Not a lot to show the last few days. Lots of shots of epoxy drying. Here's my original sketch of roughly where I'm going with the design of the table.

I glued the two halves of the slab back together. I made a U shaped cradle out of some scrap plywood to protect the live edge while clamping. It cracked a lot, but it did its intended job. The two came together very nicely, quite flat! The joint is inconspicuous, so I think I'm going to proceed with doing the other slab as well. It made the flattening painless 

and dust free compared to the alternatives.

I also started the long process of filling the cracks with clear epoxy. This will take a while. Since these two slabs were next to the pith (center) of the tree, there is quite a bit of cracking. The cracks are mostly superficial, the wood is still structurally sound. The epoxy will stabilize and reinforce the area, as well as give a flat, void free surface. The epoxy is clear, so you will be able to see into the cracks some. Its an interesting effect. 


I started with the underside, mixing in some sawdust to make a thick paste. When that was dry, I flipped it back over. I've now created a dam that prevents all the clear stuff from going straight through and ending up on the floor. It will take several applications of the epoxy on some of the cracks to fill it level.

Here is what I've been looking at for the last four days. It just keeps soaking up more and more. The stuff takes forever to dry too. Each time I think it will be the last application-the surface of the crack is pooled with epoxy. I come back the next morning to find it is low once again.

Here is part of the reason that happens...the dam on the underside may look complete-but the stuff finds its way through any little void. 


Four days after I started the epoxy project, I think I'm done. We'll see tomorrow I guess.


Next I will be reassembling and setting up the new widebelt sander. The addition of that machine is going to make this table and so many other projects easier and faster.

This half was not as cracked as the other, and the filling here is done. Here's my cabinet scraper complete with thermal and moral support. The epoxy is first scraped flat, and then sanded. I have blisters on my thumbs already just thinking about it! Then it will go through the sander to remove planer marks before final hand sanding.