A Pretty Pair

A handsome pair of tables. What exactly is “toasted maple” ?

-- Dwight - "Free legal advice available - contact Dewey, Cheetam & Howe""

Toasted maple is soft maple that goes through a special kiln process to caramelize the the sugars in the wood…the caramelized sugars give the wood its color.

p.s. I like the “Car Talk” shout out

-- Power to the people.

Great looking tables, I’m sure she is real happy!

-- Ken, "Everyday above ground is a good day!"

Wow! These are very nice, well executed! I love the wood choice.

-- Brian

Hey – beautiful tables. Are you not at all worried about the longer boards of the glue up expanding across the grain and cracking the shorter ones (perpendicular)? Or do you have some hidden joinery to limit wood movement?

The tongue and groove joint is only glued along the center board to allow for freer movement. Also, I have used this method before on similar pieces and so far have had good luck and the roasted maple moves very little due to the kiln process it goes through.

-- Power to the people.

Ah that makes sense – I missed those images. Do you have any kind of trick for getting the tongue to be the same length as the groove (ie not having any kind of gap)?