now you see the little bit of wood between holes.

You go back into the center one and you use the bit like a router bit and that creates the slot.

It's not fancy but it works.

So I'm going to get all the braces ready this way, and we'll install them, and get ready to do the final assembly.

When I'm using these heavy duty wood screws, two and a half inches long, I just want to drill with a eighth inch bit or a three sixteenths into this mating piece, so it doesn't split out, and it taps and drives this piece in nice and secure in location, just like that.

And I can swap this out now, the square drive goes to a six-way drive, because now that the legs are square in the castle joint, I need to dimple this with a seven eighth bit.

Just enough, boy that one is hard.

So that this is flush when you do the next step, drill a nice deep pilot hole all the way down to lock up this assembly.

No glue here, but this heavy duty six inch long construction fastener.

(driver whirring) Nice and snug, now that's ready to do to all four corners.

So everything is ready to be slid in place.

And you know those mover discs that you put under furniture?

That's what I used, double-sided tape to put onto the bottom of these four legs, so there's no damage whatsoever to the wooden posts, Okay, that's awesome.

Now I'll get this all lined up and ease it down, centered, screw it in the way that allows the wood to move.

And then it's on to finishing.

But today is done, finishing tomorrow.

Be back in a few seconds.

Now this is always a nerve wracking moment.

This is Wilson, and you make the best chocolates on the planet, and this will be your boardroom table.

Is it what you want?

- It is absolutely beautiful.

I can't wait to get it in the conference room and get to work.

- Okay, well, you guys work hard and this will be showcased through a huge plate glass window every day as a drive down Main Street.

How cool is that to see my biggest work so far, beyond the boat I restored?

- Wow.

- So you have that distinction?

- Quite an honor.

- Okay, now try to lift it.

Okay, so we can barely lift it.

This is a four person lift, so this is all tacked off and ready for the finish.

And you'll see more on that next week, 'cause that's a big project, and we're out of time today.

But can we tour your chocolate factory the next time when we deliver this next week?

- You are welcome in there any time.

- I want on the line - With an invitation or without, and sometimes you come in without one anyways.

- Well there's that, thank you, Wilson.

Thank you, Scott.

- Glad you like it.

That just, that makes me feel so good.

Well, that's it, see you next time in “The American Woodshop."

Yeah, this is built to last.

- [Speaker 1] Since 1928, Woodcraft has been providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen.

Woodcraft, helping you make wood work.

- Pro tools (upbeat music) for tool pros.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) Rikon Tools - [Speaker 2] Woodcraft Magazine, projects, plans and web link, designed to help you make wood work.

- [Speaker 3] PS Wood, home of Timber Wolf Swedish Silicon Steel Band Saw Blades, and super sharp scroll saw blades.

- [Speaker 4] A bed to sleep on, a table to share meals.

A house that feels like a home.

The Furniture Bank of Central Ohio, providing furniture to neighbors in need.

- For more information about the "American Woodshop", you can watch free episodes 24/7 on our website, and you can find us on these social media platforms.

(upbeat music)