Thread: River Red Gum Slab Coffee Table

You need one of these to clean the edges. Use 2 part epoxy to fill all the gaps. Have fun.

Welcome to the site. I agree with the epoxy to fill the gaps.

I also agree that epoxy will do for the gaps and you can add a colour tint to get whatever effect you are after. As for the edges they look a bit rotten so you will have to get back to sound timber. The wire brush may be a bit drastic and take away the edge you want so my first try would be a water jet cleaner. A big heavy duty one. You should be able to hire one. There is a bit of work there but it should look good when finished.
Regards
John

A good brad-awl, wire brush and air nozzle to get the crap out. And I wouldn’t fill the holes and cracks. I prefer them natural. If they are gaping, then some nice butterfly keys for stability.

cheers for the help guys,
i went and got a wire brush, and it worked well im down to smoothish edges now and back to hard wood all the way around.

now i'm looking to fill just a few of the cracks on the top face, i want to get that sort of almost transparent black look, any help on what product to get?

cheers,
josh

is casting and embedding resin the right type of 2 part epoxy? or something like araldite? there are only a few areas to attend to but i'd like a completely flat surface on top. and will danish oil be enough to protect the table or should i go for a wipe on poly + stain?



thanks all

Casting resin should not leave any trapped air bubbles , but I quite often use 5 minute araldite as it hardens more quickly. For colouring , get some of the mortar colouring pigments fro0m Bunnings . Last time I was there I saw quite a range .

Cheers .

Nice colour in your slab

cheers mate appreciate it

Hi Josho101,

I've used casting resin in the past for exactly what you're doing and it works well. I decided to leave mine clear but it can be tinted as others have suggested.

A couple of tips I learnt from others on the forum were;
1: Warm the timber first with a heat gun, it helps the resin to flow better once it hits the timber.
2: Build a "dam" around the area you're filling with hot melt glue and over fill the hole to allow for shrinkage.

When I did my project I over filled the hole (without the dam) and I found the resin had shrunk below the surface of the timber after it cured. It was too far below the surface to sand out so I had to lay some more resin over the top. Needless to say for the 2nd layer I added the dam. It's easy to sand off the excess resin and I ended up with a nice flat surface in the end. Wear a good mask of course when you do the sanding as the dust is very fine.

Good luck with the project.

Cheers
JF

thanks a lot for your help mate, some good tips there.
been held up for a while but getting going on the resin tomorrow, got a 90 x 90 length of redgum for the legs, things are starting to come together.
will post more pictures soon,
cheers

Originally Posted by Lignum

... If they are gaping, then some nice butterfly keys for stability.

Lignum what are butterfly keys?

Thanks
Rod

Look forward to seeing the table finished

Originally Posted by rod1949

Lignum what are butterfly keys?

Thanks
Rod

Rod, these are ebony keys in a big slab of Raintree.

hi guys it turnsout im doing the same thing with a pc of redgum 3m x 1.3m i have no experience at this so i am researching as much as i can, i have been reading your comments about filling the gaps and using epoxy / araldite etc, i was told to use timbermate ebony. is this not as good? i am after the glassy black finish once its lacquered.