OK, I'm back to provide an update. I stopped working on the table in March. Some house projects cropped up. I really don't get much woodworking done in the summer. Too much other stuff to do around the farm.
A couple weeks ago I picked back up on the farm table project. It's getting close to being done! Here's an update:
I made good progress on the legs last winter, but I hadn't done much with the top. It's made up of three 9ft long boards. Together, the three boards are 38" wide. I didn't want to do too much to the appearance of the boards, but I want to slightly enhance the defects (if that makes sense.).
I used a light gray stain to bring out some of the saw marks, nail holes, and such.
Sanding was kind of a dilemma. Too much and I remove a lot of the boards' history. Not enough and the boards are too rough to use. I started with 100 grit paper on my ROS, but didn't try to remove too much wood. That kept the nail holes, etc visible. Then I used 150 grit paper on the ROS and finally a hand sanding with 220. I'm pretty happy with the balance. (A quick aside about ROS paper. I was using the house brand from the big box store and was getting so frustrated. It was junk. I ordered some Mirka Gold and what a difference!!)
There were two missing knots. I thought about leaving the holes, but they're pretty big. So I cut out replacements from another board and shaped them using my bandsaw and a file. In the picture above, one of those knots is a replacement. It's pretty hard to tell which one is original.
Let's talk epoxy. I planned on using wood glue for the legs. And it probably would have been fine. The issue was the size of the mortice and tenons and the weight of the pieces. Even though I was careful sawing, a couple of those tenons were a little loose. I decided to use epoxy with a little sawdust for gap filling.
Which epoxy to use? I did a little research and thought about the West System. We have a store in the area. But the quantities (and cost) were bigger than I needed. In the end I picked up this kit from the local farm store. It's 'open' time is pretty small, but I don't need more than a couple minutes.
More in the next post!!