This Left The Customers Speechless.

in this video we're getting everything finalized because I'm sure you're as ready as I am to see this beautiful designer table come to life and whether or not you agree with the color choices on this piece one thing we can probably all agree on is what in the heck was I thinking in last video we finished up the modern leg assembly and the two pieces of c channel that connect the legs to the tabletop need to have have a Groove routed so that they're inset this is pretty easily done just by marking out where they go and using a straight edge with a router to Route out the channels this is somewhat of a bravery test considering we've already put a lot of hours into the tabletop and the last thing we want to do is screw up now so now a quick blow with the hammer will Mark where the lag screw is sticking up then we can just use a forcer bit to drill out that material Woodcraft by San actually did a great video about using threaded inserts versus is tapping the wood itself and it turns out you might not even need to use threaded inserts but at the time of this filming I didn't have a wood tap and I did have inserts so I'm choosing to use those in a previous video we got the brass plating cut and it wasn't a fun process but now we're all healed up so we can make templates to fit the brass to the leg assembly it's just a lot easier to cut the paper rather than the brass to make sure everything fits perfect so after cleaning up the edges of the brass we can obviously use that template to Mark where to cut and I know this is probably hair raising to see me freehanding this on the table saw but it was a lot slower of a cut than you would think and it was actually pretty safe for me honestly a much safer way to do this would have just been making a sled for this little table saw but I didn't and this is what I chose either way the brass is fitting like a glove and I'm creating a small micro bevel with the Sanders so that I don't leave sharp exposed edges this is actually a pretty enjoy able process one thing I would suggest though is wearing some sort of gloves because wherever that clear masking isn't on the brass you can cause tarnishing with your fingerprints and that'll just cause extra work later to sand off I did mention in the previous video that this is a Helman and Chang design which is actually a $30,000 table and that's why I titled that video as I did in all honesty though I didn't even price this table for a third of that I priced it for 85,000 which realistically I kind of screwed myself over I highly underestimated how much work and material cost would go into this table I guess all I can say is running a business is always a learning process the first epoxy that I used with the brass did not adhere very well but after a new test JB Weld 5-minute epoxy has great adhesion and luckily just rerouting the rabbit actually cuts the old epoxy off perfectly I'm just adding file marks for the best adhesion possible and we can start round two of the inlay work and this time around I'm feeling a lot more confident that the brass isn't just going to fall off and let's be honest I probably lost a few nights of sleep over that one but I guess everything's just another learning opportunity while I'm sanding this end flush I'm going to make sure that I'm keeping it Square because any skewing could result in the breadboard being kinked I'm also doing something that's more important than you'd probably think I'm sanding a round over on just the ends of the inlay bands this has a fairly simple reason if and when the table contracts we don't want that sharp edge of the brass exposed ready to cut someone's hand conversely we also want to round over the table Edge in case it expands past the breadboard the next step is to drill holes through the bottom side of each breadboard this will house pegs that hold everything to the table a quick auxiliary block just decreases tear out now we can Hammer them on and mark the holes using that same bit you can see that it marks the center perfectly but we don't want to just drill exactly where that is otherwise the pegs won't draw the breadboard tight so I'm actually putting pressure towards the shoulder side of the Tenon that way it offsets the hole by about a millimeter and to make things even a little bit more complicated we can't just leave this a single hole it actually has to be a slot so that the table can expand and contract so by drilling three holes side by side I can just file that into a Groove the most important part is that through the action of filing I don't want to file it too loose because then the peg won't draw it tight so I'm constantly checking with digital calipers to make sure I'm not screwing that part up we do want to Peg it in the center so it just gets a hole the pegs themselves are going to be made with ebony since I have some leftover from previous guitar builds and it's extremely strong so it'll resist any loosening over over time since the grooves in the tenin could start wearing away at any softer pegs a small taper on one end will just ease the process of driving them in when the time comes so now I can get rid of that sharp edge on the table as well as any sharp edges on the brass precoloring any expansion ends now we'll just make sure they're black the sequence of this glue up is actually rather important I want to make sure that the pegs get glued in their holes but I don't want the whole Bread Board to be glued to the table only the center of the Tenon will get glued since there will only be minimal expansion there the rest has to be open for wood movement otherwise it compromises this entire process now we don't want to just Hammer the pegs in willy-nilly because we could blow them out the other side so instead I seat them about 2/3 of the way then use a Long Reach C clamp to do the rest these pegs will be a little bit tight to go in because of that offset hole and we really need them all the way in for full strength so if you can't get them then I'll show you a method here in a second I like to clean up the glue squeeze out before I flush cut that way my saw doesn't get all gunked up thankfully that side went perfect and we can start the other side I learned quickly that I could just give the clamp a quick smack with the hammer to seat the peg so the clamp keeps the peg from blowing out the other side but the hammer adds that extra force needed and there they are just Exposed on the bottom side it's starting to look like an upside down table but not for long because we need to get this thing ready for finish we're doing a final sanding to 150 and the ends of the breadboards can finally be cut off the final table length is 10 ft long and every Edge needs to be sanded to Perfection while Cody breaks any sharp edges on the leg base one end needs one more quick flattening to be in plain with the table not much though because most of that work was already done the orbit sander leaves random scratch marks in the brass and I personally don't think this looks good good under a finish so silly me I'm actually straight sanding the brass now but we're going to have to just end up doing it later anyways so it's pointless the top edge of the table gets a micro bevel to make it easier on the user's arms and yes we can just route right over the brass this next step is a fairly important one if you've seen some of my other table videos I start by spraying all the dust out of the grain then saturate the whole table with water this process keeps the grain from Raising later if any water were to infiltrate the finish and we are going to be staining this so get ready after it's dry I'm having Cody do the final sanding to 220 and while he cleans all the dust out of the grain I'm mixing up some dark filler I want the filler mixture to be pretty dark because the final stain color is going to be black and this first round should be about the consistency of drywall mud just make sure your knife doesn't have burs on it so that you don't create cross grain scrap pches I tend to go across the grain for the first coat and with the grain for the second hoping that that fills up the pores as much as possible a quick sanding to 220 between the two coats helps free up any of that loose filler the second coat is much thinner because by now the bigger pores have been filled and we need to fill the much smaller micro pores and while that's drying Cody can tape off the sides so we can officially stain the bottom the stain we're using is fian's black Gel Stain not to be confused with jet black because jet black would actually cover up all of the Grain and there would be no transparency left and I know right now through the camera it looks like I'm just covering up all that beautiful Walnut grain but I promise after the solvent urethane finish goes on all of that transparency will actually come back and we don't want overlap marks on the sides so that's why it was taped off to begin with but now the Bottom's done and something compels me to get this thing flipped over by myself myself which I don't know why I'm willing to take a risk like this but I guess I amoo that was close so the stupid reason why I decided to flip the table myself is because if I get a neighbor to help me I'll be talking for the next 45 minutes ain't nobody got time for that and she's right I don't have time for that because I have to get this puppy sanded and stained before the weekend so that it can cure because failure to let the stain cure at this point could result in the Finish not adhering correctly so for the second time I'm straight sanding the brass inlay so that it has a brushed look and silly enough I'm actually going to be doing it a third time because I like to torture myself with repeatable monotonous steps to to keep the brass from staining black I'm using this archaic looking tool that I made to cut the purfling on my violin to now cut strips in tape you can buy Quin wide tape but I have this cutter so I just cut it myself I intentionally cut it less wide than the inlay that way I can just use two layers to get a perfect fit now the sides and the top can get stained black which seems horrifying because it looks like I'm just destroying the table but realistically this black tone will actually fit the customer's house and Decor a lot better than the Walnut will and we all know black and white are just in style these days nonetheless though this actually looks pretty freaking cool in the end so just stick around the legs in the sides of the table are going to have a satin finish urethane on them while the top face of the table will have a high gloss urethane finish but stick around till the end because this will actually present a problem for the breadboard joint on the bottom side of the table the Fortress emblem can be inlaid I use part epoxy for strength and part CA glue for Speed and I like the matte black sheen on the emblem and I don't want the urethane to change that Sheen so I'm going to cover it with tape now we can begin a rather complex and advanced finishing process I would love to just be able to tell you that this is easy and DIY and anyone can do it but we're dealing with different Sheen and a lot of different processes during during this entire finishing stage the bottom of this table is the easiest part though it just gets two coats of sealer this Imron sealer happens to dry in the satin Sheen so I can just leave it as is and you can see some of that Clarity coming back into the wood while that's flashing off I'm prepping the brass by cleaning it with acetone and I shortly realize that we left fingerprints so I have to sand those back off then I can clean them again and spray them with SE sealer the point of the sealer is to make sure that the brass doesn't tarnish in the future and I'm doing one coat of sealer and one coat of top coat with a sanding in between but you really only need just one coat to seal brass off the brass screws that will hold the plating on also need to be sanded and top coated then the plating can get its final satin top coat this is the same Imron satin that I'll use for the sides of the table and the leg assembly now we can responsibly flip the whole table with two people instead of one and I'm sure you're going to find this hard to believe but it's a lot easier with two people we can begin spraying the sides in the top with sealer the top is going to get six coats of sealer today and the sides are going to get three the legs will get two coats of sealer then left to cure we don't want a bunch of thick sealer to be in areas where we didn't fill the grp grain because it'll actually make the pores look a little weird and when that sealer is dry we actually test some blue tape on it because yep I feel like we need to sand this brass one more time with one coat of sealer on the table I could tell that the brass just wasn't perfect so I sanded through the sealer and sanded the brass to Perfection this time followed by five more coats of sealer after giving the Finish 2 days to cure and Shrink up I can begin sanding 320 grit will help get rid of any high spots texture or dust nibs that may be in the film at this point the next seal coats won't adhere either if we don't add scratches to the Finish because there is such a high risk of sanning through into the black stain I'm actually just taking it about this far and not getting rid of all the texture one more coat on the sides and four more subsequent coats on the top will add more build so that I can flatten it better later and with 10 coats of sealer on and flashed off we can get this into the other room because the other room stays much hotter and we can offer more air flow there this will sit for about 1 week to shrink up meanwhile we can get the legs sanded and vacuumed off we want to make sure we don't leave any white specks in any of the pores otherwise these could show up later one last coat of satin top coat will get rid of that hazy look and bring back that beautiful color and one week later we can bring this 250 lb tabletop back out oh my gosh the first step to do is flatten and sand the sides for that same satin top coat any overspray on the top will actually be taken care of in The Next Step which I made this big sanding block with 320 grit because this will actually get the table sanded flat unlike any other small sander that would just conform to the Wess of the table which you can actually see the low spots even despite me meticulously flattening this table earlier wood is just a natural thing with variations in Grain hardness and it's hard to get perfectly flat I make sure to periodically clean off any specks of finish on the Sandpaper this is called Corning and that Corning can potentially make really deep scratch marks in your table that you won't know are there until you get the top coat on and now that everything is flat as glass I can do a final sanding with the orbital and touch up any edges with a sanding pad these 320 scratches are actually too coarse to just jump right to gloss top coat because the top coat doesn't have enough build to fill in the scratches as well as give me enough thickness to buff then one last coat of sealer fills in those scratches and two coats of gloss top coat can be sprayed in that same day to make sure that it burns in so by now the gloss is almost perfect but it has just a a little bit of texture and like I said before this really is an advanced process because now we begin two more days of sanding and buffing I used 400 grit to lightly do an initial flattening pass then it needs to be cleaned and the bevels can be flared in with thousand grit the next grits are going to be wet sanded and I don't want that slurry to get in the joint between the table and the brass inlay since we rounded those edges over for expansion the reason why this process is a bit agonizing is because there's only two coats of gloss top coat and we can't burn through that otherwise we'll actually get what's called ghosting or haloing this happens when you burn through the top coat into the sealer and you can actually see the different Clarity that the sealer has versus the top coat so after each grit it's really important to clean off the table and make sure you haven't burned through because if you have then it's kind of pointless to continue and you also need to clean the table to make sure that the previous grid grit doesn't contaminate the next grit after 5,000 I Can Begin using cutting compound to start buffing the table we want to make sure we get rid of all of these pigtails so I actually end up switching from an orbital to a direct drive buffer this creates a little bit more heat and friction so that it gets rid of the scratches easier I'm just making sure I don't burn through and now I've switched to a blue pad and I'm using polish which will make this thing look like a freaking Ferrari and can see I'm extremely happy because I didn't burn through and thankfully that finalizes that finish when a project gets to this point I can't help but feel just pure gratitude there's just something Bittersweet about finding myself in stressful situations and overcoming obstacles in a project because although the added stress no doubt adds some gray hairs here and there crossing that line from problem to solution is what builds experience in in character the process of learning isn't always easy and it shouldn't be because if I'm playing it safe then I'm probably not growing and if I'm not growing then I'm usually not happy so I guess what I'm getting at is stress equals happiness in its own far-fetched way so since that happiness can be a rather hard thing to obtain it's important to sit in it and have gratitude when it is there that is until future Corey comes ing bad news unfortunately I have some bad news it's been about 3 months since we delivered the table and it's now winter time the clients have messaged me and the Finish is being pulled right off of the brass inlay because of the Contracting table and I know that there's no way that I could just do a quick fix so there will be an update video on this table later on but until then it's time for Final Shots [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Please Subscribe by clicking the left icon check out all of our awesome build videos and here's another unique video to watch

Channel: Fortress Fine Woodworks

Views: 840,497

Keywords: Woodworking, custom furniture, Designer table, dining table, woodshop, diy, do it yourself

Id: qYOqEikoWaI

Length: 19min 51sec (1191 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 17 2023