How To Finish A LIve Edge Slab | Tips & Tricks

hey guys what's going on I'm John Maliki and in this video I'm gonna finish this live veg slab and I'm gonna show you some tips and tricks so you can do the same check it out alright so the first thing you're gonna want to do is find all of the large voids in the top of your slab and tape them off from the top reason being is that you're gonna flip the table over and fill from the backside this uses less epoxy and it gets the surface closer to smooth so you have to do less sanding on the other end I'm using a two-part epoxy here from West Systems I've been using it for years I'm using a little bit of black tint because I love the look of black epoxy in a dark table like this one this is a slow setting epoxy which is what you want to use in applications like this it seeps in and all the bubbles rise out but you haven't poured it in the large void what you're gonna want to do is hit it with some map gas or a butane torch that will release the bubbles from the surface and just pay attention to it for the next few hours as bubbles will rise just hit those with the torch and they will pop you're then gonna flip the slab back over you're gonna begin sanding down all of the hardened epoxy after you remove the tape you're gonna start out with an 80 grit or an aggressive grit on either a Festool rotecks or a belt sander I highly suggest using something that is an aggressive sander for this part what you're gonna notice is there will be some voids holes and bubbles things that came up in the drying process you're gonna fill those with a quick setting epoxy using the same die as you did in the in on the slow setting epoxy you'll apply this from the top and smooth it out with either a squeegee or a brush holding the sander flat start to flatten out all of the epoxy that you filled from the backside you'll do the same thing for any bubbles that are rise in the slow setting epoxy and this is also a good time to apply the same epoxy to all of the bug holes cracks and crevices that may be in the live edge aspect of the table as well as in parts of the table that you didn't notice from the beginning let that epoxy hardened completely and then begin your sanding process starting with 80 grit on an aggressive sander once again Festool Rotex or a belt sander would be my suggestions you're gonna start at one end going across the grain and then work your way down to the other flattening the surface and keeping the sander nice and flat then step up to 120 grit and repeat the same process after that I move on to my ninety or smaller diameter Rotech sander and sand all of the live edge one time to get the sapwood to pop you're then gonna go back with 120 grit by hand and break all of the edges and sand the live edge or sapwood one more time I'll move on to the top once again with 120 grit on a random orbit sander I take a pencil and Mark the whole top this helps me know how far I've gone as well as the timing of my sanding you only want to go one second per inch per recommendations from the Wood Whisperer himself Marc Spagnuolo after sanding is complete you want to wipe the whole surface down with a tack cloth this will give you a nice clean surface to begin to apply the finish the product I prefer to finish all of my hardwood slab surfaces with nowadays is called rubio monocoat if you're interested I have a link down below this is not a sponsored build I just love this product it saves you a ton of time and it goes on silky smooth and they very very easy to use has very low VOCs as well which is great during the winter time because you don't have to spray indoors hence why I love it for these type of projects I like to use hand applied finishes on my slabs regardless helps me to keep streaks from getting into the finish as well as get in all the crevices in the live edge itself it's a 15-minute working time with this finish so I tend to work from the center to one side after about 5 to 10 minutes I will rub that out with a clean cloth on the top then move to the other side of the table and then after that move on to the live edge where I will apply that with a rag by and like I said super fast and efficient way to finish a live edge slap I know a lot of people are doing very similar things in their process hence why I wanted to share it with you guys so you could get better and faster at what you're doing if you're using a different technique I'd love to hear about it leave a comment down below and tell me how you're finishing your live edge slabs if you want to see a more detailed write-up of this project head on over to JAMA Leki calm I got a link down below I'll have some more beauty shots of this beautiful project as well as more of a step-by-step walkthrough for you to follow along with if you're interested in something like this follow me on instagram as well if you want to see what's going on day to day I've been working on this for a couple weeks and everyone was getting behind-the-scenes looks at what was happening if you want to follow along there there's a link down below to there as well I've also got hoodies and shirts available to you guys if you want to check those out get one of these sweet ones like this zip up that I've been wearing in a lot of my content recently super comfortable very happy with these links down below to those as well so thank you guys one more time for tuning in go put your next project in the face and I'll see you on the next video [Music]

Channel: John Malecki

Views: 914,966

Rating: 4.8067508 out of 5

Keywords: Wood, woodworking, make, DIY, How To, Create, Custom Made, Live edge slab, Live edge, Live edge furniture, live edge slab dining table, live edge slab finish, how to finish live edge wood slabs, how to finish live edge wood, how to finish live edge, how to finish live edge slab, how to finish live edge table, live edge slab table, live edge slab table how to finish and coat, live edge slab finishing, live edge slab epoxy, john malecki, john malecki builds, guanacaste, woodowkring

Id: pmMTpWmoQeA

Length: 5min 19sec (319 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 13 2018