Filling Large Voids In Red Cedar Beam

[Danny Hamsley]

I need some advice on how to fill some large voids in an eastern red cedar beam that has doty/pecky rot in it. The beam is 4 inches thick and will be used for a fireplace mantle. I would like to fill the voids, then add a final layer of material that will blend in well with the rest of the beam.

There are two situations. One is the presence of included bark strips. My thought here was to remove the bark and fill with a mix of clear epoxy and red cedar sawdust to male a paste. The second situation is more challenging. These voids are an inch or two deep and and inch or more wide.

My questions: 1). Will an epoxy-sawdust paste be the best way to blend in on the small holes and shallow inclusions? 2). What would be the best material to fill the large deep voids? Here are a couple of pictures that illustrate the challenge.

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[Dennis Ford]

I don't think you will be able to blend in a patch. You might be able to match the color but Cedar changes color as it ages and the patch will not. Epoxy would be a good fill material and it can be colored, you might consider a clear epoxy or a contrasting color.

[Peter Quinn]

IME a sawdust/epoxy mix always comes out darker than surrounding area and is almost never a seamless filler. In fact voids of that nature are going to be difficult to fill with anything in an invisible manner. I have had better results using just epoxy, and for voids that deep I typically use a slow setting formula like west systems. For small voids I like a thicker quick setting 5 minute epoxy. If you want to patch to disappear, its going to take some veneer sliced from another part of the log with similar grain. I like to cut an oval patch, like a cat's eye. slightly larger than the area being covered. If you have some drops, or you can slice one sheet of veneer off the back side of the same log it can work. I'd fill the voids, level it, then treat it like a regular veneer patch. Or perhaps you could handle the visual in finishing by tinting shellac with UTC's and use artists brushes to paint in the grain. But a big fill of epoxy and sawdust almost always screams CRACK.

[Gary Max]

With that much rot and sapwood you are going to have fun------------ cut it out and replace the bad section????????????
Cut the whole thing up and glue it back together in strips leaving the bad sections out. This way you could add what you wanted and it would look right.

[Mike Cutler]

Excavate the voids and us a solid epoxy stick. Mohawk finishes has many different colors.

Personally, If I was going to use this beam, I would fill with epoxy sticks and carefully apply a grain matching Dutchman's Patch to the top layer and then finish it as a solid beam.

[Allen Breinig]

I would consider slicing that beam into thick veneer, building a beam size box out of MDF and veneering it with the strips from the beam. Solves any drying problems too.

[Ryan Mooney]

I had a similar problem with some panels...
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?182014-W-Red-cedar-void-filling&highlight=

If you don't mind it being "dark and bark" looking the epoxy with fill/color works pretty well (that's what "the client" - aka my mom :D wanted in this case and the customer is always right). If its not going to be to closely examined I'd probably just clean out the loose rot as much as I could and then use something like the System Three EndRot system (basically epoxy stabilizer and a borate based anti rot mix - other suppliers have similar products and people have cooked their own mixes.. http://www.systemthree.com/store/pc/EndRot-Kit-c20.htm).

From my limited experience actually color/grain matching with the epoxy is just a bucket of fail (some folks can probably pull it off, I'm not one of them). It will either be artificially light and fake looking or really dark. The dark looks pretty good if you like the look.. (try it on a scrap and see how you like it). The patch idea others have mentioned is pretty good if you want grain match.

[Danny Hamsley]

Thanks for all the advice. Here is what I did. I planed the beam down to 3 1/4" and added a 3/4 board as a top to cover the voids and I added a 4" front piece to blend in with the new top. It turned out very nice. I have way more in this than what I expected, and the client is getting way more than what we talked about. Initially, I was to plane 6' of the 9' beam and then cut two corbels out of the remaining 3'. He was going to finish the mantle. However, even if I am in the hole, I have pride of workmanship, and I was not happy with how the beam looked after I planed it. I tried filling the voids with a pink bondo, but it looked crappy to me. All in all, I think that it turned out very nice, and he should be happy.

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[Michael Peet]

Looks nice, Danny. I am the same way - if my name is on it, it needs to meet my standards. You will never regret the time spent making it right.

Mike