Decorative wood patterned coffee table

[tomnewsom]

A little reading suggests that it’s unlikely to be oil - ipe is pretty dry. Probably just sawdust stuck to the oak. I will sand soon either way!

I’ve decided to lay this up face-down as suggested by @RichM. I’ll use a big sheet of paper and mark out exact hexagons for the inner and outer borders and then sand each triangle to exactly fit, spraymounting them all down. Then I’ll pour on polyester resin and place the plywood on top (resting on slightly higher sacrificial “border walls” to ensure a constant final thickness.

Would spraymount be enough to keep the wood in place? Will it want to float? I’d be sanding the finished surface anyway, so that should get rid of any resin leakthroughs and paper residue.

(I know I’m going on a bit on this thread, but my time in the space is so limited, I want to make sure I’m doing the right thing before I do it!)

[RichM (Rich Maynard)]

Spraymount should be ok. I used to don’t templates and spraymount them onto metal or wood to cut out a lot when i had a computer in my workshop.

Could use Photomount to make sure - i thinks it’s a bit stronger.

[tomnewsom]

God the choice of resins out there is staggering

[joeatkin2]

You don’t have to flood it on the first poor , two poors would stop the floting problem

[joeatkin2]

I always look it up and buy the one from Halford s because it’s two minutes walk from my house

[DAC17 (Dale Connolly)]

Is the resin covering the wood to look like it’s a glass surface? If so, use Glasscaste epoxy. It’s very hard wearing as can be used for flooring (penny floors etc). Also self levelling, so no need to cover and sets perfectly clear. http://www.easycomposites.co.uk/#!/resin-gel-silicone-adhesive/epoxy-resin/GlassCast-Clear-Epoxy-Surface-Coating-Resin.html

[Barnaby_Coote]

don’t forget to use mould release on any of the ply that has to come off

[tomnewsom]

Is the resin covering the wood to look like it’s a glass surface?

Nah, on the back, acting as a glue. I might use a clear resin to seal the top side, but thats a way down the road…

[DAC17 (Dale Connolly)]

By the way, looks awesome. Love the wood you’ve used and it’s a very clever process and design. Will you be making a hexagonal tabletop and adhering the patterned wood to it?

If so, have you thought about routing out recesses to drop the patterns into? Would be a lot of very accurate positioning and jig making, but done right, would look awesome. Just add a drop of glue into the recess and drop the patterns in. Could then plane off any slight raised bits to get it all flush.

[tomnewsom]

The pieces have several varying thicknesses, so the face-down method seems best. The idea is to get the pattern level, then glued down (glued up rather!) to the ply and then trim it to match.

[DAC17 (Dale Connolly)]

Awesome. Very intrigued to see how it develops. Great work so far!

[tomnewsom]

update no.3246

All triangles sanded flat. The smeared dark patches came out no problem Before and after:

Also, spare "A"types broken down to make the missing "B"type. piece.#

Used a sheet of the old flat PVC lining to mark out the pattern.

Yeah, you can’t see a thing. Here’s a closeup.

Scoring compasses to make the marks. Rubbing it with grubby hands to fill in the scratches.

There will be borders screwed down around this lot, with everything cut/scraped/sanded down till it’s press-fit tight. It’ll look a bit like this:

This is the reverse side. The nice smooth sanded finish is facing down.

[tomnewsom]

May Progress Report

I made a jig to hold all the pieces. I knew it would have to be adjusted as I went on but the inside perimter was easier to be sure about.

I could then set about cutting the border pieces (the mitre guillotine was invaluable for this) and sanding down the triangles to a snug fit. It was only at this pointt that I realised my triangles weren’t perfectly symmetrical, with one large and two small angled corners. I prefernetially sanded the “large” angled corner of each A and B type triangle, using extensions of the jig to make a border for each side.

As I thought, I didn’t have enough oak to finish the border.

I had to find another source from one of the offcuts knocking around the workshop, slice and cut some strips, and finish the job. The next step is the nerve-wracking bit - epoxying them all togther.

I used some sticky-backed foam at each corner and triangle centre to ensure these parts would be squashed down tight when clamped. I’m afraid the Space Invader in the front window was sacrificed for this.

Laser offcuts went on top which gives just the right extra thickness to compress the foam and press the triangles flat. And then it was epoxy time. I did this in the booth, to get the fumes quickly extracted. This stuff doesn’t smell, but the labels are covered in dire warnings about respiritory irritation. I didn’t feel any, so the ventialtion must have been doing its job!

Finally, ALL THE CLAMPS and two concrete blocks are squeezing the bottom face of the tabletop down overnight.

Curing time is 24h. Tune in then to find out what happens next…

[tomnewsom]

It took a brutal 3 hours of sawing and sanding but it is finally free of its resinous prison.

[Dermot (Dermot Jones)]

Looking good!

[CriticalTolerance (EdwardBilson)]

Wow! Can’t wait to see that all finished. I’ve been hoarding bottle tops for a poured resin desktop for a while now - having seen how nicely this is turning out I may need to look at a marquetry edging for it as well…

[DAC17 (Dale Connolly)]

Got some very interesting ideas on resin tables. Will have a wee chat with you when I see you next.

[tomnewsom]

I nearly made this a resin table by accident! Turns out that stuff flows really well, so when I clamped it, it flowed through all the tiny holes and almost completely filled the face-up side. The finish was really nice, except for all the bits where I’d scored the PVC surface, and the bits it didn’t flow to.

Was a complete bastard to sand off, but I’m seriously considering something like it for the final finish.

On the plus side, it means that all the tiny holes are well and truly filled

[tomnewsom]

Legs!

Thanks to Barnaby for supervision/instruction on the planer and table saw. Those were some tricky cuts to jig for. Turns out ripping 50mm of ash can stall the table saw motor if you go any faster than snails pace.

It was an actual table, for the first time

[joeatkin2]

We have not replace the belts yet .