Next, I glued them together into two slabs that would individually still fit through the planer. I had to work fast here, and regretfully did not have the time to take pictures. Nothing particularly magical, though. Used a 4" paint roller to spread glue on each plank, and then clamped them together with every clamp I owned.

I ran each of the glued slabs through the jointer and planer to square them up. Then I used a circular saw and a rail to cut the ends straight.




Sealed some of the more egregious knots and defects with CA glue and sawdust.


Then hand-planed any high spots still present with my #5 hand plane. This left a level surface, but it wasn't smooth. Doug Fir is horrible to hand plane, and left a fuzzy surface with a few places of tear-out, despite my best efforts.


Finished out with sanding via 80 grit, 120 grit, and 150. I will eventually hit it with 180 and 220 before I seal it, but this is good enough to leave me with a flat, level working surface for now.


The easy part is done!