Round Epoxy End Table Build

welcome to green and steel my name is Bray and today we're going to be making a round end table so just jumping right into it I'm using my router and a little router jig I made to cut circles so I'm going to cut a circle out of this plywood to make the mold the next step is to apply some flashing tape on the plywood just so I can reuse this mold again as far as the border for this goes I'm using just an aluminum flashing and I'm using screws to secure it on a lot of these steps seem kind of quick but I promise you they are not that actually took quite a bit of time and I probably would do it differently the next time and here I'm now sealing the entire inner edge with a silicone it's a fast drying silicone only takes about an hour so it's much better than using like a or something that takes a full day to cure so at this point I'm just kind of waiting for my mold to dry so while I'm doing that I'm going to start making my lines and cutting the wood so I know it sits where I want it to be and for this I'm just using the jigsaw um I probably could have used the router again but um it's just it's too much to take out and it was just it's just a whole process so I just wanted to grab the the jigsaw and get it done quickly so this is what the wood looks like once I've made my cuts and one thing I didn't mention yet that I think is really important is that you should always make your mold um a couple inches bigger than your final table size will be just leave some some room for air so at this point I'm just clearing out all those cracks and voids and everything I'm just getting all the soft Woods out of there and anything that will prevent the epoxy from bonding correctly and there's not really a right way to do this you kind of just use any tool you can to get the job done and I've used I've used the Dremel I've used chisels uh even like screwdrivers or anything that will get in there and just clean it up nicely so here I'm just using a multi-release spray to make it a lot easier to take the table out once everything's finally cured so I spray it and then I just use a cheap paint brush to spread it all over so this next part is really important just make sure you're measuring properly and mixing very well especially if you're using a die which I am in this video um I was actually looking for a jet black look so I ended up using about 20 drops of dye per liter of epoxy and so this is the part that most people love um this is the infamous epoxy pour so I'm just pouring this in all the the empty spaces um any of the voids inside the wood itself and I'm just taking it easy taking it nice and slow and just letting it level itself out and my calculations were slightly off so I did end up needing to mix up another batch which was no big deal now I just came back with a torch after about 20 minutes to pop all these Bubbles and to look for any little floaters or any dust mites that might have been at the surface so I just picked those out so after about four days this is what the table should look like um it is fully cured and it's ready to be taken out of the mold so I'm gonna go take it over to the table and I'm gonna start prying away now I say prying away but really be a little bit careful here um you do however have a little bit of room for air just because we're about to plane it on both sides which you're going to see in this next clip so in order to flatten this table I'm just using this makeshift router sled and I'm just making passes until the entire thing's flat and then I'm flipping it over and doing it to the other side and this is what it looks like when it's all done so the router does leave lines all over your table once you've once you've planed it so the next step is to use a really low grit sandpaper I'm just using a 40 grit on my orbital and I'm just going over those lines over and over until they're all gone So eventually you're going to be left with a flat surface and now you're pretty much ready to start cutting the table the size and start routing out the edges and all that good stuff so in this clip I'm cutting the table to size I'm cutting it to 20 inches in diameter I'm just using the same method that I used to cut the plywood for the mold I'm just using the router and the spiral bit I'm just going in a circle with that jig if you've made it this far in this video I really appreciate it please give it a big thumbs up it helps out so much and also subscribe if you're looking for more videos like this I also know people are really curious on how things like this are made so if you have any questions at all leave a comment and I will get to it as soon as I can so after using the router to cut the circle I just came back with the jigsaw and made the cut all the way through and then you just gotta come back with your flush trim bit on your router and your orbital sander to clean up that edge so now we're really getting into the detailed work and so what I'm doing right now is I'm coming back with my little baby chisel and I'm chiseling away at those tiny cracks just opening them up a little bit just so I can fit some CA glue in there and close the crack up for good and this specific CA glue cures instantly so that's been a lifesaver and remember you're working with wood so it's supernatural for there to be little cracks and voids all over it took me a whole day just to fill the cracks and voids and then sand the CA glue back down now we're just coming back with the round over bit on the router for that uh that nice rounded edge profile I think it looks really nice especially in circular tables like this so I'm going to do this to the top and the bottom the next thing I'm doing is sanding and it's probably one of the most important things it seems like such a simple thing but you really do have to use the right technique and the right sandpaper or else you will end up with lines throughout your table and it just won't look very nice now the finish I'm using for this table is called odie's oil and now the shininess of it completely depends on how high you sand so I like to sand up to about 320 and it gives me a nice satin finish so right here I'm just lining up the table base so it sits perfectly in the center of the table and in this specific case it had to sit about five and a quarter inches away from the edge now I'm just marking those holes with a pencil so I know exactly where my threaded inserts need to go so here I'm just using a drill and I'm drilling those holes for the threaded inserts to sit in and as you can see I have a piece of tape on the drill bit just so I know how deep I should go now you're just going to want to put a quick little dab of wood glue into your holes and start screwing your threaded inserts in there with an allen wrench so now for my personal favorite part the finishing process we have to clean this table off really well first and we're going to use some isopropyl alcohol and just a rag I had laying around and we're going to wipe this table off really really well so now we're going to take out our od's oil and we're gonna open it up and start mixing until it's about the consistency of honey and we're just going to drizzle it on the table and start working it in with this white pad and we're going to do this to both sides and just keep in mind you don't have to use that much of it a little bit goes a long way so just don't use too much so after about an hour we're just going to come back and we're going to wipe off all of the excess and now if you put too much on then a you're going to be wasting a lot and B it's just going to be a huge pain to wipe it all off so just don't use too much so this is what my final finish ended up looking like and I think it looked incredible so I was very very pleased and also keep in mind odie's oil does continue to cure over the course of they say about two weeks so it is able to be used but it still isn't technically completely cured yet so now that the Finish is complete I am finally going to connect the table base to the table and so I'm just using these uh Furniture screws and these washers and I didn't have the washers at first but I realized that I was going to need them if you see how close the those holes are to the center of the table base it made it very hard for the screws to end up sitting flush so I needed to use the washers in order for them to sit properly so here's the final product in all of its Glory I hope you guys love it as much as I do if you do like this piece and would like to purchase it or if you would like a piece custom made my link to my Etsy is in the description below so you can go ahead and click that also I really appreciate you guys watching uh please do subscribe if you want to see more videos like this and I really hope to see you in the next one

Channel: Grain & Steel

Views: 68,097

Keywords: epoxy, end table, build, walnut, wood, woodworking, round, circular, etsy, DIY, black, coffee table, how to, table, hardwood, odies oil

Id: Kg_pKuEYdPg

Length: 9min 8sec (548 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 03 2023