Bookmatched Epoxy Resin Dining Table — One-Man Woodworking Shop

hey this is cam with blacktail studio and this week i show at least two tricks i've never shown before i play with some epoxy and i think better of flipping a table stay tuned the slabs i'm working with this week are called book match which means sequentially cut which means in the middle of the tree these two pieces of wood sat right next to each other and they give this a really cool mirror image effect when you open them up like a book hence the term book match the bum deal about these types of slabs are they are super expensive and so just these two slabs was like twenty three hundred dollars but my client specifically wanted this look so we got her exactly what she wanted you do need to take really careful measurements before you make these cuts because unlike a single slab resin table you're really gonna notice if one side is two inches wider than the other side so before my vacuum bag completely clogged up with dust and epoxy and it was too late to go to the store to get a new one i took a ton of measurements making sure that when i made my final cuts each side would be almost exactly the same as the other side after i got my slabs cut to size i took them outside because you can see i already made a pretty big mess in here and if i take my angle grinder to the bark it is going to be an absolute disaster in my shop so i always do this outside and no my neighbors don't mind my neighbors love me they actually are gone at work in the day so this is a good time for me to make a lot of mess and noise in my driveway and you can see my go-to there is my porter cable restorer and my angle grinder with a wire wheel and i will include links to everything i use in this video in the video description below so that way you know exactly what i'm using i have been using the liquid glass epoxy for the last several months now for the deep pore portions of these tables i've just recently started using it to seal my edges i've previously used kind of a quicker drying epoxy and i've found that this works really well to seal the edges if you're not in that bigger hurry because it does take longer to dry than those faster drag epoxy so i mixed up a quick quart batch of it spread it on the underside and this is because sometimes a little bit of epoxy will flow underneath and if i only use shellac i might not get a good enough bond so i like to use that liquid glass epoxy to seal the underside and the edges i really want to get the sliding table saw attachment for my saw stop i just do not have room right now so this is what i'm left with also do not make cuts like this i'm only doing it so you know exactly what not to do until i get room for that big sliding attachment i have a ton of different sleds that i use this is my big oversized crosscut sled i also have a medium one and an extra small one so they are pretty handy just not as good as a big slider and here i'm just cutting my sides i always cut them at four inches no particular reason just seems like a good all-around size this next tip i'm going to share is one that i get asked about all the time and i don't think i've actually shown it in one of my videos before but the question i get is how do you make a mold bigger than a 4x8 sheet of melamine and here is how all you do is run a bead of caulk get your extension wing kind of squish it in there wipe a little bit of extra caulk if you want to be extra careful and then come back with a few pieces of this tyvek tape or the tuck tape it's just a house sheathing tape so name brand doesn't really matter but get a few pieces on there and it will be completely watertight i have a detailed blog and video on how to make a leak proof epoxy table mold and i will include links to both those in the video description they are essentially the same thing you're seeing here only much more detailed you do want to know how i had these extension wings a little bit of caulk underneath on the back side on the front side and then i come back with a extra little support piece add a little bit more caulk and then just finish nail it in and that is all there is to making these oversized molds if you opt to seal your slabs with the same depoor epoxy that i used here you don't need to scuff them up if you do your pour within say 24 hours i ended up waiting a couple days so i came back scuffed everything up really well and this is going to ensure you get a proper bond i get a lot of questions i know other makers out there like black forest they don't recommend sealing their edges and that is totally fine the problem for me is with this black epoxy it stains really really bad so i have to seal my edges so if you have better luck not sealing your edges don't worry about it but i always need to scuff them up really really well and for the record i have never had a slab separate from the epoxy so knock on wood everything has gone really well for my tables so far i always make my forms out of this melamine and mold release spray i get a lot of questions people asking if they only have plywood or particle board can they make a form and you can but you need to coat it with that tyvek tape or that tuck tape underneath you can't just put multi release on like a mdf or a particle board it is really great having nice neighbors to help out for this type of stuff because i wouldn't have been able to drop this big slab in there by myself if i tried i would have probably busted the side of the mold free so big thanks to my neighbor he actually watches these videos sometimes so i'm curious if he will notice that he got a cameo i have mentioned in a few past videos that i am now sponsored by liquid glass epoxy and i promise i am not bragging i just want to be as transparent as i can be whenever i am promoting a product i just hope you guys will believe me when i tell you that i would only use the best epoxy because this table is really really expensive it is ten thousand dollars it is going to hawaii the slabs alone were twenty three hundred dollars so the little bit in free epoxy is nothing compared to replacing these slabs paying for freight back from hawaii anything that could go wrong so i would only use the best epoxy in a table like this so if you want to show a little support to liquid glass for supporting me i have included links to their products in the video description below if you aren't familiar with this deep pore type of epoxy they are extremely slow curing which means it takes about three days for it to cure unlike some epoxies that cure in like five minutes so all these bubbles will really pop on their own it's just a lot of fun to pop them with the torch and liquid glass advertises this epoxy is good from two to six inches i think six inches is really really bold so i personally don't recommend that unless you have extremely good climate control in your shop which i do not right now so i limit it to about two inches and since these slabs were two and a half i ended up pouring about an inch and a half let it get tacky that's what i was tapping on it a couple seconds ago and then come back with the second pour and top it all the way off because i ended up going just over two and a half inches which i think is a little much in one single pour with how hot my shop currently is anytime you come back and top off just a little bit more epoxy like this you need to make sure to really blend the colors with that stick and i didn't really show how much time you need to spend blending those colors because you might think that even a black pigment is going to look exactly the same as another black but it won't necessarily be the same so make sure to give it a good stirring mix both colors really really well this next trick that i'm going to show you is actually pretty cool and i've been asked about this by people a handful of times and i've only had to do it on one other table and you can't see it super well there but the epoxy actually kind of curled the table up and this is important to note this isn't the wood this only works if your epoxy lifted it up just slightly like that so when that epoxy cures it shrinks and it can actually pull those sides up slightly so what i'm going to do is i'm going to heat this epoxy up in the sun i covered the epoxy portion itself with these black bags to make sure i don't get any uv damage put some blankets and some weight on it so these tarps didn't blow off and then let it warm up and you can see it doesn't take long it was about 30 minutes and it was dead flat again so i put some blankets on top of it after this let it kind of slow cook for about an hour and monitor the temperature with a heat gun making sure it didn't get above 130 degrees clamped it down for the cooling process and then it will be dead flat after this so it's a pretty cool trick if you have one that maybe gets a little too hot and curls up like that i get asked all the time how do you flatten one of these tables if you don't have access to a big industrial shop like i have access to and first of all this is creative woodworking in portland they charge me 75 bucks to flatten these slabs so it is super cool but i actually did a blog on three different ways to flatten using a router sled a cnc or a big industrial shop so i will include a link to that in the video description as well most of these cracks were pretty benign but i still want to play it a little bit safe and i was going to add a few splines to them which are not going to be as strong as a bow tie they're also not going to look as good this is on the underside of the table i just have a really simple jig that i built there cut out a square shape anywhere there's a crack just a i think i did about three on each side and again these aren't as strong as a bow tie but the epoxy is going to hold it in there really well so they will help any small cracks from separating even further if you have any questions on this weird little simple jig or anything else you see in the video you should know that i am super good about responding to essentially every single comment that you guys leave below so feel free to ask me something feel free to comment feel free to let me know if you love this table or if you hate this table or maybe you think you have a better way to do it so let me know in the comments what you think of this the only thing i ask of you is if you enjoyed this video if you got something out of it hit that subscribe button hit that little bell in the corner and that will enable me to keep making more content just like this one thing i want to point out is i don't recommend using epoxy on the tops of tables for splines or bowtie joints and this is a lesson i learned a long time ago is it leaves a really distinct dark line even if you have an absolutely perfect fit so use wood glue and a little bit of sawdust to fill in any tiny little imperfections do not use epoxy for bow ties or splines on the tops of tables i had a woodworking friend show me this really cool trick and that is to cover your piece with plastic when you are not working on it and that way it prevents one side from absorbing moisture from the air and cupping or warping slightly after the epoxy cured the next day i came back with the belt sander and the rotex and made pretty quick work of flattening those out before moving on to these c channels and i do have a video on installing these c channels it is a few years old and i probably know a little bit more and have a little better jig now so i do think i'm going to make an updated c channel video on why i use them where i use them and the best way to inlay them i get my c channels from concept 13 it is a really cool small shop and he is nice enough to offer all my viewers a discount so i will include a link to his shop along with a discount code i don't get anything for those sales he's just being nice enough to offer you guys i think it's a 15 discount if you want to order these same c channels for your table my client for this table had reached out because she saw a book matched resin table i built a few years ago and said she wanted the exact same leg so i said no problem they are from a local company here in portland symmetry hardware and i made the mistake because this table was going out at the start of august i didn't get a hold of them until about three weeks before and they said they were six weeks out and i said oh my god i'm in a bad way what can we do and they put a big brush on and had them to me in like just over a week so huge thanks to the guys at symmetry hardware i'll include links to these table legs in the video description as well a few months ago i realized that some people have questions that are a little too complicated to answer in a quick youtube comment so i started offering skype consultations through my website where i will meet with you face to face via skype and we will discuss whatever it is you want to discuss and i keep a few of these slots open every week and i've done quite a few of them so far and they've been a lot of fun for me and the people seem to really enjoy them and get something out of it so if you think i can help with that feel free to hit me up through these consultations some of you might remember a few weeks ago when i got crushed by this table and it didn't look that bad but it really hurt so i was wondering how dumb i was flipping this table again by myself and if you look closely you can actually see a wench cable dangling down i installed just to help me flipping these big tables somehow pulled this one out though although i really should be using that wench i'm just a little worried that it will damage the table when i flip it with that strap kind of denting into the wood but i really need to come up with a better system than my back you can't really get router bits this big so i had to come up with a system to cut these chamfers with my track saw and it's a pretty slick little system i came up with by overlapping that track just slightly over the edge and if you want a detailed description on exactly how to cut this edge profile i have a full youtube video on that so i'll add a link to that in the video description below i definitely understand that not everybody can afford an 800 circular saw like i have here to make this cut i do think it would be possible with a regular circular saw it would just probably take a little bit more time and be a little bit more difficult i will include links to that saw this sander that special instant drying glue that i'm using there everything in this video will be linked in the description below and you should know those are affiliate links which just means i get a small percentage of all the sales there is nothing there that an advertiser paid me to place it they're all stuff i was using in the video and i'm just showing you which ones i purchase and it's not a ton of money i get from those but if i have a popular enough video if enough you guys use those links it can actually make a pretty big difference some months so if you want to show some support for the page and not have to do anything other than buy stuff you are already going to buy i do appreciate it if you use those links you'll see me use these lights all through the sanding process and one tip i have for you is buy photography lights don't buy shop lights shop lights are more expensive and worse than photography lights the photography lights you can control the brightness the temperature the color everything that is super handy for making these videos but it's also super handy for inspecting your work i made this sanding glove in a video a few months ago and i found that the velcro wore out a little bit on the glove itself so i added this festool interface pad and now it works really really well and it won't wear out at all so that is a little tip if you did make that sanding glove add that festival interface and it'll last a lot longer i did a really detailed finishing video recently and one thing i don't think i showed in there is on the final grit this is 180 is the last grit that i'm sanding to is i change to a really soft pad on my festool sander and this just makes a little bit of difference but it's those little things that really help get you that better finish so i had a soft pad along with that mesh sanding disc and that prepared me to start with my rubio monaco right here in that video i go over the fact that i really like to finish the underside first and wipe everything off and then basically immediately flip it over the problem is i was not nearly as strong as i was for the last flip apparently and i couldn't find a neighbor so i was really nervous about damaging this table if it falls back down on that face i was going to be devastated and have to start all over on that sanding process so i've tried and i tried and i thought about it and it's almost and then just decided to go for it because i couldn't get a hold of my neighbor and now we're going to see if i get crushed again oh man i was so nervous and somehow made it without hurting the table or myself and that way i could finish this top side right after finishing the underside there are some specific steps if you decide you want to add a second coat of rubio monaco because they recommend this as a single coat finish however i have found i can get a little more sheen and a little better protection if i add a second coat however you need to follow the steps in my blog or my finishing video and this video is not sponsored by rubio although i feel like it should be i will tell you who it is sponsored by though is nordvpn last year my wife and i made our first trip to china to go to the international furniture market and while china leads the world in a lot of things it turns out internet accessibility is not one of them i did find out the best way around this limited access is to install a vpn on all of your devices though long before this ad read i did my own research and found out that nordvpn is the best reviewed and most recommended vpn service to use so before we left for china i signed myself up and i was about to sign my wife up until i realized you can have up to six devices logged in at once so that more than covered all of our devices fast forward to 2020 when nord reached out to see if i'd be interested in an integration i was all in i told them i already knew what i was going to talk about while we're in china nordvpn could trick the internet into thinking we were in the u.s so we could still watch our regular netflix shows at night after spending 10 hours a day at this bizarre market also google isn't supposed to work in china but we were able to use google maps to find what i'm guessing you would call a fitness park which was substantially more impressive than the great wall by the way right now you can get 68 off nordvpn that's 371 a month plus an additional month free just go to nordvpn.com blacktail studio or use coupon code blacktail all right here are some finished studio shots of this book matched walnut and resin dining table and i go back and forth whether i prefer the single slab style resin table or this book match style and i would love to know what the majority of you guys think so every week i like to give a little bit of credit to the people that make it all the way to the end of the video so start your question or comment with bookmatch slab or neither that way i will know you made it all the way to the end of the video and i promise i will answer all of your questions first again thank you so much for watching please subscribe for more videos just like this one have a great day

Channel: Blacktail Studio

Views: 1,096,873

Rating: 4.9464955 out of 5

Keywords: river table, super clear epoxy, FGCI epoxy, liquid glass epoxy, ecopoxy table, how to make an epoxy table, diy river table, how to make river table, epoxy dining table, diy projects, resin table top, walnut dining table, bookmatch walnut, bookmatch dining table, bookmatched epoxy table, bookmatch, black walnut, how to woodworking, woodworking, live edge furniture, furniture portland oregon, reclaimed table

Id: bR4_yHwR_kA

Length: 16min 50sec (1010 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 03 2020