Thread: DIY...From a log to a table.

So I took my lamyai log to a sawmill and had it cut, then to a cabinet shop to be planed. The boards had a lot of defects. If I started cutting off all the defects, I wouldn't have enough wood left to build the table. So I just worked with the defects and I don't like to use putty. Sometimes putty just looks like a poop streak on beautiful wood. The finished top I used enough polyurethane to fill any flaws, of course you can't leave cracks for food to go down. I did a strength test on glue to see which I liked best. There was no comparison, Elmers by far better. In all fairness the other stuff said fully cured after 72 hours, I didn't want to wait 72 hours so went with Elmers.

Gluing the top you try for perfect joints, I got 2 out of 3. Also when clamping it wants to bow. One end came out perfect the other has one eight inch bow, I can live with that. The leg joint isn't easy to get perfect, mine is not. If you had a router probably easier, but I have no router. I used a power saw, chisel, and rasp.

Good job on the table, tunk.

Originally Posted by tunk

when clamping it wants to bow. One end came out perfect the other has one eight inch bow, I can live with that.

Eight inches? Surely not! Do you mean an eighth of an inch?

Finished. It is not perfect, but doesn't matter. I'm not trying to sell anything it's for my own personal use. The rest of my life when I sit down to eat I'll be eating off a table I took from the tree.

Looks great.

How sturdy is it? Maybe stick a support beam between the 2 cross-sections? We didn't get to see the underside.

Very nice job on the table Tunk.
Elmers is good stuff, the only glue I use except for outdoors stuff, exposed to rain as it's not waterproof
But should be no problem since your table is well coated and guess it's under a roof?

Cheers,
Luc

nice looking table, what are the final mesaurements?

Yeah Nervera I wrote eight instead of eighth. And there is bracing from the legs up to the middle. It is very sturdy. Yes Nevera if it had an 8 inch bow I wouldn't show pictures.

Measurements 46 x 28 inches. Same size as I use now and if my daughter cleans her junk off there is plenty of room for us to eat.

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

I had seen a project that I cant find now where he had taken different bear bottle tops, flatten them and incorporated them in the epoxy, It really looked nice,

epoxy yes, beer bottles? please no.

I watched the video, thats a beautiful finish. The problem with videos, they have access to products that would be damn hard to find in Thailand. I usually shop at Global, but I will say HomePro has a better variety of adhesives and they might have that epoxy.

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

I found this two part epoxy kit on Lazada . it is not very expensive. When I am done with the room, perhaps I will order it and play around.

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/021-epoxy-resin-15-i1823082392-s5475898457.html?
spm=a2o4m.searchlist.list.11.6721612f0KiFGz&search =1

Also found the pigment powders.
https://www.lazada.co.th/catalog/?
q=+epoxy+pigments&_keyori=ss&from=input&spm=a2o4m. searchlist.search.go.159a2a75cuazMU

watch some more of the videos, they do some incredible finishes with them,

Been a long time I used resin.. building my aquarium-backgrounds at the time. 2007-2008 I guess.
Bought the stuff in a shop somewhere in Nonthaburi who did glass fiber work. Different from your Lazada resin in that the hardener was blueish and only needed a very small amount, (like a couple cc p/liter resin. I think it was Cobalt based,.. could be wrong, no chemist).
Was over a 1000 baht at the time, but I think something like a 5 liter jug of resin.

let me know your experience with it.. plenty of ideas I got to try out some epoxy.

Originally Posted by Schuimpge

Been a long time I used resin.. building my aquarium-backgrounds at the time. 2007-2008 I guess.
Bought the stuff in a shop somewhere in Nonthaburi who did glass fiber work. Different from your Lazada resin in that the hardener was blueish and only needed a very small amount, (like a couple cc p/liter resin. I think it was Cobalt based,.. could be wrong, no chemist).
Was over a 1000 baht at the time, but I think something like a 5 liter jug of resin.

let me know your experience with it.. plenty of ideas I got to try out some epoxy.

I have a teak table

that I guess they had not seasoned the wood properly and I got separation where they spliced the wood planks,

That might be my first resin project. I will certainly post it , see what we can learn since it will be my first time trying resin.

Nice looking table tunk.

A tunking good job, Tunk.


Christening it with beer bottles, rather than the missus, is probably best.

Nice job.
It's cool that you got some use out of that tree you cut down.

Was that the wood from the tree you cut down?
I don't know much about these things, and in particular that type of wood, but If so, wouldn't that wood need to be seasoned? And if you need to season the wood, how does one do that? Do you just leave it in the sun?

If you know you want to use the log, get it cut into boards right away. Then just stack the boards in a dry place with a thin strip of wood in between the rows for air to flow. Unless of course you have a kiln. I don't know anybody that has a kiln except maybe Klondyke. And the reason I like polyurethane, the front door on this house I finished 14 years ago and it still looks as good today as the day I hung it. One of my neighbors hung a front door the same time as me. His big double doors were beautiful and twice as expensive as mine, but he did a hurry up job with a half assed finish, today his doors look like shit.

Yes that is the lamyai tree I cut down. That log seasoned for 3 years. It would have been better to have it sawn into boards right away, but back then I wasn't thinking about that, I was just glad to have the tree down. Here is a finishing tip I learned from my mistake. That TOA polyurethane is a very good finish, but if you want the smooth as glass you need to thin it down. Right out of the can you will get brush marks, more coats still brush marks. Thin it down then you can get smooth as glass. I thinned the last 2 coats and it looks much better.

Tunk, very nice achievement. How you did the sanding of the joints?

Originally Posted by Klondyke

How you did the sanding of the joints?

I'm going out on a limb and saying with a sander?

Klondyke I have a Makita M9400 belt sander, it is a beast. What I really like is in one minute you can flip it over and mount it on the workbench and have a bench sander. Thats too bad about that table Buck. Either the wood wasn't dry or they used shit glue or both. Is it just one bad joint or more than one? If that was mine I think I would take it apart and repair the joint. Do you really want a resin streak in a teak table? I think when you are done it will look like a patch.

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

That might be my first resin project. I will certainly post it , see what we can learn since it will be my first time trying resin.

Originally Posted by tunk

Thats too bad about that table Buck. Either the wood wasn't dry or they used shit glue or both. Is it just one bad joint or more than one? If that was mine I think I would take it apart and repair the joint. Do you really want a resin streak in a teak table? I think when you are done it will look like a patch.

It does not need to look like a patch. Just to clean up the gap - it even can be more widened. Then, it is no patch but a decoration, nowadays quite fashionable. Either transparent (with some inserts) or in any color.

Not to forget to close from below that the resin does not run through. The resins are of various qualities. Most of them have to be applied in thin layers - if for a wider surface - since the chemical reaction generate a remarkable heat that causes cracks when it get colder and harder.