refinishing old pine table - an oval one

[John_Frame]

Could anyone advise a beginner how to glue and CLAMP a table top made out of five pine boards and glued together where one of the boards (one of the outside ones) has come loose. Remember - clamping an Oval table. Any suggestions..... I do not have a biscuit joiner unfortunately.
jmf

[Fried Elliott]

I can think of two ways.

First, there are what are called strap clamps. These are basically a piece of nylon strap you wrap around the perimeter of your piece and then you use a tie-down ratchet to pull everything together. Depending on where the piece is and how much clamping pressure you think you will need, this may work.

Second, you can get a rectangular piece of MDF, cut the oval out of it, split it perpendicular to the direction you wish to clamp (you want to squeeze the broken piece with one of the pieces of MDF), give yourself some relief along the split edge of each piece of MDF, and then clamp the MDF around the oval table using pipe clamps.

[FrankC]

One method would be to use strips of wood or plywood the thickness of the top to make straight edges on each side of the table, scribe the curve of the top on to the wood strips, cut with a jig saw. Two or more bar clamps can now be used to pull the top together. If you don't have clamps you can make some, see url below.
[http://benchnotes.com/Wedge%20Clamps/wedge_clamps.htm]

[Jerry M]

>Could anyone advise a beginner how to glue and CLAMP a table
>top made out of five pine boards and glued together where
>one of the boards (one of the outside ones) has come loose.
>Remember - clamping an Oval table. Any suggestions.....
>I do not have a biscuit joiner unfortunately.
>jmf


Here's another way: take a scrap block about the same thickness as the table top. Place it where you want to clamp, with one edge parallel to the length of the table and overhanging the table edge. Trace the curve onto the block, cut it with bandsaw, jigsaw, coping saw or whatever you have, and attach another piece, like a piece of plywood to the block with screws so that the plywood sits on the table and the block hangs over the edge in the same plane as the table top, with a flat surface on the outside. Clamp this arrangement in place. With one block on each side of the table at various points, you can clamp across with bar clamps as needed.

I hope this description isn't too muddy. The written word doesn't communicate like a hands-on example.