Ash Table Top Report

 The de-warping, sanding and smoothing of the dining table top is finished, finally.

The upper surface has had a couple of coats of Howden's, satin, prime worktop oil, which I used on our oak kitchen worktops and which I know, from previous experience, to be hard as nails and impervious to everything except bleach. It brings out the grain beautifully - the oil, that is, not bleach.

It's amazing what you can learn if you put the effort in. Here is what I learned.

1. Get a good router that has collets for both 1/4 and 1/2 inch bits.
2. Make the router sled about 25 cm larger than the width of the piece you're routering, as you may get to one end and have to shift the sled in order to get to the end, risking the router gouging out chunks. The main obstructions are the cable and trigger arms.
3. Ensure the base of the sled, where the router bit pokes out, isn't too thick, but ensure the sides are sturdy in case you bend it by leaning on it, resulting in the router going in deeper in the middle.
4. Make sure the rails you run the sled along are wide enough to prevent the sled falling off and, again, gouging chunks out of the wood.
5. Get an electric planer and use that  to start off by planing the particularly high spots first. I bought one on the last day of fettling and wished I'd bought it earlier. Don't bother with a cordless one.

On that last item, I bought a 900W, Titan electric planer from ScrewFix for £49. Never having used one before, I was surprised how effortlessly it shaved anything from 1mm to 3mm from the slab on the high spots. Routering the same area in stages would have taken ages. Don't be tempted to get the 600W, as the planing depth is only 2mm. Given you can't run a planer along a sled, planing on its own won't necessarily produce a level result, as it has to be done by eye.

The bark has been gradually falling off, but a lot remains. That too may drop off with time and I'm minded to dowel it in position.

The slab is now 2 inches thick, from a starting point of 3 inches. It's thinner than I'd wanted, but that was a consequence of the degree of warp. It is now, however, easily lifted by 2 people. 

Yet to do - drill holes in the knot holes for the LED lights, router a rebate into the underside to receive a battery pack for the LEDs, fill the knot holes with resin (colour not yet determined, but I'm thinking clear) and sort out some form of base.

The target date for having it completed is Christmas Day, as it's our turn to host Christmas Dinner.