Joining tongue and groove oak

[Madhu Sudhan]

Greetings - 

I have unused 3.5 inch wide tongue and groove oak wood. I want to join these together to make a wide board so that I can make a table top out of it. I can easily glue and clamp them, however not sure if that is the right way. Not sure if I can use pocket holes to hold adjacent pieces together. Can some one please suggest the best way to go about doing this?  

[Tim Grace]

I would glue and clamp. 

I would not use pocket hole joinery due to the bit potentially breaking through the groove.  There is also the backside, how strong is the joint going to be when the screw diameter is almost the same as the tongue width. 

How thick are the T&G boards?  They may need to have a backer board under the table top to help combat warping. I did try some small tops for a ladder display with some 3/8" thick T&G knotty pine. Warp was so bad I couldn't use them.

Good luck.

[Kev Wildey]

Depending on how thick the boards are  1 inch table tops with reinforcing underneath .we use for coffee table tops our Rimu is a Fine Grain hard wood with similar properties to Oak ,fingure jointed ,and braced with battens under, even a sub base would work ,say ply or MDF .