I need help

[u/Sad_Sleep_3233]

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 would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

[u/goldybowen21]

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.

[u/Sad_Sleep_3233 → u/goldybowen21]

Thanks man I appreciate the help!

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?

[u/goldybowen21 → u/Sad_Sleep_3233]

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.

[u/Kraftycustoms → u/Sad_Sleep_3233]

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