Repairing an Imprecise Glue-Up

Tiny bevels on the ripped edges of boards have resulted in a visible gap after glue-up. How to fix? February 13, 2013

Question
I'm finishing a mockup project of a table top for a restaurant. The top is made of 1 1/4" x 3" jatoba glued up to make a 4-foot round top.

It's a quick project since I came in on the bid real late. In my haste, I didn't check my edges out of the moulder for true and was left with one side on each board about one-half degree less than a 90. So, a half plus a half degree on a couple of the edges, total one degree short of 90, giving me a gap which I obviously didn't notice 'til my blank was already dried.

I used Flag epoxy and dowels every 9 inches. Jatoba/epoxy needs a very accurate and tight joint.

Problem: now my pattern is cut, some of these small gaps seem to have opened up toward the edges. My deadline is in two days. Is this repairable? Or, did my rookie mistake just cost me a contract? I had visions of somehow vacuuming in TB3 then re-clamping,

Forum Responses
(Adhesive Forum)
From contributor B:
I would try to force epoxy into those gaps after cleaning the wood with acetone. I would dye the epoxy and try to not use a single color on the entire length of the gap. Then sand and see the result. Epoxy and dowels every 9 inches after filling the gaps may hold.

---

From contributor C:
For future reference, I always select my face for appearance, as I'm sure you did. Then I flip over every other board during the ripping process. This is done so the microscopic differences in the angles cancel each other out when the boards are flipped over later for gluing. I'm not sure if this is clear, but think about it... This is how a flat table top was created before Wixeys and all the accuracy devices we rely on today were invented.