How to Make a Large River Table | Live-Edge Slab and Epoxy Project

what's up guys welcome back to the rockler youtube channel it's cass from stormlineco and today's video i have teamed up with rockler and moss epoxies to bring you guys a how-to video on how to build a river table now before we get started make sure you give this video a big thumbs up and make sure you are subscribed to rockler's youtube channel and make sure you stick around to the end of the video so you guys can see where this table is headed and how you can see it in person for yourselves so without further ado let's build a river table okay guys so first things first is assembling the mold so for my mold base i am just using a cheap piece of plywood that is already sized and squared to the dimensions of the table i am cutting down the slabs to those dimensions and i am also cutting strips that i will use for the ends of my mold i am covering the entire piece of plywood with tuck tape and this will just prevent the resin from sticking to the mold base now anytime you are working with resin you want to make sure you're working on a level surface so after i have the mold leveled i am then going to map out where i want these legs to go this is important to think about before you pour your resin because i actually moved the slabs inwards just a little bit to avoid having to screw the legs into the resin portion now with a sharpie i am just marking out where these slabs were so i know exactly where to put them after i'm done cleaning them up with my marker sander i wanted a nice clean look for this table so i am removing all of the bark and cleaning up all of the edges and i am also debarking these little areas to ensure that the epoxy sticks well to the slabs and once i'm done cleaning these slabs up i'll take them back over to the mold to get ready for the most crucial step of the project which is caulking your mold especially when you are working with deep pore which is a very thin resin it is crucial to get a good seal with your caulking as you can see i am going around the inner border of the slabs as well as those cracks and then i'm going to focus on the ends and get those caulked before i add those walls the walls will be attached with a brad nailer to the base or the plywood and then i will actually use a stable gun to attach the walls to the slabs this is going to create super tiny pinholes in your slab so don't worry about that ruining your slabs and then i will go around the entire mold and add a second layer of protection with another layer of caulking and once you are done caulking you will want to allow proper time for that caulking to cure before you head to the next step which is mass epoxy's penetrating epoxy so this is a super thin formula that is going to seep into the wood and give us a nice good seal that's going to prevent any off gassing or bubbles from releasing out of the wood and it's also going to help the deep pore adhere to the wood a lot better and then once the penetrating epoxy is cured it is time for the deport so for this project i went with moss epoxy's deport x which is able to be poured up to three inches at a time so for the color of my epoxy i am using mix all black and i want this to be more transparent so i'm only adding enough to give it a little bit of color and then i'm also going to double check my table to make sure it's level so again i went with moss epoxy's deep port x for this table again because it can be poured up to three inches at a time which was really helpful for me i didn't have to step pour which means pour an inch let it cure pour an inch let it cure i was able to pour all nine and a half gallons of epoxy in this table all at once now once i have the entire center piece filled i'm going to make sure to hit any of those small cracks in voids and fill those with epoxy and then one important tip is to add a couple fans around your table especially when you're working with this much epoxy all at once it is crucial to allow proper airflow and ventilation for your epoxy to stay nice and cool and at the temperature that it should be for this specific project i gave it about four days to cure just to be safe before i took it to the lumber yard to get machined so to demold i'm just using a rubber mallet a screwdriver and some scrap wood to lift it up off the mold and then once i get it back from the lumber yard it never fails i always end up with small cracks which is definitely to be expected so the quickest way i know how to fill these is with moss epoxy's flag system which is going to cure in about four hours and allows me to start sanding quicker now it's going to feel like you're standing for the next three years but if you are looking to get a nice smooth finish this is not a process that you want to rush you're going to want to stand nice and slow let that orbital sander spin and do its job and then you're also going to want to make sure you're cleaning off the resin portion in between each grit so for this table i sanded the entire portion the wood and the resin portion with 80 grit i moved up to 120 grit and then i moved up to 240 grit once i'm done with 240 on the top i'm going to flip it over and i'm going to do all of those grits on the bottom as well now while i have it flipped over to finish the bottom i'm going to just lay out the legs mark them where they will be and then mark little dots for my pilot holes for when it's time to install the legs now i did flip it over and i realized i wanted to go a little bit higher for the resin portion just to bring out some of that clarity so i am wet sanding with 360 and then 400 and then 600 as well and again wiping off that resin in between each grit after using a rag to clean up any dust off the table i will then apply the finish so for this project i chose to use walrus oil furniture finish and furniture butter you can also use their cutting board oil and their wood wax all of which are super easy to apply and give great results after the oil has set for about 24 hours i will come back and buff off any excess oil and apply the furniture butter and then the butter is applied the same way after you stir it you'll just apply it by hand and let this sit for about 24 hours while i was letting this sit and i already had it flipped over i went ahead and drilled my pilot holes and i actually attached my legs as well that way when i come back the next day all i have to do is buff off all of the excess butter but that's it guys this project is done at this point i have already buffed off the excess butter and i'm just using an old cotton t-shirt to clean off the resin with a polishing compound but it is done it's finished it's complete i am obsessed now take it from me the queen of epoxy mistakes herself um i know how intimidating a project like this can be so i tried to cram as much information as i possibly could into this video but if you guys still have questions please reach out to me drop your questions below or reach out to me on social media and i would be glad to help you guys out even further and i know i am slightly biased but i am just again so obsessed with how this turned out i'm so glad that we only sanded up to 240 grit on the underside of the resin but yet we wet sanded all the way up to 600 on the top that way we aren't able to see completely through the table but yet we are still able to see all that dimension and detail on the side of the slabs and i want to say a huge thank you to rockler and moss epoxies for having me do this table if you guys are local to the fairfax virginia area you guys can go check out this table in person at the new rockler store there again i hope that you guys like this video thank you guys for watching make sure you like comment and do not forget to subscribe to my youtube channel for more videos [Music] you

Channel: Rockler Woodworking and Hardware

Views: 53,302

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Id: 8ckmBYcs8f4

Length: 7min 49sec (469 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 20 2022