Help (I've developed a bad case of CRS/Oldtimers Syndrome)

If it were me, I’d alternate them. But, what looks good to you is what’s important, or maybe you’d better ask your better half to be absolutely positive. As a fellow victim of CRS, these things can be touchy. Good luck!

-- Carl Rast, Pelion, SC

well first look at the look of the panel. thats the most important. if you can alternate that will certainly be god but its not a do or die situation. looks is what is more important.

I used to know the answer to that question, but I can’t remember either. Since the table is a trestle style, just lay out the boards the way that looks best. You can use a billet in the top to keep it flat and to mount it to the trestle legs.

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com

Definately alternate the grain! That is the only way to minimize cupping.
Don

-- Don, Pittsburgh

I can’t remember what CRS stands for…........I’ve made table tops using both ways and to date they are all still flat…I went with the best looking boards face up . : )

-- Dusty56@comcast.net

Just think how lucky you are. She could have wanted one of these. What a cool table
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCFEmbe.5UfQ

-- DeputyDawg

By alternating the direction of growth rings, you help decrease the amount of warp that the table top has over time.

The older I get the more I have these same types of moments. I like to refer to those moments as intellectual overload…

-- Brian, Lebanon PA, If you aren’t having fun doing it, find something else to do.

Thanks guys! We laid the boards out both ways. Unfortunately she likes the look with all the boards having growth rings going the same way. She’s the boss LOL. I think I’ll go with tenontim’s suggestion of using billets/battens on the underside to prevent cupping. Lord I love this site!
In addition to CRS/Oldtimers syndrome I find that the “faster I go, the behinder I get”.

-- Growing older but not up!

Most here have heard arguments that support either way. I recently built a table and used one of the above ideas. I had about about 20 milled 1 1/2” boards of Walnut and asked my wife to organize them into 2 table halves and 2 sets for the leaves. She spent alot of time getting the “look” just like she liked it. That put her directly in the “build” process, and to this day she is extremely proud of how the finished product came out; and I rightly give her alot of the credit.

-- Don, San Antonio, TX