Mike Allen1010
08-21-2018, 7:46 PM
My brother-in-law asked for my help in building a live edge, slab top dining room table. A local lumberyard, tropical exotic hardwoods of Latin America, specializes in these kind of slabs. We bought a rough sawn 63” x 30” x 3” thick slab of Parrata, a tropical wood indigenous to the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. Density/hand tool woodworking characteristics are similar to Redwood or mahogany.
Here’s a picture of dimensioning the slab, with a D – 8 thumbhole, 28 inch, 5 PPI crosscut saw. It really wasn’t too bad, even for fat old guy like me.
http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w498/mikeallen1010/1_zpsct3hkg8k.jpg (http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/mikeallen1010/media/1_zpsct3hkg8k.jpg.html)
http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w498/mikeallen1010/2_zpsznsfsryc.jpg (http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/mikeallen1010/media/2_zpsznsfsryc.jpg.html)
Used a scrub plane cross grain and a couple shop built, larger single iron scrub/Jack plane’s with the grain to get roughly flat surface, followed by number 6 fore plane and smoother’s to get to final surface. My sister-in-law thought the twisting grain around the knothole was “visually interesting”, but required a card scraper and sanding to bring to final surface. In total, surfacing time was about 4 hours.
http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w498/mikeallen1010/3_zpsyjv0uo29.jpg (http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/mikeallen1010/media/3_zpsyjv0uo29.jpg.html)
http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w498/mikeallen1010/4_zpsadv6r7bj.jpg (http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/mikeallen1010/media/4_zpsadv6r7bj.jpg.html)
I filled knot holes with epoxy and finish was lots of Watco oil/varnish applied over several days, followed by brush on lacquer. I’ve used brush on lacquer couple times and not completely sure I’m a fan; it dries really quickly, which is great for recoating, but seems for me to be more difficult to “flow on” into a self-leveling flat surface. Next time I might go back to the polyurethane.
http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w498/mikeallen1010/DSC_0555_zps011xlidy.jpg (http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/mikeallen1010/media/DSC_0555_zps011xlidy.jpg.html)
Cheers, Mike
Here’s a picture of dimensioning the slab, with a D – 8 thumbhole, 28 inch, 5 PPI crosscut saw. It really wasn’t too bad, even for fat old guy like me.
http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w498/mikeallen1010/1_zpsct3hkg8k.jpg (http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/mikeallen1010/media/1_zpsct3hkg8k.jpg.html)
http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w498/mikeallen1010/2_zpsznsfsryc.jpg (http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/mikeallen1010/media/2_zpsznsfsryc.jpg.html)
Used a scrub plane cross grain and a couple shop built, larger single iron scrub/Jack plane’s with the grain to get roughly flat surface, followed by number 6 fore plane and smoother’s to get to final surface. My sister-in-law thought the twisting grain around the knothole was “visually interesting”, but required a card scraper and sanding to bring to final surface. In total, surfacing time was about 4 hours.
http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w498/mikeallen1010/3_zpsyjv0uo29.jpg (http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/mikeallen1010/media/3_zpsyjv0uo29.jpg.html)
http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w498/mikeallen1010/4_zpsadv6r7bj.jpg (http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/mikeallen1010/media/4_zpsadv6r7bj.jpg.html)
I filled knot holes with epoxy and finish was lots of Watco oil/varnish applied over several days, followed by brush on lacquer. I’ve used brush on lacquer couple times and not completely sure I’m a fan; it dries really quickly, which is great for recoating, but seems for me to be more difficult to “flow on” into a self-leveling flat surface. Next time I might go back to the polyurethane.
http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w498/mikeallen1010/DSC_0555_zps011xlidy.jpg (http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/mikeallen1010/media/DSC_0555_zps011xlidy.jpg.html)
Cheers, Mike