Andy, Beautiful work slabs are always fun to do
On Tuesday, June 12, 2012, Andy wrote:
Sorry, this doesn't have much to do with my mill but it was a fun
project...
My neighbor had this approximately 5' by 4' by 4 thick slab leaning
against his house for years. I always admired it and offered to finish it
for him as long as he paid for the materials and he finally took me up on
it. After working with it over the past few weekends, i think it is soft
maple.
I started off by making a router sled to level the slab. I simply jointed
some 2x6's and clamped them to the top of my tablesaw (i have a plywood
cover or my table saw to protect it). Then put the slab in the middle and
shimmed the slab so i would remove the least amount of material. the sled
was made with a ripped 2x6, jointed and then screwed together with some
scrap MDF. I used my PC router with the 2 surface planing bit from
Magnate. My fiance held the DC hose so i didn't make a huge mess.
Once flat, i sanded out the marks with my PC belt sander then went to a
random orbital up to 400 grit. I then chiseled out the areas for the legs
and dry fitted everything. (i'll post pictures of the assembled table once
its complete).
The slab had lots of cracks in it. None of which i thought were worthy of
a butterfly as none of them looked like they would eventually propagate.
But i did want to accent them. I was thinking of using a stone inlay i've
seen done but have never tried myself. After some brief research i decided
on inlace inlay which looks like stone. See the photos below for what it
looks like. It looks great. This is the large inlay but i filled in a bunch
of random cracks throughout with it. It's very easy to work and sands
nicely.
Now for the frustrating part; I finished this table 3 times! the first
time, i wanted to darken it up a bit. Knowing stain wouldn't work on end
grain, i tried using dye mixed in with dewaxed shellac so i could build the
finish and hone in on the colordidn't work on endgrain. ended up
stripping it all off due to how blotchy it turned out. I got this finish
off by hand planing and sanding. Finish #2; I still wanted to darken it up
so i got out some amber shellac that i haven't used in awhile...not paying
attention to the expiration date, i applied it. It was also blotchy and
never completely dried. Removed it with alcohol. Finish #3: same as finish
#2 but with brand new amber shellac. It looks great!
Some lessons are best learned the hard way because now i know Dye doesn't
work on endgrain either, how to easily remove shellac, and that shelf life
matters. I will be going to shellac flakes from now on.
The Legs were also a learning experience and probably the only part i used
my mill on. I milled out the recess to accept the table ( the legs protrude
above the table 3/4. I made them from 16/4 soft maple. I was originally
going to ebonize them but decided to toast them instead. Some of you may
have heard of toasted maple or toasted oak. It's basically heat-treated
wood which makes cheaper woods look more like exotics.
Poorman's heat-treated Lumber recipe: after shaping the legs, i put them
in the oven for 2 hours at 450 deg F. Fair warning, it stinks. I put a cup
of water to keep some moisture in the wood. Fiance was not happy. It works
but i don't know if i'll be doing it again. If you try this, it's at your
own risk. Anyway, i was really pleased with the results. I finished them
with dewaxed shellac mixed with a red mahogany dye.
In the next few days i will be poring on the final finish which is System
Three's Mirror Coat. It's been a fun project and enjoyed spending someone
else's money to try all these techniques I've read about but never tried.
I'll post pictures of the final product once complete. Enjoy!
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