A few of my recent live edge pieces

[measurecutcurse]

Over the summer, I returned from Iowa with a load of slabs and boards from some walnut logs I had milled ~5 years ago and air dried in one of my FIL's barns.

I've made a few things, and thought I'd post.

First up is a dining table I made. The top consists of 4 slabs flattened, and joined to a top. As it was hard to get the joints all even, I free routed some wide grooves and used epoxy with colored mica powder as a "feature" and to add some interest to the piece. Legs are made from 10/4 cherry, one a plain plank, the other a trestle. Held up to Thanksgiving 2021 very well





Next piece is  my new desk. Some of the slabs were cut off the end of a board with  a big burl. TO make the desktop, I build a mold, and poured epoxy with blue mica powder in to the gaps. This is attached to an Uplift brand standing mechanism. Finish is Rubio Monocoat.


The last piece is a coffee table top I made for my son. He just moved west into a small one bedroom. I'll be shipping it out in a week or so. Just a flattened walnut slab with table top epoxy flood coats. He shouldn't be able to ruin that!

[BpB123]

Thanks for sharing ... those turned out GREAT!

I really like the desk-top .. and can imaginge some lost "productivity" as a day-dream looking at that top.

Very well done!

[measurecutcurse]

Thanks for sharing ... those turned out GREAT!

I really like the desk-top .. and can imaginge some lost "productivity" as a day-dream looking at that top.

Very well done!

Thanks. Much appreciated 

[FS7]

Regarding the desk, that's a very pretty slab, and while I like blue I think the color is certainly appropriate as it has a marked "coastline" appearance to it. It's also somewhat hard to make use of such high figure without using a continuous slab.

I have a live edge piece very similar to that coffee table. It actually looks very similar in grain and figure, though it's clearly red and not brown. I don't know what it is. Bears some resemblance to goncalo alves but I can't be sure. In any case I had a similar idea for a table. In my experience epoxy itself isn't all that durable as a top finish. It's certainly not repairable. But the wood itself is nice.

What did you use to flatten the slabs, both before and after pouring? Do you have access to a wide belt or do you use a router sled with a spoilboard bit?

[AHill]

That desk is amazing! Great work!

[measurecutcurse]

Regarding the desk, that's a very pretty slab, and while I like blue I think the color is certainly appropriate as it has a marked "coastline" appearance to it. It's also somewhat hard to make use of such high figure without using a continuous slab.

I have a live edge piece very similar to that coffee table. It actually looks very similar in grain and figure, though it's clearly red and not brown. I don't know what it is. Bears some resemblance to goncalo alves but I can't be sure. In any case I had a similar idea for a table. In my experience epoxy itself isn't all that durable as a top finish. It's certainly not repairable. But the wood itself is nice.

What did you use to flatten the slabs, both before and after pouring? Do you have access to a wide belt or do you use a router sled with a spoilboard bit?

Yea, those boards with the burl have to be used with epoxy given the nooks and crannies...The color is a mix of 2 different mica's. Interestingly, my wife felt the same thing with the coastline effect. I can't say it was intentional, but I'm happy how it came out.

The coffee table (and the desktop) were flattened with a router sled. I had made one based on a design in FWW about 5 years ago, but recently bought one from Clean Cut Woodworking. It's a terrific addition given I don't have access to a wide belt sander, and it glides so smooth I can drive it with 2 fingers. I use a 2.5" flattening bit. The tricky part is going slow to insure the epoxy doesn't chip. Learned that that hard way...Letting the epoxy cure is also helpful. I used Total Boat tabletop. as long as he doesn't decide to use a knife on it, it'll be ok.

WRT the epoxy finish, I'm not too worried. I mainly wanted it to be waterproof. It's not really a piece of fine furniture, it's more utilitarian. I have 15 more slabs just like that to be honest.

[®smpr_fi_mac®]

Daaaaaaaang. That's some beautiful work.

[FS7]

Yea, those boards with the burl have to be used with epoxy given the nooks and crannies...The color is a mix of 2 different mica's. Interestingly, my wife felt the same thing with the coastline effect. I can't say it was intentional, but I'm happy how it came out.

The coffee table (and the desktop) were flattened with a router sled. I had made one based on a design in FWW about 5 years ago, but recently bought one from Clean Cut Woodworking. It's a terrific addition given I don't have access to a wide belt sander, and it glides so smooth I can drive it with 2 fingers. I use a 2.5" flattening bit. The tricky part is going slow to insure the epoxy doesn't chip. Learned that that hard way...Letting the epoxy cure is also helpful. I used Total Boat tabletop. as long as he doesn't decide to use a knife on it, it'll be ok.

WRT the epoxy finish, I'm not too worried. I mainly wanted it to be waterproof. It's not really a piece of fine furniture, it's more utilitarian. I have 15 more slabs just like that to be honest.

I was not overly patient with my finishing, and I did not notice any surface chipping. What I did see was quite minor, if even on the surface, and I was able to sand it out. I have seen other people use hardness testers to determine epoxy cure. I went by ambient temperature. I imagine the hardness tester is a lot more precise.

Did you do separate pours with the mica powders? For mine I used a paddle mixer and two different colors of powder together in the same mixing cup. This had the result of being very uniform. It was also a smaller area, so not a lot of room for thermal activity. I think that pouring things separately and swirling with a craft stick will produce more interesting surface patterns, as will wider and deeper pours (greater temperature gradients probably cause a lot more swirling naturally).

You're right, as long as there's no cutting the table top should be fine. Things like bottle caps and keys just seem to scratch tables like that pretty easy. My primary experience is with a bottle cap / wine cork table that was at a vacation condo our extended family had, and while mostly shiny it did show scratches very easily. That's a hazard with most any glossy finish, I know, and this one saw considerably heavier use.

[measurecutcurse]

Daaaaaaaang.  That's some beautiful work.

thanks!

[measurecutcurse]

I was not overly patient with my finishing, and I did not notice any surface chipping. What I did see was quite minor, if even on the surface, and I was able to sand it out. I have seen other people use hardness testers to determine epoxy cure. I went by ambient temperature. I imagine the hardness tester is a lot more precise.

Did you do separate pours with the mica powders? For mine I used a paddle mixer and two different colors of powder together in the same mixing cup. This had the result of being very uniform. It was also a smaller area, so not a lot of room for thermal activity. I think that pouring things separately and swirling with a craft stick will produce more interesting surface patterns, as will wider and deeper pours (greater temperature gradients probably cause a lot more swirling naturally).

You're right, as long as there's no cutting the table top should be fine. Things like bottle caps and keys just seem to scratch tables like that pretty easy. My primary experience is with a bottle cap / wine cork table that was at a vacation condo our extended family had, and while mostly shiny it did show scratches very easily. That's a hazard with most any glossy finish, I know, and this one saw considerably heavier use.

I mixed the powders together in the same resin batch cause I wanted a more uniform color different than what was available. I wasn't exactly precise, and did multiple pours to prevent big exothermic reaction cracks, even using a thickset formulation of epoxy. I've seen 2 color pours, and they are neat, especially when 2 contrasting colors are used.