surface leveler

[Trey Isbell]

I just built an assembly table and found out the the top is not quite as flat as I wanted it to be. Is there any kind of surface leveler you can pour on a surface and it gets hard. I would like to know if anybody has used this method. I built a torsion box and there no way to shim the top flat now it is just to solid.

[David DeCristoforo]

What is the top made of? How much material needs to be removed (or added) to make it flat? Answers will require more information than your original question.

[Trey Isbell]

The top is made of 1/2" plywood maybe 1/8" needs to come off in some places

[Doug Shepard]

Ply sort of rules out running it through a wide belt sander. 1/8" is quite a bit. This is a shot in the dark, but the only thing that comes to mind is maybe using fiberglass tape and epoxy resin to build it up. With multiple layers in the lowest areas??

[Rich Engelhardt]

Bondo auto body filler - should work.
Trowel it on and squeege it level.

[Jamie Buxton]

You're not going to like this answer, but I'd just regard that torsion box as a learning experiment. Trash it, and build a new flatter one. As you've found, torsion boxes are pretty difficult to change after the second skin goes on. The newer flatter box will be much faster to build, now that it is your second.

[glenn bradley]

I have to agree with Jamie. Although a painful idea, a new build will be better in the long run than trying to fix that large a surface that is that far off (possibly cheaper too). Sorry.

[daniel lane]

Heh. If it were me, and I decided to consider it a learning experience, I would consider sanding it flat and then coating with thin epoxy to prevent peeling of the ply layers. It's an experiment that may not work, but I'd hate to discard an imperfectly good torsion box. ;)

[David DeCristoforo]

I have to agree with Jamie. The only other option I can see is to get some good straight edges (the longer the better) and a belt sander with a 50 or 60 grit belt and take the high spots down. Of course, this is going to eat through at least a couple of plys so the top is not going to be too pretty. You could cover the flattened top with PL but for all the extra work and expense you might as well suck it up and make a new top.

[Trey Isbell]

Thanks for the help. I think what I might try to do first is used body filler sand it flat then go back with 1/4" ply on the top I hate to discard it. I have about 80 dollars invested.

[Bill Neely]

If you decide to try leveling it a piece of Masonite over the plywood would give it a decent look.

[Michael Schwartz]

Shim it with, well whatever, checking it with a long strait edge, and then drop a sheet of MDF on-top.

Or take out the high spots with a belt sander, checking it often with a stratit edge, and drop a skin of plywood or even 1/8 tempered hardboard ontop.

Don't give up on it yet, you can still salvgae it.

Part of woodworking is learning how to fix the mistakes that you will eventualy make.

[Larry Rasmussen]

Hi Trey,

I posted a similar question here and did some independent looking around on the net. Resin is very expensive period and there is nothing that I could find about how well it would self level. Best buy seems to be from a company on Ebay, they have a store over there. You'll have to search for resin but they have quite a few products so will be easy to locate. Maybe $80 for a little over a gallon, depends on how much you want to cover.

Someone mentioned the cement based floor levelers they use before putting tile or other floor covers down. Twenty bucks or so for a bag of it to be mixed with water and you pour away. Look for it in the tile section over at Home Depot or similar retailer. You still have to level with a trowel or something though. I'm not thinking I can just eyeball much better than the 1/8th I'm off.

I'm still looking at the problem occasionally. You could screw a pefectly level border all the way around and use a router sled to level it if you have enough material on the table top to be able to route some off. I was thinking about putting the level border around as above then shimming in the middle and putting the top down on all that. Depends on whether you can make your base 1 1/2" smaller in length and width to accomodate the 3/4" border.

Ok it's been a while since I looked into this so I was a little vague. The router sled for leveling or jointing would be a great one to search on the forum here, alot has been written about it.

Larry