Thread: Red gum outdoor table

Hi Danny,
I used Organoil Garden Furniture Oil http://www.organoil.com.au/gardenfurnoil/index.html for a similar project a little while ago. We were happy with the results. I prefer an oil finish. The source of the timber was old fence posts. You see from the first pic that we did have a wee problem with tannin leachin out of the wood after a shower, however you have indicated that the table will be out of the weather se this shouldn't be a problem - I think....

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Originally Posted by danny253

Hi guys

I'm in the process of making an outdoor table out of redgum sleepers. I've glued and dowelled the sleepers together and will be decking them all flat with a cnc router so I will have an even surface. The table will be undercover and won't get any weather. I'm unsure on what to finish it with. I don't want a gloss or semi gloss finish I'm after something more natural, was thinking along the lines of oil and maybe beeswax over the top but I've never used beeswax before so I don't know how it will come out. Also what type of oil would be the best, I don't really want something that's orangey or yellow in colour more natural if possible. Any advice would be great ! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I have used a marine oil finish called Delks Olje (Pronounced Decks Olya) made by www.floodaustralia.net to finish outdoor furniture and external doors in Australian Cedar. It is available from marine suppliers such as Whitworths marine. It gives a lovely clear finish that shows the figure and the beauty of the wood and can be either low sheen or high gloss depending on the number of coats and whether you only use the essential #1 or the high gloss #2. Another great feature is that if it does start to age with the weather or UV light then you can just lightly rub it over with sanpaper and overcoat it with more Deks Olje to revive the finish. One Australian Cedar bench under cover has survived 6 years without re-coat, a more exposed eucalyptus seat has need a recoat after 3 years and Australian cedar doors exposed to the Queensland weather have needed a re-coat after three years but now look like new. You need to apply it with good ventilation as the volatile oils are pretty potent.

This one is recycled oregon with Feast Watson outdoor furinture oil then carnuba wax. This gives a low sheen finish.

To recoat just wax it again. If you want, the wax can be removed with wax and grease remover then sanded and the oil reapplied then waxed again.

This one is under cover.

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