Seen a lot of those tables without extra supports, seem to work just fine.
Seen a lot of those tables without extra supports, seem to work just fine.
You can do a lot with very little! You can do a little more with a lot!
Clark, I found this video after the initial bubble problem. The successive coats I've applied have used the techniques shown in the video with one exception - I used a foam brush instead of the roller. Going to the brush requires using a large mixing bucket. I've found (the hard way) small buckets promote heat buildup causing the epoxy to thicken quickly which in turn makes it difficult to spread.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain
Some Blue Tools
Some Yellow Tools
A Grizzly Collection
ShapeokoXL
Blue and White 50 Watt
When we bought the boat it was on the hard. We met some "residents" - those who lived on their boats in the yard, planning one day to launch when the boat was finished. One couple started with a bare hull and gave me a tour of their progress. I saw lots of epoxy work. The husband warned me about epoxy fires. "Pretty much everyone here has had at least one pot fire," and explained how that can happen. As he was doing that I remembered I had left a small amount of epoxy in a cup in the boat. When I got to it, it had started to melt the plastic mixing cup.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain
Using epoxy full strength for the final epoxy coat left some streaks. West System epoxy is very different than other epoxies I've used. Rather than trying to fill the low spots I decided to take the high spots down with a card scraper. It's a tedious job I did on and off for over a week. But the card scraper worked pretty well and closed the epoxy chapter on this project.
Routing for the hinges made me really nervous. With so much time invested thus far, I didn't want to screw this up. But the first two came out ok.
What looks like white spots are the remaining low spots after scraping. The Interlux poly should fill them.
Rather than drilling pilot holes and turning in the screws, I decided to tap the wood first. When I was turning in the screws in the test pieces there was a lot of resistance. I took one screw to the grinder and flattened two sides. It really made a difference.
Another thing I learned was the hinges were not all identical. So I marked the hinges with their respective locations.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain
Bizarre that the hinges are not identical, definitely something to keep in mind. I may be making one of these tables very soon so I love all these little details!
You can do a lot with very little! You can do a little more with a lot!
The first set of hinges I bought were stainless steel butler hinges I got from Defender. Quality control on those hinges was even worse.
Three of the hinges from Edson are pretty much identical but one is slightly different. It's in the play of the piece that joins the two halves. I've changed them around but that one hinge is always a bit off.
On to today's work...
Today I laid down some colloidal thickened epoxy in the over-sized hinge rout-outs. Now I have to either make new jigs that fit the hinges more closely or add something to the insides of the router jig. They say electricians are like electrons so I'm taking the path of least resistance.
I have some veneer that is about the thickness of the gap I created in the original jig. So I cut some strips, whetted them and took a plank bender (used for model ships) to the whetted veneer and formed it around the inside of the jig.
I need to take some pics...
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain
I filled the hinge recessed with thickened epoxy and let that cure. Then went back with the router and jig to make them flush with the table. First round I used pencil marks to center the jig. It was a bit imperfect. This time I modified the jog by routing a V down the center and milling a piece so it would sit snug in the groove between the table and leaves. I also made the roundover to match the hinges.
This is the modified jig. If you look closely, you can see strips of veneer I inserted in the opening to make op for the oversized opening I made in round 1. I wanted room for the epoxy. Now the hings has to fit snugly.
Using a card scraper, I knocked the epoxy fill down so the hinge sits flush.
As you can see in this picture, this one was still a bit high on the left side. Back to the card scraper...
With all the hinges sitting properly, the top is ready for 2 part poly. The shiny streaks are low spots in the epoxy left over after running the card scraper over it. This should fill up with the poly.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain
Love it when a plan comes together! Nice piece of work.
Fair winds and following seas,
Jim Waldron
Just realized I never posted pics of the finished work.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain