I'm building a coffee table for a friend and need to create a circular top from curly maple that's about 1 1/4" thick. I've mostly found 4/4 and 8/4 options, and while I could buy the thicker stock and mill it down, I'm worried about waste and cost. I'm considering laminating some curly maple with regular maple I already have, then milling it down. Do you think this approach will work, or should I be concerned about potential cracking due to wood movement?
3 Answers
Have you thought about just using 4/4 and adding a thicker border to achieve that thickness? That’s a common approach for creating thicker tops without dealing with the excess material. If you are set on 1 1/4", buying 8/4 makes sense, but you could also resaw it for better material management later on. Just think about your friend's needs and budget—maybe they'll be fine with a slightly thinner option!
It might be easier just to plane down some 8/4 stock instead of laminating. If you buy surfaced 8/4, it's usually around 1 3/4" thick, and planing it to 1 1/4" won't be excessively wasteful, plus you avoid having a seam along the edge. Your gluing plan sounds solid, but the simpler route could save you some time.
Your laminating idea should work fine! Wood movement issues generally arise when the grains are locked at 90 degrees, so as long as you're careful with your orientation, you should be good. I wouldn’t stress too much about the growth rings either—it shouldn’t cause major problems.
Yeah, I agree! Plus, if you resaw the 8/4, you'll have leftover pieces for future projects, which is always a win.