Thread: steps to making waterfall edge

I would dress the whole length to the finished thickness first as this will ensure that when you cut the mitres the grain and pattern will match. My reasoning for this is if you get your faces mixed up and plane the top of the table and the underside of the legs the pattern will not match at the mitre.

This is how i prepare timber for boxes eg i plane the minimum to take the saw marks out and then choose the faces and if i get a good pattern match i then continue to plane all the back faces until i get the desired thickness.

Dress the whole thing first.

Be sure to post pictures when you’re done


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Over this weekend I dressed the timber, glued it together and put in the epoxy to fill in gum veins. The epoxy I am using says 12hour initial cure and full cure 3 days - does that mean after at least 12 hours I can go at it with the card scraper to flatten it out? Or will that damage the surface? (really dont want to screw this up!)

Epoxy takes a while to fully harden I would give it the 3 days, it may be still soft under the surface. Depending on weather, cold hot humid etc, the 3 days the manufacturer recommends will be set by their testing environment ie. @22 degrees or what ever. I have had epoxy dry enough to sand in 12 hours and others that have taken a week, depended on the time of year I used it.

I see. I wasnt sure if I needed to fully wait or could take advantage of the fact that it may be easier to take off whilst still slightly soft. Its been pretty cold here in Melb so I'll wait longer.

It will tear if you try too early, you will find that it hardens from the outside in (air exposure) the thicker it is the longer it will take to cure deep down. I have just sanded some down that I have had sitting for 3 weeks or so, it was all good. If you end up sanding and doing it too early it will gum up the sand paper.

Epoxy works on a chemical reaction between the 2 parts and should set evenly throughout, regardless of exposure to air. It should also set faster with more because the heat generated from the reaction speeds up the process.

At least that's been my experience

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

Epoxy works on a chemical reaction between the 2 parts and should set evenly throughout, regardless of exposure to air. It should also set faster with more because the heat generated from the reaction speeds up the process.

At least that's been my experience

which matches with the chemistry involved