Maple River Trestle Table

Nice looking table and the legs look excellent on it. Great job.

-- MEL, Kansas

I like the color you achieved in the river. Nice work.

-- Galootish log blog, http://www.timberframe-tools.com

Nice!

-- Steve - Impatience is Expensive

This is a beautiful table and very creative.

-- helluvawreck aka Charles, http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com

A very unique looking piece. Nice work!

-- Live to tell the stories, they sound better that way.

MJR , nice job and congratulations on your ‘Daily Top 3’ award.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Excellant !!

-- Dick, Malvern Ohio - my biggest fear is that when I die, my wife sells my toys for what I told her I paid for them

I like the pigments you chose. I picked up a walnut slab last month that I want to use for a similar project. What resin did you use?

For this one I used Ecopoxy, It’s a plastic resin and you can pour it as thick as you want in one shot, It de-gasses itself so you don’t have to torch out the bubbles. But it remains somewhat flexible after it’s cured. I’ve since switched to StoneCoat, Its a harder resin, I use their casting resin to fill the river and then seal coat and top coat with their Countertop resin. They say to pour the casting resin 1/4”, Torch out the bubbles then continue 1/4” at a time up to 1” per day but I’ve poured it 1 3/8” in one shot and didn’t have a problem, You just have to make sure you get the bubbles out before it gels up in 2 or 3 hours. If you message me or reply here I’ll send you some great links and provide you with the tip and tricks I’ve learned and links to the other products I used.

Love the table and base. I plan to make one of these in the future and would love to see the additional links, tip, and tricks. Thanks in advance and great work on the table.

-- Steve, South Carolina, http://www.finewoodworkingofsc.com

If you use Ecopoxy you’ll need to build a form to go around your slab and cover it in Tyvek tape, The cheapest I found Ecopxy was a guy from Texas that has a shop on Etsy. Make sure your slab is pinned down in the form because even the heaviest wood will float and too much epoxy will get underneath, Also Ecopoxy remains somewhat flexible after it’s cured so you have to use the steel rod or metal tube technique (you’ll see that in the video) or make sure the two halves of your slab are connected underneath with strongbacks or a table skirt. When I use Ecopoxy I flatten the slab after it’s cured with a jig and a router with a planing bit (jig in video but I made my own a long time ago to flatten big slabs) sand to 220 and top coat with 3 or 4 coats of polyurethane, It brings the epoxy right back. One advantage of Ecopoxy is you can pour it as thick as you want and it degasses itself, No torching out bubbles.

Lately I’ve been using Stonecoatcountertops.com products, Casting resin for the river and countertop resin for the top coats, this video will tell you everything you need to know
https://youtu.be/990076Ob9P4

Also Stonecoatcountertops.com has tons of videos and product links and if you email or call them the’ll help you.

I use some pigments from Stonecoatcountertops.com and Black Diamond mica pigments you can get cheap on Amazon

BIG TIP: Make sure your slab is level when pouring resin! Resin will seek level and if your slab isn’t level you’ll have overflow on one end.
Calculating resin: Average width of river x depth of river x length of river gives you square inches. Then ask Google how many ounces of liquid you need for your total of square inches, I always have a little project ready for extra resin if I have any left, Coasters or a little piece I carved out inlays to fill with extra resin.
If the resin for your river is a solid color you can fill in parts of the river with scrap wood so you won’t use as much since resin is expensive, Just make sure it’s pinned down so it doesn’t float and far enough below where your finished surface will be.

I think that it’s really great to be able to woodwork tables and chairs that looks this refined! It would actually lend a very nice touch to a lot of living spaces and it would be a great addition to any furniture hire company – you should really consider selling some of your work! I ‘m sure that there would be plenty of people interested to buy!

-- Mangult Henry: https://www.casablancahire.com/blog

I’ve been selling pieces for years, At one time I had a cabinet shop. I recently published a website that has pieces for sale www.datelessconcepts.com I don’t post pictures with my logo and web address here. I don’t think it’s proper to advertise or sell your work here, It’s to show your projects and we all help each other and share building and finishing techniques.