LED River Table | FREE Master Class | Stone Coat Epoxy

welcome to the led epoxy river table master class so there's some certain steps to make this thing come to life okay learn every step right now to create success using epoxy and wood what i'm about to tell you is a big unlock and a big pro tip this dynamic tutorial is chocked full of professional secrets that will guarantee you have a blast while making functional art so i put a little shim or a high point as a fulcrum boom there's a river table okay all i'm gonna do now is just screw these corners in so that it has strength like a box i'm wiping the dust so that that tape has a very good bond how do i know how much metallic to put in the epoxy to keep it as translucent as i want i'm going gonna teach you the countless pro tips you're gonna learn in this woodworking master class are absolute game changers and you see this yeah that's a piece of metal okay that's gonna kill my router bit okay so i definitely gotta get that out before i bring my slab jig into this thing and mess up my router bit all right this is a two to one ratio okay so a lot of our mixtures are a one to one ratio yes this is a different mixture just like our floor epoxy is a two to one so that means two parts a to one part b we've been asked to go in depth on the details and this is it we don't use a drill on this we use a mixing stick and you're gonna notice the viscosity is very thin on our super cast we get very crystal clear results by mixing this with the stick and pouring it and torching it about every half inch or quarter inch i take that cup okay and i put a mark now i know exactly how deep that river is that metallic color popping out of that i told you man isn't that cool learn the tips and tricks of epoxy additives and how to use them in woodworking and river tables by leaving our project semi-transparent it made the leds look like a wonder we could change it to any color so that's how i get a square piece out of a tree see how it shows you the high and low points immediately yeah good job you did a really good job on that join me while we work with jeff on his first woodworking project safety insurance is absolutely worth a half inch learn proper woodworking layout how to build a form how to deport finishing and more learn to create a non-porous surface with seal coats and finishing with the flood coat learn how to tent any project to create that tone in the wood that you desire adding epoxy finishing to your project list watch this video that was easy right oh yeah getting a flawless glassed out surface is easier than you think mounting and hiding the river table led lights is an absolute must you need to follow these instructions so you can hide the definition of those lights but get the ambient glow that makes that project come to life oh that's gonna be sick a river table is an absolute showpiece and will enhance any space oh my gosh can you believe how this looks oh my gosh heirloom quality dining tables kitchen accent islands vanities conference room tables and more guys in this video i'm going to show you how to take a slab of wood and turn it into functional art make sure you subscribe and ring the bell to get notified every time we have a new video thanks again i'm working on a place for my mom and dad right now yeah and uh this is like the showpiece the the island in the kitchen is where everybody gathers yes so it's on the river so why not a river table right you like the idea yeah i love it i took you out there to that to that cabin what do you think man oh it's gorgeous it looks like a log cabin right it looks so it was an ugly duckling it was a cinderblock house and return my mom my mom's dream is is a log home so i think this goes with that you know so this is a piece of redwood it was standing dead man like it would be a crime to cut this down and turn it into firewood so i mean look at look at the color in that it's gorgeous so there's some certain steps to make this thing come to life okay so every tree has different types of bark redwood bark comes off actually pretty easily okay so we're gonna rip the bark off then we're actually gonna cut this slab down the middle now what that does is it gives us two pieces to then flip into each other to create that free-flowing river yeah okay steps that we're gonna start with is just taking the bark off okay and you see this yeah that's a piece of metal okay that's gonna kill my router bit okay so i definitely gotta get that out before i bring my slab jing into this thing and mess up my router bit all right i'm gonna follow that angle just along this okay usually that's how easy this comes out and i'm just gonna work it as i go okay boom that was easy right oh yeah let's flip this around and do the other side okay pro tip test your moisture content be sure it's under 13 okay you want to start at this end and do this side yeah nice you're there now i appreciate you letting me have the opportunity to help with uh making something that's for your parents oh man yeah this is gonna be a special project man yeah it's a very special project so what i'm going to do is just prep my live edge i want to have a a really smooth surface when i start and so my 50 grit metal sanding disc it's the workhorse it's going to remove stock very fast this is the same tool i use to kind of put in a fake live edge but this has none of that it's all just natural so i'm just going to remove it down to that actual wood and get rid of any excess bark i'm using a 50 grit sanding disc that has been previously worn out a tad this allows me to get somewhat more aggressive without messing with the shape of the live edge that's a pro tip a fun fact in how to get it done and not overdo that live edge while woodworking keep in mind design and concept and finished look i like leaving some evidence of that bark so that i get the contrast of the high and low tones left behind on that live edge what do you think looks awesome pretty effective bark removal right yeah so that's the island cabinet that it's gonna go on let's say that we used that and we wanted a 15 inch overhang did you not want a one inch overhang on the other side no it butts a wall okay good question boom okay let go measure twice cut once i'm actually leaving a little excess on this slab table i don't mind finishing a little more than i need i can always trim it to size but the tree it doesn't grow back after you cut it so be sure to plant accordingly and leave a little extra meat on the bone so jeff here on the end grain as the as the grain is running this way and it stops yeah i wouldn't want to just split this wood down to break off the remaining of the cut because it's going to grab that those splits and it's either going to splinter this way or that way and i don't want to sacrifice anything on the top okay so i'll use the sawzall to finish the cut but on this long cut that goes with with the grain yeah i'll score it as far as i can and we'll be pretty safe to snap the rest instead of trying to sawzall it okay because it's going with the grain it won't splinter out perfect makes sense yeah when the slabs that i work with are slightly too thick for my skill saw to plunge through i'll finish the cut with a jigsaw or a sawzall there you go okay well you just hold that down over here yep we're drawing the center point of the slab so that i can score through it with my skill saw i start with a medium cut and then i finalize it with a plunge cut deep down the center so again i do two passes right if i do one pass the blade wants to wander a little bit more it wants to grab the wood drain and kind of pull so i'd rather do two passes and be safer all right you want to see a trick yeah again the depth of my skill saw blade wasn't quite tall enough to finish the cut so i put a little shim or a high point as a fulcrum boom you like that yeah grab this set it on this other side we created a true rectangular river table by turning the two live edges into themselves there's a river table i have an idea on the color what you know we have we have like that black and white and and kind of cool looking marble we're doing for the counters yeah if we incorporated those same colors a lot of times we do like a popping color like blue or something yeah totally popping but if we emulated those colors as if that stone was put into here but we left it translucent where that light will still come through a little bit now you can get that pop of crazy color at night when it's time to party but during the day it matches the counters so the step right now is to make sides okay we're gonna actually rip this in half so that we can make sides for this form okay this is two and a half inches tall so we're gonna rip three inch strips but to try to rip this on my table saw it's quite cumbersome because i got a four by eight sheet trying to get it up there and run it through the saw so i'm gonna do 24 inches and that'll be easy to rip through so i'll just cut this in half and then we're going to use our full sheet right here to set that table we'll mock it up and then we'll screw our sides right to that now remember we bought that tyvek tape because it will release off the epoxy we'll tie that tape the whole inside of the form okay everything will come out like like uh in easy bake oven okay i like that if you want to build an easy bake oven follow this video okay anyhow uh what am i leaving out man you got any questions what are we waiting for you got this we got this all right okay 24 inches i'm starting with a 4x8 sheet of melamine that was purchased at a hardware store this is a perfect medium to create your epoxy form for the river table i line it with tyvek tape so the epoxy will release off of it after i've poured my sheet goods cutting table is topped with a piece of foam that way i can cut all the way through and i'm just scoring into foam i sets it straight a good rule of thumb is to be about a half inch proud of the thickness of your table that way any epoxy that you pour will never go over your table and then out of the form it's just a little extra insurance for a little bit more material safety insurance is absolutely worth a half inch while cutting the vertical sides of my epoxy form i make it a half inch taller than the slab of wood that way no epoxy finds its way out of the form we're gonna put a straight run first on this thing let's go measure our table it's about 89 so we'll just keep them eight feet long all right this is great so this pocket screw machine it drills holes like this okay okay so those holes allow us to butt screw things yeah so this is how we're going to screw it down to a form okay so that's what that's what i'm making right now and you can do this with a drill and a hand jig which looks like this right here okay but this tool does the same thing a lot faster and since i'm really fancy i have one so we're going to use it okay okay i rely on pocket screw joinery a lot in woodworking are we answering the tips and tricks that you need let me know in the comments section if you have any questions we'll be attending to those comments and answering all of your questions nice so that'll be one end i'll make the other end and then the next one will be for the two short ends okay so the first thing i'm going to do is just tie back tape these okay so that i don't have to cove it funny okay okay i'm wiping the dust so that that tape has a very good bond pre-applying the tyvek tape to the sides that are vertical actually saves time in the long run all right so we're gonna get my pocket screws okay they're a special kind of screw i'll show you the bit oh see how long it is and it's a square drive yep so it'll reach into that hole and so what we're going to do is actually take these and there's a little bit of a it's called a step bit because it's a big hole to a little hole you find that little hole and you just push that in there a little bit to secure it and i'm just gonna go right down the line here okay so i'm just gonna get it flush i'm ensuring a very true edge while following the factory side of the sheetgood so see this high point from snapping it off we're just gonna remove that real quick i have some evidence a little nub left over from snapping the river table in half using my fulcrum the 50 grit metal sanding disc makes short work of that removal [Music] now what i'm going to do is take my river table and mock it up because i have a true side that i've already screwed into place i get to measure off that and keep the rectangle perfect all right check this out guys uh what i've done here is i've gotten a backstop this backstop is is true yes it doesn't go in and out it's i've used the factory edge i know it's true so i'm measuring off of that to this point that's 36 inches that's 36 inches and i don't care what the river is this is this is supposed to be abnormal right so so that's how i get a square piece out of a tree okay or a true rectangle all right so now i'm just going to do this and trace my edge because this is where my next board needs to be okay okay does that make sense that does so now now i'm gonna do that but the first thing that i'm gonna do is cut two pieces at 36 inches exactly that makes my boards perfect okay awesome all right so let's do that let's do it so i want those edges 36 inches boom i go 36 i'm gonna put my stop block right here at 36 and i just clamp that and now i get two pieces exactly the same okay i love the tried and true method of stop blocks because it creates perfect repeatable cuts every time what's the next step on these boom time to add some pocket holes in our verticals for the side pieces of our form and then we get to butt the final long piece of our form to these 36 inch true cuts and keep everything perpendicular and parallel so that we create a professional fin so using a speed square can keep your form square at least on one end so you only have one end that's slightly pinched and you have less to cut off when you're done with the project so keep the end that has the most wood square and you only trim one end when you're done that's a pro tip actually these are cut pretty non square i'm going to go cut these on that chop saw [Music] use whatever method of cutting that creates the safest most predictable cut in this case i'm flipping the river table piece over itself so i could finish the cut it's a pretty big piece but the chop saw plunges all the way through okay let's do this one boom now we're tight so what what i'm gonna do is here's my short point yep that's where i need to cut both of them okay when originally cutting my slab to size i left some meat on the bone remember so this is a perfect example of why that's important i get to true it up as i go so i get some allowance for [Music] imperfections [Music] okay all i'm going to do now is just screw these corners in so that it has strength like a box [Music] okay we got a surface planing router bit yeah this is an old one and this is what we'll actually flatten these slabs with okay problem is these bits are expensive i have a brand new one right here okay these are about 50 bucks so now i can't get that nail out it's just i'm trying to drill it out i'm trying to grab it it's just not going to happen and i have to decide am i gonna keep digging into the top of the surface uh am i gonna sacrifice the look of the wood or am i gonna sacrifice an old bit okay what would you do oh bit yeah i mean i think this is an unlock is once i chipped this up on that nail i could kind of put this aside and in the future i got a sacrificial bit for metal okay guys that's what i'm gonna do what would you do how would you get that nail out it wins i give up it's staying in the table so uh let's go ahead and continue on and we'll sacrifice the surface planing bit and then we'll use the new one when we uh when we get to the resin awesome i showed you the slab jig you haven't seen it in action yet no i have you ready for this i'm excited all right so i'll show you how that works we'll flatten the bottom a little bit but however much i take off of this one i'll probably take off that one as well so i'm gonna i'm gonna look at which one's the worst and i think it's this side yeah so i'm going to take a little bit off of that okay and then and then we'll do the same to this sounds good hey folks mitch here with stoneco countertops question of the day how are you enjoying this long form woodworking tutorial are you guys able to follow along with mike and jeff we've broken it down into 12 easy steps for your next woodworking project let us know in the comments below option a i'm getting tons of value or option b i need more info and if you chose option b click that link in the description below that's going to take you to our website where we have 12 easy steps to river table success our downloadable printable pdf [Music] so when i'm using the slab jig yeah i want to shim this thing so that i get i take off the least amount of material and i get it as flat as possible okay if i had like a real low point here and i got i went everything to that i could be taking off a lot more than i need to because i shim this side up i'm kind of splitting the difference between that corner and that corner okay so right here i'm three quarters of an inch to the bottom of that rail okay okay over here i'm about the same in the middle where it's crowned i'm a half an inch okay so i'll have to take about a quarter inch off the middle so let's go down here this i'm an inch about 7 8 and that i'm about three quarters okay okay over here i'm an inch and a quarter three quarters three quarters so this is my low point okay okay we're probably not going to go all the way down to that low point because i'll be taking off like a half inch on that yeah so i'll probably just take about a quarter on the whole thing leave a little bit of a gap there because this will be tight that'll be tight and we're just gonna be filling that river up anyhow okay those still look good makes sense yeah okay now there's literally no rock in it so i'm just gonna put some screws in to block this thing from moving back stops so when you make a table for doing uh wood slabs just keep that in mind that you want to make it out of wood so you can do this kind of thing i toenail temporary screws into my table as opposed to going through the slab just to hold it in place while i surface plane it i'm using my slab jig which works perfect on any jumbo slab to make it true it avoids the need of a cnc machine and saves me thousands awesome so it took out a lot of that high point i still got a pretty good thickness but i think i'm just going to go ahead and pour it like this okay and i'll fill the rest of this in with the epoxy i'm gonna do the same thing on the next one okay you're gonna help me awesome [Music] let's take this take it over there there's still a little wobble in it and it's still got you know a high point here but that's all going to fill in with the resin but underneath that it flattened it out a lot so we're not going to have it go back nearly as far or nearly as deep woodworkers love our slab jig this is the diy weekend warriors wonder tool that gets the job done right check out stonecoat countertops to learn more about our slab jig jumbo sized wood planers and cnc machines are not necessary to play in the woodworking revolution of river tables you got this how does that feel man awesome see how it shows you the high and low points immediately yeah good job you did a really good job on that overcome the challenge of finding the perfect piece of wood for your project we've partnered with the world famous burl hunter and now stock exotic slabs of wood right there on our website check it out i guess have you ever used a router before no that's your first time like first time you've never used a router and you did fantastic okay let's dry fit this again we'll take it out tyvek tape it and move on all right guys have you seen our super cast it's designed for these exact projects it's designed to be poured thick you wouldn't want to use our countertop epoxy for this reason because you're only supposed to pour that an eighth of an inch at a time that would take a long time to fill this up you'd have to do a lot of pores supercast is formulated to be poured at least an inch thick at a time it's a lot better than an eighth at a time we're gonna get this done faster more efficiently it's gonna come out fantastic let's go i'll remove excess dust from our form i'll line it with tyvek tape to create a surface that the epoxy will peel from after i've poured the actual project and then i just come here i poke the center and then it'll tear it off okay okay and then i overlap by about a quarter inch at least you basically make a swimming pool for epoxy you really want to iron any of this down because the epoxy will find its way under it if it's not tight you know what i'm saying yeah stone coat epoxy has a tenacious bond to just about anything tyvek tape and its glossy surface allows it to be released from the form after we've poured it's a pro tip there's other options to be used as release agents such as silicone sprays and synthetic waxes i tend to like the tyvek tape because it reduces the variables it doesn't introduce anything into the mix that might cause a reaction with the epoxy all right let's get some quick coat and seal these edges to prevent air from the wood slab leaking into my finished pour i'll seal the edges okay guys here's what's next i'm actually going to sand these edges the reason i'm going to sand that is so i remove any of the marks that that 50 grit metal sanding disc left when i remove the bark that way when we wet this out with epoxy it looks exactly perfect is that even the right term exactly perfect i guess it just it'll look good okay it'll look exactly pretty good i'm using a heavy grit on my random orbital sander to remove any evidence of that 50 grit metal sanding that'll work just fine okay so that's all i'm looking at right now you'll do the other edge i'll finish this one right awesome [Music] all right let's take this over lay it down here for a sec ready yep [Music] okay all right the step that we're on right now is to seal the edges and glue this down we're going to use our product called quick coat it dries and sandable within about three hours at the temperature we're at which is 70 degrees felt like 71 but at 70. so we're going to seal those edges we'll get it locked down it's going to clamp it in place we'll pour that river and this thing is really going to start taking shape awesome can't wait when we do the quick coat we're going to mix it with the drill for about two minutes but get it out of the bucket you don't want it generating that heat in the bucket and you got to move quick with it you got about 15 minutes of working time before it starts to set up it's much different than our countertop product i love having access to different products with different set times our quick coat allows us to stay on schedule this is still day one in this project and we're about to lock it into the form and pour the actual river it allows me to stay on time and get it done fast all right let's pull this out into the form okay the reason i don't leave it right at the edge because i want it dripping into the main part where it's going to glue it down you know so i'm going to pour it and you're going to come back with your hand and immediately spread it okay perfect [Music] all right you ready for this side yeah you did so good i'm so proud of you right now here we go all right so now what i'm going to do with this excess is just i'm going to put down my clamps okay okay a liquid clamp the excess quick coat poured into the form will hold the slabs down during the pour acting as a clamp all right let's take it on down all right i'm just gonna take the excess now and just pour it right here on this edge again so it runs down that edge and almost glues itself down okay okay and what this is doing again is just sealing those so these edges won't leak air into the uh into the product plus it looks cool but doesn't that wake that wood up yeah it does all i'm doing is torching out the bubbles i don't care about perfection this is just a seal coat all of this is going to get hidden with my finished coats the two main jobs is to seal those edges so they don't leak air into the river and also to hold these pieces down after this sets up in a couple hours i'm going to pour that whole river let's go super cast is something that you haven't used yet no this is designed to be poured nice and deep okay this is about um two and a half inches deep now what am i doing here i got i got black metallic powder okay i'm actually going to tint this all black because our counters have some black in them right yeah i almost want it to look like frosted black glass okay but not opaque not where you can't see my led lights remember those remember those lights we bought so cool you remember how much those cost 20 bucks 20 bucks for led lights you remember how much those used to cost man so we're gonna we're gonna light this up but it's gonna be like uh business during the day party at night what i'm about to tell you is a big unlock and a big pro tip this is very important how do i know how much mentality to put in the epoxy to keep it as translucent as i want i'm going to teach you i take that cup okay put a little straight edge across it okay and i put a mark okay right here on this cup [Music] now i know exactly how deep that river is okay so i'm gonna mix enough metallic in this whole bucket and i'm going to dip this in there and get it up to that and then i'm going to look through it if i can see through it i got i got the right amount if it's too clear add a little bit more metallic okay if it's too thick too opaque i'm only mixing one bucket at a time i could then put clear in here and then box them together and spread that out so this is a two to one ratio okay so a lot of our mixtures are a one to one ratio yes this is a different mixture just like our floor epoxy is a two to one so that means two parts a to one part b we don't use a drill on this we use a mixing stick and you're gonna notice the viscosity is very thin on our super cast if you mix with a drill and you're going to pour it really deep how do you get the air out because it's deep it's in there and so we get very crystal clear results by mixing this with the stick and pouring it and torching it about every half inch or quarter inch and let it set up that way [Music] so another thing you got to keep in mind we mix a lot longer okay we're gonna mix because this does not set up fast and we're not mixing with the drill and we want to make sure we get a thorough mix so we're gonna mix for like five to eight minutes i'm gonna go get a little bit of a metallic i mean a little spoon or something so i could put metallic in there [Applause] all right okay i'll take a little bit of black metallic yep i'm gonna get one side right okay so i'm just using a little tongue depressor yep and you need to see how little i actually add wow i'm going to get a little bit more that's how concentrated that is okay ready let's mix that in our metallic powders are extremely high quality a little goes a long way wow see what i'm saying yeah okay so now i'm going to take my bucket fill it up so it's still pretty clear yeah not happy okay so i'm gonna do more okay so i'm gonna add about as much as i did okay and i'm gonna do the same to yours okay because now i know i'm safe adding at least one okay now i'll see what happens with two [Music] okay light still is coming through that let me actually go get a flashlight see how you can't really see the flashlight no ah see what i'm saying yeah so that's why it's important to get your mark on there and that's how you can really judge how it'll look okay now also under here under the bottom of the slab i'll sand that rough okay that way it hides and distorts and diffuses the light so i don't see a like a snake of leds under there it blocks that makes sense yeah despite using a small amount of our metallic powder you still get that high contrast shimmer that looks very natural but takes our project up about 10 notches [Music] that is really going to pop man as i'm pouring my layers i'll torch out the bubbles and then i'll continue to pour okay here we go again second round see how you torch it between yeah coats and see how perfectly crystal clear it is wow okay it's gorgeous those metallic that metallic color popping out of it i told you man isn't that cool i've been a do-it-yourselfer a contractor and a remodeling artist in my entire life understanding what's available to me in the different trades such as plumbing and electrical drywall and painting knowing the tips tricks and tools that i can use has been an absolute game changer epoxy is no different and it's changed the way that i think about remodeling all right we're going to let this set up we'll come back tomorrow we'll do another pour to top this thing off and then we'll be ready for the next step we get to plane this all down flat do our seal coats do our final flood coat put this on the countertop and watch the reaction of none other than my own mother can you believe what we accomplished in the first day on this project oh my goodness you got your light in here okay it's the next day yeah how cool is that looking oh my gosh it's gorgeous you hear that fan guys this fan is blowing air across this table okay the reason it's doing that is to dissipate heat any heat generated by this mass or this volume of epoxy this will push it away from the surface to actually keep this cooler if it gets too hot it can crack that epoxy the amount that we did yesterday in the depth that we did yesterday is absolutely nowhere near that breaking point let me explain it's been about close to 24 hours okay if i touch this you'll see it's still gooey okay it still has some movement but it's starting to gel and solidify remember our super cast is designed to be poured thick so it's a very slow cure so it doesn't overheat when it's in a mass so what we're going to do right now is mix another batch we'll pour that and as the bottom layer is curing the top layer will also cure let's get started let's finish this pour that way i can come back plane the top and finish this table you ready i'm ready in the woodworking section of our website we have a volume calculator that will help you determine exactly how much epoxy you need for your project i know that my first day on any river table project is usually my most labor intensive typically it's about a 15 hour project and process from start to finish on my river tables next step is going to be simple just fill the river all right so yesterday we sealed the edges right yes so if we didn't do that chances are you would have a little line of bubbles right where the epoxy meets the wood and that's because the air is coming out of that edge yeah traveling up that seam and kind of solidifying and trying to pop and as it starts to gel it's not gonna it's not gonna pop okay so that's why we seal the edges okay now let's say you you did get one of those even if you sealed the edges no big deal we broke it up into two pours okay so you could actually sand those out a little bit and pour again you'll never know that you had a bubble let's say it was all the way up to the top and that happened you could always sand the tops of those bubbles off when you when you sand this whole thing down and you pour your clear it's going to hide them for you too okay so it's forgiving we set the system up so that you don't make those errors even if you make those errors they're definitely fixable i'd say epoxy is one of the most forgiving mediums in construction i've ever used all right so we're going to box these together to ensure consistency in the intensity of the metallics we're going to mix the buckets together obviously the more that you do that the more uniform it'll become jeff turned out to be an amazing learner he picked up on all of these simple tips and tricks and helped me create one of the best river tables i've ever built success isn't necessarily found in the size of your project but following the steps why not start on a coffee table size project and work your way up into the river world wonderland of giant river tables experimenting with different wood species and colors that you're in training into the center of the project really makes a difference okay guys we got it filled to the brim how how did you like pouring that oh it was so it's like butter right i like that you just used what was in the bucket because when we go to plane this down our low point is no longer the river so we will get a maximized thickness on our total table right we mixed a little more epoxy than we needed but again we are an epoxy company so guys be conservative on what you pour and if you get your table level you won't waste a drop guys what we're going to do is let this set up we'll come back we'll plant it flat we'll do our seal coats we'll do our flood coat we'll attach this to the countertops on site and we are going to let mom and dad see their new peninsula let us know is this a piece of functional art that you would like to eat your breakfast cereal at let us know in the comments below all right time for the fun part now that the epoxy river is dried it's time to take the project out of the form i'm doing that by just simply reversing the steps i'm removing the screws and popping the sides off of the table they're coming off easy again because i sealed all of that melamine with tyvek tape it's a great release it's really easy to take off your form just start with the screws score the tape pop those sides off [Music] nice heck yeah i'm going to take a three-quarter inch straight flute router bit okay and i'm going to actually come down here and router in insets for steel bars those bars are going to prevent the wood over time from trying to warp or cup back to how it grew like a tree that makes it stable and lasts for years to come and be a functional art piece that you'll be proud of so let's go ahead and reinforce this by cutting steel bars to size embedding them underneath this this project and then we're going to use our quick coat to seal those in so that they lock into place and we'll move on to the next step let's go i'm creating a rough surface of mechanical bond and removing contaminants with my sanding discs i took my 50 grit metal sanding disc and i went ahead and scuffed this up so the epoxy would bite to that steel like a drain i also plug these ends i used to tape those and that's okay but what a clean look i just cut a piece of wood really tight to fit into this square tube and then i tapped it in and cut it off somewhat flush i just left the wood a little bit proud of the steel so i didn't mess up my chop saw blade that's a quick plug man never stop learning the pro tip of the master class is if you're a woodworker work with wood if you're a painter paint if you're a sculptor be sure to sculpt get your hands dirty roll up your sleeves and get ready to learn i'm going to use a straight edge so that my router can follow that while i cut this channel in i also have a spacer which is the same distance from the edge of my router to my bit that way i use that spacer right here on these pieces of square tube and it's giving me my exact location of where i'm going to router this in this spacer then shoves in so that i get a little bit wider channel than i want so that the epoxy can envelop this steel and give me a permanent bond i'll show you right now how this works it's fast it's easy and it's important to do so you don't get any cupping in your project as opposed to some of my past projects i didn't continue the steel support bars all the way through the epoxy river i stopped short at the edge of the river because i only need stabilization in the wood section the epoxy has plenty of natural strength it didn't need the support square tubing i router just a little deeper than the three quarter inch square tubing and a little bit wider that way the epoxy will surround the square tubing and envelope it to hide it and give it massive strength for years to come using quick coat allows me to embed these steel bars and move on with the next step the same day [Music] i mixed our quick coat at a one to one ratio i'm mixing it with the drill which is actually entraining a little bit of air it'll turn the quick coat white if you want to entrain less air just mix it with a stir stick as opposed to a mixing paddle but because this is the underside of my project and nobody's gonna see it i really don't care how it looks all right all i'm doing is i'm using a squeegee and the quick coat to actually fill in all of these grooves and i'm just getting it flush i'm going to actually use the excess quick coat that i have mixed up to fill in any voids on the bottom because i want to go ahead and seal the entire bottom of this slab so the quick coat will set up nice and fast for me and allow me to sand this in a couple of hours and start the next step after my quick coat has enveloped those steel bars and cured i'm able to sand i'm sanding it flush so that as i lay this down on my plywood to finish off the kitchen it's going to lay nice and flat i'm just removing any of the high points [Music] i'm switching out my used surface planing router bit to a brand new one because i'm going to true the top of my river table now remember i never did this i just did the bottom of the river table so that i could pour it nice and flat now that the river table is poured it's time to true the top i'm going to do that using our slab jig and it makes short work of this process i'm just removing a little at a time as to not overwork the router or chip out the surface of my slat [Music] after i finished truing the top of the slab with the slab jig and the router bit it's time to remove any evidence of that router bit and the swirl marks left behind i do this with my random orbital sander and different grits of sandpaper i start at 60 grit and i work through all the way up to 220 grit no need to go any higher than 220 because the epoxy will finish everything like a sheet of glass i spend the majority of my sanding time on the initial 60 grit removing any of those swirl marks after that it's just cross hatching you're going to go perpendicular and parallel to any of the wood grain to remove all of those scratches and prepare for the epoxy seal coats now that my river table surface is sanded it's time to true up the edges remember i left enough width and depth and height on my slab so that i could remove some stock to true it up at this time i'm going to use a skill saw and a straight edge to make sure i make a nice perpendicular cut so i get a very professional looking table remember the beginning of the master class there was a big pro tip and that's do multiple passes per cut in this case i scored the edge and now i'm plunge cutting through the entirety of that edge so i get a beautiful cut i used micro pin nails to attach my actual straight edge this allowed me to ride that straight edge on my initial cut so i didn't wander the second cut followed that initial cut and came out fantastic the micro pins temporarily hold everything into place without any evidence they're tiny they're micro i'll repeat the cutting process in the same form and fashion on both sides of my table now for the end grain i'm going to use my t-square because i have parallel edges to ensure that my t-square is true hey we got a great comment from brian fitz on our video where we say the owner of a dentist office thousands of dollars using stillco platinum and our ultimate top coat ryan writes in addition to the platinum product with the new top coat can a top coat be used over standard countertop epoxy and achieve the same durable finish i'm redoing a heavy use conference room table and really need the durability but i'm not sure my skills are ready for the shorter working time well brian your answer is yes absolutely our ultimate top coat is compatible with all other stone coat epoxies all you need to do is simply sand with 220 wipe the dust and you'll be ready to go mike actually ends up cutting a piece off the table so it can fit on site so we use the opportunity to try out the top coat so you guys can see the sheen difference it gives that natural finished look added durability and this top coat was applied over our regular stone coat countertop epoxy as far as the shorter working time there's no need to be concerned just simply split your pores up do them a section at a time with what you're comfortable with and it will all meld together beautifully you got this brian thanks for the great comment that was a great comment and i appreciate you luke for addressing that i will be using that ultimate top coat on some of my woodworking projects in the future i absolutely love what it did and created a natural low sheen finish after i trim the edges of the project to true them up with my skill saw it's time to use my random orbital sander to remove any skill saw marks then i'm ready to round over the edge with my 1 8 inch router bit that has a bearing that actually follows the edge so i get a beautiful finished top that allows the epoxy to roll over that edge a 1 8 inch router bit actually gives a subtle round over that looks very sleek and modern i love that 1 8 round over i'm going to use it on the bottom of the surface as well so that the drips will carry on underneath my table and i won't get any epoxy buildup at the bottom lip there's another pro tip after i've sanded the sides and i've routered in my edge i'm going to finish the entire project with 220 grit [Music] one of the final steps to the process is to hand do the edges i don't like to sand the edges with my random orbital sander because it tends to over sand so i just do those by hand i'm gonna wipe any of the dust i finish it off with a wipe of acetone and i'm ready for my first seal coat i'm using our original stone coat countertop epoxy which is heat resistant scratch resistant it has zero vocs in a long open time i only need one ounce per square foot for my seal coats this allows me to wet out the surface but not overdo it and trap air in that surface just like those edges so i'm simply going to use a shower squeegee and i'm going to push the epoxy into the wood grain i'll take my time because i have all the working time that i need to wet the surface out and use that one ounce per square foot and scrape it across the surface remember it doesn't need to look perfect at this point you're simply applying your first seal coat we filmed this live on our stone coat countertops insiders group on facebook we make all kinds of different length content and we are sure hoping you're enjoying this master class be sure to check us out on the insider's facebook group so that you can learn how to apply epoxy like a pro now you know using a glove hand i use any excess epoxy that dripped over the edges to apply my seal coat to the edges i'm sweeping the surface with a torch just to get any excess bubbles it's okay if it's not perfect at this point the second seal coat starts to get it more and more close to that finished project i'm gonna do the same process i'm gonna sand with 220 grit i'm gonna mix up our epoxy at a one to one ratio after i've sanded be sure to clean the surface wipe it down with acetone to remove any excess dust and you're just going to repeat the process in this case i only needed three seal coats that's a total of three ounces per square foot it's not a lot of material but i break the steps up so that i don't trap air bubbles in that epoxy the consistency of stone coat epoxy is perfect for your river table flood coats and seal coats it won't all run off the surface but it absolutely will lay out like glass but prepare that surface by making it non-porous and removing any opportunity for air to get into that final flood coat that's why these seal coats are super important all right masterclass here's the tips and tricks that you won't learn anywhere but stone coat countertops how do you remove those final stubborn pin holes in any of the cracks crevices and knots that are commonly found in wood slabs here we're using our burn-in sticks i get these off of amazon they're made by mohawk and it's almost like a wax stick check it out all right this is about ready for that flood coat what i want to do right now is color this wood it's a little too yellow for me right here the sapwood in the redwood sometimes is almost a neon yellow and you don't know until you open that slab up so what i'm going to do is cheat a little bit i'm going to actually tint this a little brown i'm going to spray that i'll let it dry and then i'll do my flood coat but i want this thing to look more earth toned as opposed to yellow let's go i'm going to use some toner in conversion varnish to actually tint the color of my slab it's important to do it at this point because everything is sealed you're going to get uniformity i have an actual seal coat on this project i'm masking off the river so that i don't tint that color and i'm just using a little bit of toner in my lacquer or conversion varnish to apply to a sanded surface it's going to bond very well and it's going to dry fast you could change the tone of wood using this process i like the brown that's looking good but now it just looks a little bit too pink for me on the redwood what do you guys think do you like the pink or would you darken it i actually am going to darken it with a little bit more charcoal into this so i'm going to just add a little bit of a charcoal hue to the whole project you'll still see that it's redwood but it'll kind of tone it down and it'll even make the brown a little more charcoal let's do it guys i'm just using a normal hvlp sprayer to get this done i'm a cabinet maker by trade as well and i've been spraying cabinets for the better part of my professional career if you're interested in this process let me know in the comments if you want me to make separate content on how to tone tint and change the color and appearance of your wood slabs i was pleased in the way i was able to preserve the characteristics of this redwood but get the tone that i prefer that's cool it already looks like it's glowing dude it's time for the final flood coast so my brother and i move it into our final pour area i loved how the light started to come through and i'm just sanding and abrading that toner coat so that i can get a good mechanical bond with the epoxy and that color remember that color coat is an optional coat i loved what it did and now it's time to add three ounces per square foot to the surface this is the perfect amount for a flood coat because it allows the stone coat epoxy to lay out and flood and level like a sheet of glass i begin the final flood coat by pouring out the bucket into the center of the project oh that's going to be sick the epoxy is almost magical how it will hide the abrasion of the scratches underneath to create that bond i'm using a 1 8 by 1 8 square notch trowel to spread the flood coat next step will be to chop the surface using a chop brush after i've tried it out the chop brush will do two things it will ensure that i have a very good mixed material on the surface and it will also help to ensure that i hide any of the lines that may be caused by that trowel so i'm simply going to prime that brush with epoxy and i'll chop the surface randomly i'm not going to go in perfect rows i'm just going to be sure that i address every bit of the surface if there's any tension in the epoxy the chop brush will break that tension and allow epoxy to flood out after that i'm going to do the edges with the chop brush i'm simply going to brush long horizontal strokes to get a flawless finish time to pop the bubbles by sweeping the torch across the surface and i test drive it with the led lights i have a little hair left in the surface and i'm using a tongue depressor split in half as chopsticks to remove that hair check out that light i love this table [Music] after my flood coat dries mitch and i flip it upside down on a fresh sheet of plywood so it doesn't hurt the surface or scratch it i'm going to use my 50 grit metal sanding disc to remove those bumps and the drips i waited till now because i wasn't on site i didn't worry about making dust if i was on site i could simply use a paint stick to remove the drips after i pour i'm sanding those off i'm blowing the dust and i'm getting closer to the final steps hey what's up i'm luke just a quick reminder we have all the written instructions on our website they'll teach you step by step how to kill your next river table project we'll see you there you got this this river table is going to cap some cabinets in a kitchen therefore i don't need metal legs or wooden legs as a base i'm using plywood for the top of the cabinetry to hold my lighting so that i can just simply slide my river table on top i'm making a jig so that i can router out a space to actually reflect that lighting i know that my lighting's about a half inch tall so i created a half inch cavity to bury that light in and then actually line it with hvac tape i needed something reflective so after i routed a channel i went ahead and grabbed some hv ac tape you can find that at any hardware store and i created an instant reflective liner there's a first time for everything and this was the first time i've ever done this actual process i loved how it came out and looking back i think i would do it very similarly i was very pleased with the final result because this cavity was larger than the actual cutout of the river section of my project therefore i can manipulate and move that lighting to need and desire so that i got the maximum light without seeing any of the hard dots or the contrast of those bright leds next step i was going to finish the edge of that plywood so i didn't have any voids that were visible on that cabinetry this was a finish processing project so i went ahead and used our all-purpose bondo putty i applied it by hand i sanded it smooth and i went ahead and painted it black i just used my sandpaper to sand it and a weeny roller to roll it i painted it black because that would kind of blend and hide with the project it looked professional i built all the cabinetry from scratch so i finished assembling and installing the cabinets and then it was time to template i went ahead and put our finished plywood on site and i got my template material our template material is designed so that we could wrap walls trim and follow the contours of any kitchen it's perfect template material for making countertops fit like a glove visit us at stonecoatcountertops.com to see all the products used in this video after templating it was time to transfer those measurements to my wood slab i decided i didn't want such a large overhang because i wanted this kitchen to be more open so that you can walk through it freely and not have any obstructions so i traced my template and i followed my cut templating ensures that you don't make mistakes in your cuts my wife and i had a blast working late together on this passion project i couldn't wait to show my mom and dad their new river table i like having excess pieces left over from a project it allows me to test durability sheen level sanding polishing it allows me to showcase these projects to future customers i can now show them what a river table looks like finished in this form i love having scraps to test with i did make it a little bigger than i anticipated but that's okay i used it later in the day following my template i was able to follow exactly where that trim came into play so that i didn't need to notch the trim on site my river table slid into place as if it grew there as the leds shifted color in the surface i was amazed at the different looks that it gave me it was so much fun to see how it popped the grain depending on the light that came through my good buddy kenny from rk3 designs was out to help me finalize this project we installed this using 100 silicone we taped a perimeter around the cabinets and we locked it in with a simple bead of 100 clear silicone [Music] oh my gosh can you believe how this looks [Music] if you run straight through down the river table there's whole led lights i've never made anything like this before in my life first diy project that is anywhere near the scale if i got this you got this hashtag first time diyer my mom and dad absolutely loved the look of their new space my mom and dad's dream has always been to have a log home and some of my close friends and local craftsmen helped me bring this project from concept to complete look at these oh my gosh you got your light in here oh my goodness oh my gosh mike thumbs up this is perfect thank you my mom and dad are some of the most amazing people on this planet they're giving loving and their living angels thanks mom and dad man i loved how that project turned out for my mom's house and fit right in with all the other stoneco projects in there have you had the opportunity to check out that epoxy shower we completely transformed that bathroom we installed epoxy shower walls that you will not believe are created from foam check out that link it's going to take you over to our epoxy shower walls video you do not want to miss that it's going to teach you how to save thousands on your next shower remodel and from all of us here at coke care tops we'll see you on the next video and don't forget you got this you

Channel: Stone Coat Countertops

Views: 164,498

Rating: 4.8546557 out of 5

Keywords: epoxy, epoxy metallic, epoxy table, epoxy resin, epoxy resin table, diy epoxy, stone coat countertops, stone coat, diy crafts, river table, resin table top, how to epoxy, LED River Table | FREE Master Class | Stone Coat Epoxy, LED table, LED River Table, river table with led lights, river table diy, river table tutorial, led light diy, woodworking, woodworking class, beginner woodworking, epoxy woodworking, master class, masterclass, epoxy masterclass, LED, live edge, how

Id: -AmIfEUlKB4

Length: 60min 57sec (3657 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 22 2020