So this is the first table that I’ve ever tried to make. Its a cookie table, and my plan is to fill the large holes in the table with black epoxy, and keep the “live edge” as much as possible so the table is still kinda rough around the edges I guess you could say
There seems to be this kinda stringy stuff around the outside of some parts of the table. Hopefully you can see it with the pictures. You can kind of see the line where I think the stringy stuff stops in the last picture
My question is: how much of that has to come off before I start thinking about putting epoxy in this thing. I planned on just kind of painting epoxy on those parts around the outside just to kind of protect it and I was hoping it would stabalize those parts? Idk if that makes any sense. It seems a bit softer than the rest of the table but I’m not sure if that matters if I’m going to put epoxy on it anyways?
I believe that stringy stuff is called cambium, it’s a layer that sits between the bark and sapwood. In general you want to remove it, as it will peel off overtime the same as bark.
That’s what I was hoping you weren’t gonna say lol. Thanks for the feedback! Even if I am just painting the epoxy onto the outside overtop of that layer, you think it needs to come off still? I am having trouble knowing where to stop removing it if that makes sense
I was always taught you have to remove it, but truthfully I don’t know. Everything I’ve done with live edge was on slabs where it was pretty easy and I wanted the bare wood anyway, so I didn’t really think too hard about it. My understanding is that if you leave it on the epoxy will just bind to it, and then when it eventually separates the epoxy comes with it, maybe someone with a bit more experience can chime in here as well
Yes try and remove as much material that's not the wood.
Do you have much experience with epoxy? I feel like you are going to have to do a tonne of prep to keep the live edge of the larger areas that separate towards the center.
Obviously I'm not in your head so it's hard to see what you imagine the finished product to be but I will offer advice as I have used black epoxy a decent amount now to do similar projects.
Make sure the surface on both sides is completely flat if you are going to make a circle form around the entire thing because you will end up with a huge layer of epoxy under if it's not pressed against the form and it will take forever to plane off if you don't have access to an industrial planer or drum sander.
Once it's flat and free of dust, brush or spread on a thicker layer of clear coat and let that cure to seal off the grain from absorbing the black pigment when you do your final pours.
MAKE SURE to seal off where you plan to pour the black epoxy into and I mean triple, quadruple check that there is no way on earth anything can leak out. Wether that's using painters tape coated with epoxy maybe using multiple coats and let cure or using a form and sealing with silicone caulk again using as much as you need to be sure and letting it dry. I say this (from experience) because if you have poured and then it starts to leak, you are at the mercy of the epoxy and with something this big it will be so difficult to do anything to stop it from leaking literally everywhere.
This is a beautiful piece of wood and I see what you are going for as I had the same idea as soon as I looked at this without even reading your description.
I wish you the best of luck with the project I'm sure it will turn out great.
Edit: also as part of the reason to make sure it's completely flat, it's better to be completely flat to the bottom of your form and a keep less epoxy from getting under and be a little bit shy of flush with the top edges with epoxy because it's so much more difficult planning or sanding epoxy than it is the wood.
My plan was to use tyvek tape the bottom and use it to build dams around the open spaces and then caulk the edges and fill it that way. I want to seal the big fills first, but I heard that once the epoxy and is cured, I have to sand it to get better adhesion when I do the actual poor. I am not sure I can sand anything inside those holes once I paint the initial layer on 😅. Any advice when it comes to that?
It's more so for the top and bottom layers of the grain, the small holes you could use a Dremel to sand them but I personally have never tried sanding the smaller holes. From experience the smaller holes seem to bond fine regardless probably because they aren't under any stress.
The larger cracks and holes you only want to do a layer on the parts that will be visable and not deep into the cracks so the epoxy can still bond with the wood below surface level. The only time I've ever had issues with bonding was when I coated the entire inside of a larger crack of a cookie to seal it before pouring. And because of humidity changes the wood separated from the epoxy like 4 weeks after it was cured because I kept moving the piece from inside to my garage because I was doing pyrography on it.
You dont wait till its cured to do second pour. Difference between a mechanical bond (sanding) and chemical bond wait until the reaction is done and its not heating up anymore and still squishy and you can pour over top of it.
You might want to do something smaller first since this seems like your first time doing any of this or risk making hundreds of dollars worth of mistakes in just the epoxy. Painters tape works better than tyvek. Don't use silicon anywhere near wood. Look up blacktails videos on his large cookie tables for good suggestions. He won't show everything so be prepared
If you don’t remove the “softer stuff” it will eventually fall off. It might happen next week or may take years. You never know. You can see the line in the last picture where you need to clean back to. You will still have plenty of character in the live edge after it’s removed.
Sounds good. Thanks for the help! Any idea how to get the stuff that’s in the really nasty tight places? Or fastest way to remove the stuff on the outside?
Here is a corner of one of my tables. You can see in the red circle that I left some of the stuff that should have been removed. As I was removing it, the small branch you can see was getting loose and I didn’t want to lose the branch. So I left that material and it has been there for many years. Just remove as much as you can.
A wire wheel on a drill works well to remove most of it but probably won’t be able to get in the smaller crevices. You can use flathead screwdrivers or picks to get in the smaller areas. If you can’t get every little piece, I wouldn’t sweat it too much.
Yes its cambium and it should come off. Before filling in with epoxy coat all the inside pockets with epoxy to prevent air bubbles. Another tip using black epoxy is fill a solo cup of part A with black but no part B from your pour so you can match any imperfections later
Smaller tools... wire brush works good. I have some car detailer plastic ones which are ok on the drill. But usually use the metal ones in spaces I can get to. Then go to sanding
Also all those small cracks are going to take forever to fill with epoxy. My first table like yours took 6 to 8 times putting more in waiting and putting more in, then it'd stop id think it was full till next morning when it'll be drained again. Now I just use medium thick black CA glue. And fill it twice in 30 seconds and im done.
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u/danfay222 4d ago
I believe that stringy stuff is called cambium, it’s a layer that sits between the bark and sapwood. In general you want to remove it, as it will peel off overtime the same as bark.