Hi Tim,
Thanks for the compliment. I ripped the boards out of 2x8s and 2x10s then planed the edges and faces by hand with a jack plane. The faces only needed a few passes down their centers to make sure the exposed edges were tight. After gluing the top, I flattened the surface with my jack plane and then a few passes with a small belt sander to clean it up a little. It took some time but was not really very hard to do. The top is so heavy that manuevering it on a planer would have been hard without a big crew. The real challenge for me was getting that top mounted on the legs. I could not build it upside down and turn it over, too heavy at least by myself. Instead, I assembled the legs and stretchers and used pipe clamps to hold the leg tenons in the right positions to slide in to the mortices in the top. I then tucked the assembly under the overhang of the bench on which the top was placed and slid the top partially off the bench onto the farthest leg tennons. When they were hooked and that end of the top supported by those legs, I held up the other end of the bench and pushed the other bench away with my back while lowering that end of top onto its tenons. The top lowered itself onto the legs like a slowly sinking ship lubricated with glue. A few taps with a hand sledge padded by wood and the top was seated. I hammered in the oak pegs and it was done. Next I went in the house and poured myself a scotch even though it was only 11:00 am.
dave
