Starting some live edge stuff

 I'm in the middle of a massive project right now for my buddy Taylor, lots of live edge pieces. Really enjoying it too, but the wood isn't always dry enough yet. This is the start of a coffee table, a dining room table and two benches, couple of outdoor things.

This will be a coffee table

It's not dry enough to work yet!

These should become some floating shelves

it me!

Epoxy pour

this one was best used for lumber, kind of a wild side close to the edge of the tree

this is that lumber...

Coffee table is finished

I finished the coffee table with Old Masters clear coat. We still haven't decided what kind of legs to put on there so I can't deliver yet. Still, this is a cool table, and after some drying time that lumber will make a nice table base

Some Christmas Tables

The pine slab table that I built for my front porch got some interest from the family, so I ended up getting the rest of that stack of slabs that my mother-in-law till had hanging around the house. They were stacked up, so the one on the bottom was pretty rotten, but there were still 4 in total. One went to my porch, then I had full slabs for tables for my niece Kaileigh and my sister-in-law Martha. The rotten slab I was able to cut out a particularly interesting chunk out of it, and I made that into a smaller table for my SIL Summer. Really caught her by surprise too, she didn't know that was coming.

Ella is cleaning out the rotten slab

This is all I could save out of the 5' long slab

I still carved it down into a clean slab

The bottom had some really neat deformations from the rot and bugs

Starting the epoxy fill for those huge voids

I made this base, and still had to add another platform for it

Martha's table too

I got really slack about taking pictures this Christmas. The stress of meeting all of these sales & holiday deadlines really got to me.

For the small slab, I used a spokeshave and a bunch of sanders & planes to create a smooth-ish surface. Then used the TotalBoat 5:1 epoxy to fill in all of the bug holes and rotten places to create a smooth surface. And after 5 pours of the the epoxy I still didn't have a flat surface. I then sanded again and started with the polyurethane, 8 coats with 000 steel wool buffing in between. Then I made that stand for it with the X legs, and attached that to the bottom of the slab. It was still wobbly, so I added a piece of plywood to the bottom as well and it got a lot more stable. The base was spraypainted gloss black, and some people actually thought it was metal.

Martha was expecting her table, Summer's was a complete surprise. My brother Michael (Summer's husband) also caught her with another surprise, but that's another post. I'm really glad these turned out, and really happy that the family liked them so much! It's fun for me to build things, but building things that are appreciated by the ones you love makes it that much more special.

Couple of Tables

Made a couple of really cool tables recently, since I worked on them at the same time I figured I would blog about them at the same time.

I made a live edge slab table for my front porch that turned out great. So great in fact, other people wanted some. When we got that slab, there were 3 others in the stack so they all made their way back to my shop eventually. Then, we had some trees taken down in the front yard, and I got my little electric chainsaw out and cut a cookie off of one of the stumps. That turned out to be pretty interesting by itself!

before the power planer? hard to tell here

The cookie

because you haven't seen my face for a while - still in tank tops in October

that's a lot of polyurethane, y'all

 Yeah, that last picture has the floating shelves for my youngest, the next pine slab, and the cookie all getting polyurethane at the same time.Pretty interesting

To prep these live edge slabs, you have to (stay with me here) work the wood. I start with a power planer to get level faces, and a spokeshave to debark the sides. Once you can get all of the parts relatively level, it's time to start smoothing. For the flat faces, I start with 80 grit on the belt sander, then 120 grit. The live edge parts still have to be smoothed over, but you don't want to make them flat. Leave the interesting parts and some color. Next I hit 180 grit paper on the random orbit sander on all sides, then 220 grit.

Then you start in with the polyurethane. Put about 5 coats of the wipe-on stuff on the bottom, sometimes hitting the sides too. Then put at least 8 coats on the top, 10 would be best, again hitting the sides. So the live edge sides get doubled up some.

I didn't get any finished pictures of the big slab, but I put some of the same hairpin legs on it as the first table I did. the cookie got pipe legs, I think it turned out pretty good!

Installing the legs

These turned out great! It's a nice addition to the porch, the pipe legs let me get the table exactly level, and the hairpin legs look great too. These were both really fun builds.

Pine Slab Table

This was a quick build but a really fun project and it turned out great. I needed a table for my front porch. We found some 3" thick pine slabs at my mother-in-law's house hanging out under a tarp and threw 3 of them in the back of the truck the last time we were down there, I knew eventually I would figure out the best use for them.

Slabs in the shed

These come rough cut, so the first thing I have to do is shape them appropriately. This starts with basically finding a square inside of the live edge piece, and cutting the ends. Then plane and sand everything smooth, I chose to start with the bottom of the slab. I bought some 18" hairpin legs on Amazon, and attached them after finishing the bottom & sides. It took a lot of handwork on the sides with a spokeshave & flexible sanding pads. Kind of hard to keep the live edge look but still get everything smooth (safe to touch, no splinters) and sealed.

Bottom after the power planer and sander

Bottom and sides getting some finish

I am confused by the pine slab

Poly is going on

Legs are attached

 I use a power hand planer on these slabs, they are about 13" across in the longest point and heavy as hell. I didn't want to try and push them through the big 12.5" Delta planer that I use for dimensional lumber. Getting a smooth, flat, surface is harder with this planer but it leaves the workpiece stable. After planing the bottom smooth, I hit the belt sander with 80 and 120 grit, then 180 grit on the random orbit sander. For the sides, the spokeshave and hand planer got everything pretty smooth, but I still hit them with some 150 and 180 grit sandpaper on top of a sanding sponge. Then everything got hit with the 220 grit sanding sponge. I put 5 coats of wipe-on polyurethane on the bottom & sides, sanding with 320 grit paper in between the first two coats, and 0000 steel wool in between the rest. This is for the bottom, which wont' normally be seen so it was ok if I got sloppy. Then I attached the legs.

Ready to work the top

Pretty flat

The top got the same treatment. Power planer, then 80 & 120 grit belts on the sander, 180 grit in the random orbit sander, 220 sponge, then 8 coats of poly on the top with 320 & 400 grit sandpaper and 0000 steel wool in between. Funny thing about poly, it drips down the sides when you pour it on the top. So the sides got closer to 15 coats all day long. They came out really smooth.

Finished and installed

This turned out really nice

I really like the way this table turned out, and I'm looking forward to working the other two slabs. My niece and sister-in-law have already requested the other two. I think the 18" legs on this one make it more suitable for a bench, I should try 12" - 16" legs on the next one.