Staked table out of tree slice?

[overland]

Last spring a crew cut down a big ash on city property near my house. I didn't have any way to get the log milled or to store the wood even if I did, but I did ask the crew to cut me a few slices from the trunk, which they did. The largest is about 4 inches thick and 30 inches in diameter. I thought I might try making a 3-legged staked table out of it. (A coffee table is one possibility, but I'm thinking of something 28-30 inches high.)  I know the top will crack as it dries, but will that really matter? I don't see that it will, unless it cracks where I bore the mortises for the legs or in a way that it simply falls apart.  Maybe there's a way to prevent that. In any case, is this a dumb idea? And if it does succeed, how will it look? Should I leave the top 4 inches thick or cut it thinner? Are three legs a good idea or not? Any suggestions or comments would  be appreciated.

[TomFromStLouis]

Three legs will work, and so will a single pedestal with a cleat block at the top and flaring feet for stability. If this were my project I would let the cookie dry for at least a few months before anything else. 4 inches is stout and could be made to work if that kind of look is your goal, but you will have one heavy table. If cracks threaten integrity then butterflies are in your future.

[Steve N]

If cracks threaten integrity then butterflies are in your future.

Pretty much sums up the conversation from my experience, of course I would have used the word WHEN instead of IF. Maybe I'm not supposed to play with big tree cuts, but everything I have played with has broken, at least in two. Stabilizers, stickered drying, you name it, I've tried it. I think they would make
closks, and a ton of yard projects, but no love for me........

[overland]

That's what worries me--the possibility that it would not just crack but break apart entirely. I suppose I could try it simply as an experiment. Maybe I'll bring the piece into the house when the heat comes on--just to see what will happen.

[Alan S]

If you don't want it to break, make a cut in from the edge to the center.  As it shrinks, that will open without stress elsewhere.

[overland]

If 4 inches is a little thick, what would be a good thickness for something like this?

[Alan S]

The problem is not the thickness, it's that it's a full cross section of a tree.  As it dries it will shrink, but wood shrinks roughly twice as much in the tangential plane (around the tree) as in the radial plane (through the middle of the tree.)  That causes a piece to be missing from the pie as it shrinks.  Here's an image I found on the internet showing a typical result.  You can avoid all but one crack by preemptively cutting before it dries.

[Steve N]

Now that I can do

[Rick L]

http://www.preservation-solutions.com/wo...pentacryl/
Use pentacryl...it really works to prevent splitting and cracks.

[Steve N]

On complete cross slices I have used; Sealtite 60, PEG, Pentacryl, Paint (even though I didn't want the wood colored) and a variety of home brews I heard about here and there, and have routinely discounted all of them. I will say PEG, and Pentacryl offer the best stability especially on smaller pieces of wood, but on complete cross slices it's just more than a homeowner can deal with, unless he has professional level pressurization toys because he does so much of it, or is just silly rich. Now there are places that use Pentacryl, and PEG under great pressure to literally blow it into the woods pores. But for the rest of us all we can do is use an insane amount of it (I say insane from the $$$$ point of view) and lay it in a tub of the stuff, so, best case, it is surrounded by the stabilizer, but I have had no luck with really big pieces, especially a cross slice.

Alan made a very good post, with the reasons the entire slice will not dry without professional help, and even then can prove to be quite unstable. The wood shrinks more, in any shape, or size, from the outside where moisture is given up quite easily compared to the inner part of the wood, inside it stays wet for a longer time. Because of that rapid shrink, it will leave a defect, maybe not always a slice, but at lease a serious crack. Even done professionally the waste is much higher in cross cuts than in any other shape of wood worked with. As Tom suggested, it may not be a total loss if you can put in some bowties at the right time, and in the right places.