I had quite a few options of how to finish the wood... Oil, Stain, Varnish, Epoxy etc.
I pretty much already knew that I didnt want to sttain the wood since it has a nice rich hue as it is and it will get darker and richer as time passes... Exposure to warmth/heat enhances the yellows in wood, while exposure to UV light enhances the reds... Though too much of either will degrade the wood.
So, the wood would be left its natural colour, but I still had to decide how to seal it.
After due consideration and some consultation with the guys down at the specialty wood shop where I bought the wood, I decided that I would try using an epoxy.
Ive used epoxy quite a lot for bonding things together in all sorts of applications, but this would be my first effort at using it as a coating.
The particular version of epoxy I was going to use is specifically designed for this type of application. It is "food safe", finishes very "hard" (not slightly soft like many epoxys), and shinny (miror like finish), and best of all, it is "self leveling".
So, the theory is that you carefully mix out the right proportions of the two componet liquids, mix them thoroughly together and then pour the resulting clear viscous goo onto the table top (which you have carefully leveled beforehand). spread the goo out over the surface ... and then you just watch and wait!...While it cures.
So, I set the table-top up in my spare room, and carefully leveled it. Then I made sure it was all clean and dust free.
Then I set about mixing up about 2.5 litres of the epoxy. It was easy to measure out but I didnt have quite the right set-up for thorough mixing, and I had to do it in two sb-batches. Anyway, one batch at a time I poured the goop onto the table and spread it around with the brush till it was right to the edge of the table and pretty even all over. Then I brushed over the edges and the epoxy then started to slowly drip off the sides...
That all took just about an hour to complete.
Over the next three hours I would visit the table and check on its progress about once every 15 minutes or so. Initially this was to ensure that the "self-leveling" was going well, but then it focussed more on "dabbing" out the few tiny little bubbles that were not coming out by them selves, and finaly I was just giving the edge a once over with the brush to remove a few "runs" on the sections where there was a bit more dripping.
And then I had to wait another two days before it was cured enough to handle...
At which point I discovered that I had a couple of issues.
First off, there were a few areas near the edge of the table that were a bit rough still and were sunken in from the rest of the level top... It was in areas of the lighter "sap -wood" rather than the "heart-wood", and the more pourous wood had absorbed the epoxy slowly and by the time it had absorbed, the rest of the epoxy was too "set" to flow back into the area and fill the void.
The second issue was that there was a fine swirled sheen on the to p surface of the table... I figured it was just resuidue and that it would "wipe" off, but it wasnt...
On closer inspection I found that it was lots of tiny pinpoint bubbles. Now they were not there when I was watching it set and only appeared once I cleaned the table after three days of curing time!.. I suspect they were little bubbles of the hardener component of the epoxy because I had not mixed it quite well enough.
They were extremely small however and Im sure they would hve quite easily been dealt with by applying a furniture wax on the table top. But that wouldnt fix the rough areas from the other problem, so I decided that a second coat of the epoxy was in order. So, a week later I went through the whole process one more time ... at a cost of about another $100 :)
And this time the finish was much better.
So, I left the epoxy cure for another week and then turned the table over (no mean feat to do by my-self !) and then I varnished the back side just to seal it so that humidity changes effect both the top and bottom surfaces in the same way... So there will be no warping :)
And now the table top is done.
I moved it out into the dining area where it is sitting on-top of a smaller dining table that I had.
Im really pleased with how it has turned out, and Im looking forward to finishing the project next Spring/Summer by building the legs for it :)
