Iliowood Designs Posted February 8, 2017 Report Share Posted February 8, 2017 I'm starting a table for someone and using some live edge Mesquite I picked up about 6 months ago. There is a lot of checking and holes in the wood (see pictures). I was curious if epoxy would be enough to hold and/or keep the wood from splitting any more. With this amount of checking is it better to use a combo of bowties and epoxy? The plan is to cut one side on two slabs and then use a butt joint to make the table top. This is my first live edge table so any advice would be much appreciated! On a side note; the wood was treated with Bora-care and stickered/stacked in my shop since the MC was around 23%. I live on the coast in south Texas, so humidity is always a pain. Most of the slabs are down to around 15%. I missed the step on sealing the ends, rookie mistake. Anyhow, like I said, any help would be much appreciated. Also, anyone have any favorites in the bellow pictures (I've numbered them)? I'm trying to narrow down my favorites and the ones that wouldn't give me too much hassle. I've done a lot of epoxy and learned my way around it, which I'm sure will come in handy with this project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BonPacific Posted February 8, 2017 Report Share Posted February 8, 2017 I'm certainly no expert here, but I wouldn't rely on epoxy-fill to hold the wood together. Bowties are perfect for that job. Epoxy is better for filling in voids, and for strengthening weak or punky wood. In terms of your plan, are you making something large like a dining table? If so I'd recommend using the two straightest pieces (#10 and #5). Live edge looks really nice, but it you're sitting at it every day? You want straight lines. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iliowood Designs Posted February 8, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2017 5 minutes ago, BonPacific said: I'm certainly no expert here, but I wouldn't rely on epoxy-fill to hold the wood together. Bowties are perfect for that job. Epoxy is better for filling in voids, and for strengthening weak or punky wood. In terms of your plan, are you making something large like a dining table? If so I'd recommend using the two straightest pieces (#10 and #5). Live edge looks really nice, but it you're sitting at it every day? You want straight lines. Yep, it will be a dinning room table. Most of these are around 9ft and are 8/4 inch. I had to go back and look at pictures to see if there were this many cracks, holes, and voids when I first got the load. Overall it looks about the same, I think I'm just paranoid since I didn't seal the ends haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted February 8, 2017 Report Share Posted February 8, 2017 I like 3 & 4, just like they're oriented, smooth cut on the joining edges and if it needs to be wider, insert # 6 in the middle. I too live on the GC of Texas so if you need help moving that crap off of your drive, let me know.. Yeah, bowties of a dark wood will look cool! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted February 8, 2017 Report Share Posted February 8, 2017 You could put bow ties on the underside and fill the cracks and voids with epoxy from above. I like 2 and 5. It looks like they might be consecutive, that would let you do a bookmatch. The pair of large voids could have something interesting under clear epoxy or a mixture of bark & scraps in a dark tinted epoxy. I'm not saying it's the easiest choice but it wouldn't be boring either. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeslayer Posted February 9, 2017 Report Share Posted February 9, 2017 i would cut #6 in half and put #2 or #10 in the middle, or both if you need the width, be sure to post some pictures as you progress . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iliowood Designs Posted February 9, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2017 2 hours ago, K Cooper said: I like 3 & 4, just like they're oriented, smooth cut on the joining edges and if it needs to be wider, insert # 6 in the middle. I too live on the GC of Texas so if you need help moving that crap off of your drive, let me know.. Yeah, bowties of a dark wood will look cool! I found it on CL. I met the guy, with the intention of buying one or two, but ended up with the full load haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iliowood Designs Posted February 9, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2017 1 hour ago, wdwerker said: You could put bow ties on the underside and fill the cracks and voids with epoxy from above. I like 2 and 5. It looks like they might be consecutive, that would let you do a bookmatch. The pair of large voids could have something interesting under clear epoxy or a mixture of bark & scraps in a dark tinted epoxy. I'm not saying it's the easiest choice but it wouldn't be boring either. I like that idea! I'm all about not taking the easiest route, usually by mistake, but it happens more often than not. I'm clearing bark off them right now and I'm going to retreat the wood (I'm seeing larva as I'm pealing the bark and sanding through the sap). I plan ob stripping the bark, surfacing them and then treating with BoraCare. I misspoke above, when I first got the load I treated it with TimBor, not BoraCare, which is probably why my friends are still burrowing through it. There are some pretty cool tunnels though, should make for some interesting pieces, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronn W Posted February 9, 2017 Report Share Posted February 9, 2017 Awesome fence! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unknown craftsman Posted February 9, 2017 Report Share Posted February 9, 2017 Darn that's a nice haul of mesquite.Out here it's about 25 / 30 $ BF. Ive only built with it once on a special request and I thought my planer was going to break or run out the shop.It is hard! Your wood looks good and should make a killer table. Aj 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Edgar Posted February 9, 2017 Report Share Posted February 9, 2017 Without getting off the subject too far, what is the procedure for the 'bow ties' and the cut outs in the adjoining pieces? I'm thinking the fit should be snug. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted February 9, 2017 Report Share Posted February 9, 2017 Rexx, most tutorials I see have you cut the bowtie first, usually at the bandsaw. Use said bowtie as the template to mark the location of the recess it will fit. Use an end mill in a plunge router to hog out the waste, and fine tune with a chisel. Freehand routing this way is easier when using a smallish bit in a largish router. Less torque if the bit grabs, and more mass to resist it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlau Posted February 9, 2017 Report Share Posted February 9, 2017 not sure what you decided on for boards or how you are going to use them but you could fill the center gap with a piece from another slab that was cut to the shape of the center gap , basically scribbing to each piece on the side it will butt to. some fill the area with foreign stuff like turquoise and such and to me that detracts from the wood. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iliowood Designs Posted February 9, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2017 Rex, I was just looking that up last night since I haven't done them before. I have a X-Carve CNC, so I will most likely do them on there. The program has a inlay pocket generator, I can tweak it where my cut out will be the template. Aj, it runs between $10-$15/bf at a few places I go. I paid $1300 for this haul. I did a rough bf estimate when I got it and it came out to something like $2.00-$3.00/bf. Merlau, I'm still in the process of picking. I'm going to surface them first and see what I have to work with as far as grain and patterns go. I started on number 5 yesterday and got most of the bark and sap off. It was a mess, my girlfriend was not pleased since it coated her car haha. I'll probably stay away from turquoise and go with a clear epoxy or what wdwerker suggested Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iliowood Designs Posted February 27, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2017 ***Update*** I decided to go with 2, 5, and 10 in the pictures above. I treated it with BoraCare (twice) and ripped each side. #10 had a lot of decay on the bottom so I have some System Three Rotfix coming in. I built a make-shift router sled since these were too big for my planer and a little too heavy duty for my Supermax 19-38. Here are some progress pictures (the finished board is actually for our contractor, he saw that piece when I was working on them and made an offer). It sure is pretty once surfaced and sanded! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.