[Marc]- Well, today we're gonna
venture into some new territory
and have some fun with
a big live-edge slab.
I love you. (smack)
♫ Hit it
(funk music)
- One of the things I
looked forward to the most
about moving to Denver was the possibility
of having access to more slabs.
And let me tell ya,
there's some really great
vendors around here.
Recently, I went to CSWoods,
it's Collectors Specialty
Woods, in Denver.
And oh my goodness, do they
have a selection of slabs!
It's going to knock your socks off.
Let's check it out.
(pleasant bubbly music)
CSWoods is located in a
very unassuming warehouse
off Monaco Street in Denver.
Up front is the office, where you'll get
just a little taste of what's to come.
In the warehouse, things
get a little nuts.
I've honestly never seen
a collection like this,
with wall to wall live-edge slabs.
Most of the slabs are adorned
with natural imperfection
serving as Mother Nature's fingerprint,
making each one truly unique.
This place is like a
woodworker's Disney World.
After picking my jaw up off the floor,
I finally honed in on a
small slab of claro walnut.
They let me spray it down with orange oil
so that I could see the grain,
and it was love at first sight.
So, here's the claro walnut slab
that came home with me,
and I absolutely love it.
If you're not familiar with
what a live-edge slab is,
basically think of taking
just the simple cross-section
of that tree, and you have
bark to bark on both ends.
And that's what makes
these things so magical,
because it really is just a
simple slice out of the tree.
And you try to retain this roughness
and these edges, so that
they actually are part
of the showpiece that
you're trying to show off.
Now, slabs can use alotta work at times.
This one happens to be
in incredibly good shape.
It's nice and flat.
They've already done that work for me.
And there really isn't a lot to repair.
I've got a little bit a
checking here and there.
I've got some worm or beetle holes,
basically some kind of pest
that made holes that we'll either fill
or sort of strengthen
them with some CA glue.
And ultimately, all I have to do
is a little bit of prep
work, put this thing on legs,
and I'm gonna have a
nice little coffee table.
First thing I'm gonna do
is stabilize the end grain checking.
In some areas, the checking
goes in a few inches,
and the extra tape helps prevent
the epoxy from seeping out.
I wanna fill this entire bark inclusion,
so I'll block the whole area with tape.
Epoxy is my material of
choice for stabilization,
specifically West Systems
105 resin and 205 hardener.
There's no dye being used here.
The 205 hardener takes on
this dark caramel color
as it ages, so it works great
for filling applications.
I simply pour the epoxy
onto the end grain,
spread it around, and
let the wood soak it up.
Ideally, the epoxy will
seep into the cracks
and not only fill them, but stabilize them
so that they don't crack
again in the future.
Just a quick tip, if the epoxy
is cold, it'll be much more viscous.
If you warm up the resin just a bit
before adding the hardener, the epoxy
will be much more runny
and will do a better job
of penetrating the cracks and crevices.
Over the course of a few minutes,
you should see areas
where the epoxy soaks in.
So just push more epoxy into those cracks.
Now I let the slab sit overnight.
When I peel the tape away, you can see
how the epoxy worked
its way through the slab
and into the checks and cracks.
Now for the worm holes.
If they're filled with sawdust,
you can drop some thin CA glue on top
and it should suck it right up.
If you prefer to epoxy the holes,
simply dig out that sawdust
and then apply the epoxy.
Now, on the underside, we
definitely have an issue
that needs to be repaired.
And if you put your finger over it,
(tapping)
You can kinda hear that
it's fairly unstable;
it's not really well-supported.
So we're gonna wanna fill this with epoxy.
But you always have to be
concerned when you see a hole,
it terms of where that hole goes, right.
So let's flip this over.
And you can see there's actually
this little divot in there.
So chances are, if I just try
to fill all that with epoxy,
it's probably gonna start
pouring through here.
And I can't really tape this area off.
So one thing that you can do,
it's kind of a neat
trick, is to use CA glue.
And I can pour some
(whooshing)
into this little crack
here, and try to use
my quick-set activator to
seal it up from this side.
And then I'll be able
to pour epoxy safely
in from the other side.
(whooshing)
Now we should hopefully be able to
(clattering)
fill this with epoxy
(shuffling)
and not have it just
pouring out the other end.
So, I've pretty much filled
everything that I can fill.
And I let the epoxy dry
overnight, so it's nice and firm.
And at this point, we need
to make some decisions
about the final size
and shape of this slab.
And a lot of that relates to
the legs and their positions.
So let's see how things lay out.
Now, I've got the slab upside-down,
because we're gonna
look at the legs, right.
Now, these are locally fabricated legs.
Always cool to support a
local craftsman if you can.
And we're gonna put one on each side.
(clattering)
Now, these things are nice and heavy duty,
and I think the rectangular shape
really fits the theme of the table.
Because even though
it's got two live edges,
it really is a simple
rectangular shape overall.
So, where to place
these legs kinda depends
on what's goin' on with the edges.
I don't know that these two ends
are parallel to one another.
So if I use that as a guide to line up
each one of my legs, I don't
know that my legs are gonna be,
ya know, parallel with each other.
They might be skewed, right.
So, let's see if we can put
some sort of imaginary reference lines.
And what I mean by imaginary
is we don't really have
a straight side to work with, do we?
We've got a very curved live edge here,
and then one that's very wavy.
And even though this is
wavy, you do still have
sorta the ability to
imagine a straight line
going through this side.
(light scraping)
So, what I'm gonna do
is take a straight edge,
drop it in place, just kind of eyeball
what seems to look straight
to my eye, and drop in a line.
(scraping)
Now, using a large square, I'm
just gonna drop it in place
and roughly mark out a square
reference line for the end.
Now, as you can see, we've got
a little bit of a taper here,
so let's see how the other side works out.
Now, this one kind of has
a similar taper to it,
which means our slab
actually flares out this way.
So, if this was somethin'
you feel strongly about
and you wanna correct, a circular saw
or a track saw is the way to do it.
(light humming)
As we make these cuts, we're also removing
that outer layer of epoxy.
Keep in mind, if you cut too deep,
you're more likely to expose
a fresh, unfilled crack.
I had to cut mine in two passes
since it didn't quite remove
all the glue the first time around.
So, the ends are lookin' pretty good.
Now we just need to clean the surfaces.
We've got that epoxy sitting there.
And all you really need to
do is scrape or sand it back
and then sand the entire
surface nice and smooth.
The trick here is the live edge.
That's a little bit trickier to sand,
because it's not flat, right.
So there's a lot of
different things you can do.
You can use wire brushes, you can use,
there's wire brush
attachments for a drill.
You could use flap sanders.
You could even go at it with
hand tools if you wanted to,
but you gotta be careful not
to kill the natural contours.
I'm gonna try something
a little bit different.
I'm gonna go with sandblasting.
Now, I have done some
sandblasting in the past
with a real, serious, pro
rig, but this was cheap.
This was a little gun that
holds the sand in the top.
And you just connect it to the compressor.
And I don't know, we'll see
what happens! (laughing)
Hopefully this wasn't a waste of money.
But if I can sandblast the edge,
that's a great way to abrade the surface,
allow it to maintain the natural contours.
But you could still clean it up nicely
without killing the look.
So, let's get to it.
(peaceful piano music)
There's a little too much epoxy build up
in some of these areas, so I'll use
my carving tools to
remove as much as I can.
Even if I dig into the wood surface,
the curved profile of the carving gouge
retains a fairly natural look.
The gun runs at about 90 PSI.
(humming)
The abrasive is Black Beauty
Extra Fine Blast Media.
It runs about 27 bucks for a 25 pound bag,
(tapping)
and I really should get myself a funnel.
I'll do the work in my driveway,
but I'll first throw down a big tarp.
If I can recover any of the
blasting medium, I'd like to,
and hopefully the tarp
will catch a lot of it.
Now, with a face shield on,
I'll give this thing a whirl.
(whooshing)
It's working pretty well, but it's clear
that it won't be effective over the epoxy.
So we'll come back to
that area in a minute.
As you can see, it's doin'
a really nice job everywhere else.
But again, we have more
stubborn epoxy here.
So, with the carving
tools, I take the time
to remove as much of
the epoxy as possible.
(whooshing)
The other live edge is much easier
and just requires a nice, even blasting.
One of the corners has a lot of bark,
and I'll remove that with a carving gouge.
(scraping)
(whooshing)
And just for fun, I wanted to see
if this stuff could strip paint.
And it really has no problem
with the white project paint,
but it takes a little longer
on what I'm assuming is
a powder-coated finish.
Now, this is a pretty fine grit,
so I wasn't expecting a miracle here.
But it does eventually make it through.
The entire slab gets sprayed
down with compressed air,
as does the camera and my
own nooks and crannies.
And believe me, that
abrasive goes everywhere.
Rolling up the tarp, I was able
to recover a good amount of the abrasive.
(fun funky music)
Well, I gotta say, that was a real blast.
Now, when it comes to sandblasting,
there are a lot of different
products on the market.
But today, we've just
scratched the surface.
Of course, I realize
these are super corny,
but it's better than abrasive jokes.
(scraping)
Now we can do the final finish prep.
I use a cabinet scraper to smooth
the faces and save myself
some low grit sanding.
From there, I start with 180 grit
and work my way up to 320.
(shuffling)
(humming)
On the ends,
you need to balance the sander carefully,
but the two inch wide surface
is pretty easy to work with.
Sanding this end grain
is absolutely crucial
since there's so much of it
present in the final table.
I use a small round-over bit
to break the sharp edges.
(scraping)
The live edges are now pretty sharp, too,
so I'll use a fine rasp to
create an eighth inch wide flat.
If I encounter any weak areas,
I just keep removing stock until it's gone
and then reshape the edge.
The final shaping is done with sandpaper,
as I smooth the transition
between the sharp edge
and the live surface.
(light scraping)
And now it's time for finishing.
(light whirring)
The finish will be some
simple wipe-on poly.
While you normally wipe
this stuff on with a rag,
there's no reason you can't use a brush.
Notice I'm coating the
bottom surface first.
This way, I can flip it
over and work on the top.
And if the painter's pyramids leave
any sort of marks, they'll
be on the underside.
(scratching)
Once the first coat dries, I lightly sand
with 500 grit paper and re-coat.
Before applying coat number three,
I sand again with 500 grit paper,
and then sand the live edges lightly
with 500 grit abrasive sanding pads.
I'm not trying to sand thoroughly here,
just smoothing out the high points
We're getting close to our final coat,
so it's a good idea to vacuum
the surface thoroughly.
(whooshing)
For the fourth and final coat,
I'll dilute the finish
with some mineral spirits
so that it's really thin,
and then wet the surface thoroughly.
The diluted poly will act
as a lubricant for my sander
with a 2,000 grit wet-dry
sanding pad attached.
(whirring)
I've got the sander on
a pretty slow speed,
because I'm really just
buffing the surface here
and I don't wanna remove
alotta cured finish.
Now I wipe off the excess
finish and let it cure.
Believe me when I tell
you that this surface
is just about the smoothest
thing you've ever felt.
Now we need to turn our
attention to the legs.
To allow for wood movement, I'm widening
the outside sets of holes.
(whirring)
(scraping)
Now we can place the legs.
Honestly, these legs are just a big large
for this slab, but I can make them work.
At the center of each hole, I use
a brad-point bit to tap an indentation.
(tapping)
Then, using a one inch bolt and washer,
I determine how deep I need the drill
and mark it with some tape.
(buzzing)
To attach the bolts to the slab,
I'm using Wood Whisperer thread taps.
So I need to start by
drilling a pilot hole.
Next, I use a quarter inch tap
and tap the threads right in the slab.
(buzzing)
Now I can attach the leg assemblies
with the quarter inch bolts.
(rattling)
I'm using a socket wrench here.
But remember, these threads
(clicking)
are made of wood,
so this is overkill.
I should really be using a hand driver.
Well, here is my new coffee table,
which will soon be loaded
down with milk, and Cheerios,
(laughing) and all kinds of fun things.
But as you can see, a live
edge slab table like this
is actually pretty darn simple.
You just have to prep the slab,
stabilize it, put a good finish on it,
and then stay outta the way, right.
If you over-design the legs and the base,
it kind of could compete with the top,
and you don't wanna do that.
You really want a sort
of minimalist design
to the base and legs, and this
way the top is the showpiece.
You're not sort of competing
one with the other.
So, really quick project.
This almost reminds me of turning, right.
When you turn, you get a sort
of immediate gratification,
you get a finished product pretty quickly.
The longest part of this project
was applying the finish.
So it went pretty well.
Really happy with the results.
And hopefully you'll get into
some live-edge slab building, too,
because, I mean, really, it's a great way
to harness Mother Nature's power
to create something beautiful.
(funk music)
And all we have to do is just showcase it.
Alright, thanks for watchin'.
