Live Edge Wood GLOW Table
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We've been wanting to work with a piece of live edge wood, but hadn't found the right piece of wood at a good price. On a recent trip through Suwannee County in North Florida, we happened upon a small family operated saw mill right by the side of the road. Just like we brake for pallets, we also brake for beautiful live edge wood sold at the side of the road! We brought home a slab, 9 1/2 feet long by about 4 inches thick plus a large oval piece. The prices were really, really good! We were able to get it into the Honda pilot without having to have it cut. It was a tight fit with three adults and all our luggage in the car, but we did it.
Watch the video.
We mulled around ideas for the slab and decided to make two tables--a buffet for Steph and an entry table for Vicki which required making three cuts in the slab. We had to improvise since we did not have a tool deep enough to cut through the slab. We first used the circular saw to cut as far through as we could.
After the first cut with the circular saw, we clamped a metal straight edge to the slab then used a reciprocating saw to cut through the piece using the previous cut and straight edge as a guide, AND it worked!
Then we sanded starting at 40 grit and moving to 220. As I sanded, I realized the back edge of the wood was dead and would not accept the stain well.
We decided to use the same technique to cut off the back four inches.
We finished the top by cleaning with mineral spirits. The mineral spirits also gave us an idea of the natural color. We decided to stain since the finished look would have been on the orange side.
Minwax Special Walnut was our stain of choice.
We finished with three coats of polycrylic, which we sanded between coats.
The top and bottom had wormholes, some of which, went through the entire piece. This made for a perfect opportunity to use epoxy with glow powder to fill them.
We prepped the slab for pouring epoxy by first covering the holes on the bottom side with painters' tape and then covering this with silver aluminum tape.
The epoxy is mixed in two part. Follow the manufacturer's instructions, exactly. We used a 1:4 radio of glow powder to epoxy- 1 oz powder to 4 oz epoxy.
We did several pours over the course of many days, waiting 24 hours between pours. Work slowly, clean up as you go.
Three-rod hairpin legs from Rockler were clamped and then screwed into place. These legs were the perfect choice.
We love how this table turned out! We haven't been able to get a good picture of it glowing blue at night but when we do we will add it to this post.
To see the epoxy GLOW please visit our website!
This table is perfect in an imperfect way! Because we didn't have specialized tools like a planner, the table is not a perfect thickness, but despite this, the table is strong, sturdy, and functions well.
For more details please check out our website!
Resources for this project:
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Comments
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Oh my goodness your post made me laugh, last weekend we brought home a 9 ft live edge slab in the back of my little Toyota 😂 i was wondering how i woukd make my vision come to life, seemed a liiiitle heavy to mount to the wall with brackets, I love those legs you found! That's exactly what I need. I have nowhere for my house plants to get any sunshine, the one window that does get sun doesn't have a sill so this is my solution. I really hope I can find something similar🤞
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I am definitely trying that epoxy with color and love live edge pieces! Awesome job, ladies!
Frequently asked questions
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How tall are your table legs? The link you provided as several. I’m looking for strong bar height legs.