The Planer Cart - Top Glue-ups

I was able to find a big enough piece of 3/4" plywood in the shed to use for the middle layer. The outer layers will be 3/4" maple-veneered plywood I had left over from the shop table. I cut all of the pieces needed for the top to size. The middle layer will be two pieces that are cut slightly less than half of the length of the outer layers. When the ends are aligned, it leaves a channel in the middle of the top for the 3/4" dia. steel tube. I had to cut a shallow dado in the outer plys where the steel tube will be. This was necessary because the middle plys are actually 11/16" and tube is exactly 3/4" dia.

Here is the first of two glue-ups for the top. It consists of one outer ply and the two pieces for the middle ply. It's hard to see them in the explosion of clamps, but they're in there. The grey clamps and cauls are the real work-force here. The red clamps were used to align the sides of the middle and outer plys until I could get everything torqued down.


The glue set-up overnight and this is the result. You can now see the channel for the steel tube. The channel was sized to be slightly larger than the tube to allow for the epoxy.





This is how the tube fits into the channel. The tube sticks out about 5/16" on each side. The shallow dado cut in the outer plys was useful for positioning the tube perpendicular to the sides.





Here is the second glue-up. There were two parts to this. First, I applied epoxy to the channel and set the tube. Then I glued and set the other outer ply, added cauls and clamps to set-up overnight.




Here is the top, so far. I still need to wrap the edges with hardwood, but all the tough stuff has been done.





Once the top is edge-wrapped, I'll be ready to prepare the cart-part to accept the top. We're gaining on it now!