Epoxy Coffee Table with Walnut Slabs and LEDs

Hi, I'm Caleb, if you can do this. In this video I will be making this LED

coffee

table

under this

table

for a viewer who reached out to order it after watching my

epoxy

charcuterie boards video to help keep costs down. I try to create a design from things I had in the store with some Photoshop magic. I was able to come up with a few concepts and one really caught his attention. Now it's time to start cutting using the Photoshop mockup as a guide. Lay out my cuts and start dividing the

slabs

into the three main pieces of the table.

The large slab had a split that created a pretty obvious place to finish splitting it instead of using a planer sled. I thought I'd try a different technique. to get the faces flat and parallel, although these

slabs

are larger than my jointer, it's quite simple, just join them together until there is a reasonably flat point, the long slab was barely wider than my jointer and there was only a sliver left and jointed, so I was able to finish it with a hand plane. The wider slab though needed a different approach. I was able to get a large reference area flat on it, so with the help of some hot glue I attached it to a flat board and then I started sending that through the planer, this is still basically a planer sled, but at the same time first get a flat spot at the joint that was big enough to safely support this lab, I don't have to mess around trying to fit a slab that's all crooked, which is always a little annoying for me once I get it. the upper floor.

I continue forward and leave the slab. I thought a spatula was going to work, but when it didn't, I switched to a trick my metallurgist buddy Richard taught me, which is simply a swipe. I drove it with a hammer and you know what worked, then I turned it over and sent it through the planer until the side I had partially joined together before came out flat and parallel to the top and off camera, I also planed the other slabs down. until all three were the same thickness, then I could go find materials for the forum. Come on?

Where do you want to go? You are excited? So my Home Depot doesn't sell three quarter inch melamine and these are my options so I usually like to shop. full size sheets because they are much cheaper and I cut them, but since it's all wet, the MDF part wouldn't get as hot in there, so even though Home Depot isn't evaluating my options, I did some research over the phone and found out that These marker boards are actually melamine that

epoxy

doesn't adhere to and also doesn't have all the bumps of particle board melamine that you normally see, but it's very flimsy so I just used a little bit of CA Star Bond glue to attach it to a sheet of MDF and then I trim any edges that wouldn't fit to make the short sides of my table saw, so I put on some blue tape to minimize tearing and then use a rip drill bit. flush on my router to level the ends of the bottom of the form now.

To design for the final cutout and get these pieces to fit on the form, luckily it's as easy as just placing them on the form and marking the lines. I couldn't find the ruler I normally use to guide my circular. saw, so I went ahead and used my chain saw to make all these cuts right on the lines. These are the same results. I just think this was a little quicker than using a ruler and a circular saw and there we go, now those pieces fit together. Its spot is better than almost all the cars in the parking lot of my local Walmart.

I just need to cut some strips to wrap around the edges of the form to form the walls of the form. That's a lot of forms because sometimes I'm smart, I thought. It would be a good idea to make sure the epoxy doesn't stick well to the marker, the CA glue stuck and the epoxy doesn't come off, so I started taping the form together. Fortunately, I have plenty of tape left over from when the epoxy plates? Speaking of quite a few people, I have been asked about using tapes other than duct tape if you have experience with that or would be interested in me making a video on what epoxy sticks to and what it doesn't, let me know in the comments next now that I need to buy more tape to tuck in I can start attaching the sides to the bottom, there won't be much pressure on these and like me they are quite short so I just attached them with lots of brad nails.

If you think this will leak like you forgot to shake it before closing it, you're right, but a little silicone will fix that first. I just need to make a small tool to smooth out the silicone, a dowel stuck into my drill. a little sandpaper fixes it quickly, but before I start the silicone II, as an added insurance, I take the sock out of my store, you can identify it by the old wax buildup on the toe and I'm missing wax all over the way, now I can start going to bed. Silicone to seal all the corners It's been a while since I used caulk and I was very pleased to see that my technique was still pretty good.

Look how that beetus is composed. I also chose almonds instead of white putty. I thought that was how it would be. It will be easier to see against the TUC tape and it looks like once I went all the way around I used the modeling tool I just made to smooth out the putty. Here it is important to use the sock to keep the toe clean. Silicone is quite sticky. and I don't want that to get everywhere I didn't start without you okay good news and bad news good news you're right I did bad news you're right I did and it's not Netflix so we can't rewind but I'll zoom in so You can enjoy how satisfying this is.

So I decided to check the epoxy again and realized that before I made the stupid mistake of not letting it fully cure, this stuff actually jumps off the board, so all that. the tape was unnecessary anyway, time to load the form, except my boards won't fit well in the corners now that they're siliconed, but just a few strokes with a hand plane will add enough chamfer to take care of that, but Before start mixing epoxy, need to know how much to mix. I came up with a clever way to find out from a photo and posted a video that has that technique and three other techniques for estimating volume, so hit the card above.

If you want to check it out, as you probably know, wood floats and epoxy is actually denser than water, so it actually tends to float, so I have it attached. I like to take the excess epoxy, important, these little silicone molds that I have. to make these discs that are very useful for that and I also raised my mold a little off my work table to have room for the clamps. Now I just need to level it out and we'll be ready to pour and it's time to mix. lots of epoxy. I start with four liters and end up having to mix a little more.

I'm using a full thick pot, which is perfect because this pour is almost an inch thick and this material is best at a half inch to 1 inch thickness. pores and yes as you can see I heard you and I put my respirator on while I was working with this stuff, once it was pretty mixed I added a little bit of black diamond deep blue marine pigment and a little bit of battleship gray pigment and then I moved on . Mix and mix and mix, you don't want to overmix the epoxy, seriously, it's bad and now for the part that doesn't need any more words, a few days later it's safe to unmold this.

The question is can I do it safely. I hope the tape and wax don't let me down after I cut the tape off the corners. I can try removing the sides. Fortunately, it's going great. These Ides are a little higher than the table, so I can knock them down. and away with a hammer and then peeled off the charcuterie boards. I knew that breaking the seal between the bottom of the form and the bottom of the table was going to be the really difficult part once I realized that my delicate biscuits were not strong enough. I tried some really stupid shenanigans and then luckily realized that a spatula would probably be a clever way to do it and it was embarrassing how easy it worked.

Oh man, this is going to look good. This right here was an exciting moment. First time top I knew sanding this was going to be a chore so I asked a friend of mine if he would let me borrow his new frame setup to see if it lives up to the hype and I can make this easier and for some dumb reason he lent it to me, the most important thing I'm supposed to see is excellent dust collection and super long life of the abrasives and a big part of that are these mesh discs that let the dust through much better than normal paper. because hey, it's a mesh, it works great on the small spots on the bottom, but I knew the real test would be the hours I'd spend sanding on the top.

One thing I really liked is that it is quiet and comfortable enough to do so. going into full lazy mode, which I enjoy doing, and catching up on some YouTube videos while sanding and, almost unbelievably, I was able to say that all the epoxy seeping from the top with a single 40 grit mesh was the only thing that would have done. This would be better if I used some penetrating epoxy on the bark before pouring it because the bark is much softer than all the surrounding material, so I had to be very careful not to sand indentations in the bark while trying to sand.

In the surrounding areas, of course, there was some air trapped in the pour which created little cavities when I sanded them, but they were easy to fix with a little star bond and a little activator and a little more sanding. There were some leaks on the sides. of the table, so I trimmed the long sides with the table saw and for the short sides the chain saw made quick work. If this didn't work as well and much faster than my circular saw, I might be motivated to do it. Try to find the ruler where my circular saw probably won't happen, although one detail I really like is a chamfer on the underside of a table, it helps lighten the feel of a table to do this, I just used a trim router with a chamfer bit.

To do this and two passes, luckily epoxy responds very well to the router so never be afraid of that, another need on epoxy and hardwood is to break up the sharp edges as they are very sharp. I usually use plain paper or hand sandpaper. but I thought this would be a good test for the murki so I scaled it down completely and gave it a try and I was impressed with the amount of control I had and the dust collection again and since I will be using water. -On this finish I made sure to pop the grain with water to make it blurry and sanded it again off camera as with any open grain wood like this, which is important to remember before finishing, not just cleaning the dust. but I also use air to blow the dust out of the grain pores that the metal might have settled into, but before I add any finish I'll try this little run or run.

I don't know how to say it, compact laser, the best equipment, which I do. You know how to say it sent me to try and make a small engraving on the underside of the table for the client for less than 200 dollars. This is a great way to customize the pieces and I really like being able to set them up pretty well. Anything I want to record they didn't pay me, they just sent it to me to try out, but so far I'm really enjoying it. To finish this, I'm going a little off script. I want to add some warmth to the table, but I don't want to muddy the blue with an amber finish on top, so I took some Total Halcyon and diluted it about 60/40 with water, which is a lot more than they recommend, and I applied it generously to the wood I cared for. so as not to apply too much epoxy and after giving it a little time to set I wipe off the excess.

Halcyon is not a water-based wipe-clean finish. The Poly's just aren't, but by diluting it more I was able to get the color to penetrate the wood but it won't penetrate the epoxy and then when I clean it up I won't leave any amber haze in the epoxy but I will get the warmth and

walnut

color that wanna. that twice before giving it an hour to dry and then I cover everything with Halcyon total clear for boats, this will build up the protective film on anything and bring back the shine of the epoxy, but without changing any of the color tones of course , I need something to put this table on so it's time to work on the base the base is an open cube just twelve pieces four pieces that are three different dimensions.

I make them by measuring and cutting one piece and then using that piece to mark and cut the rest that I broke off. However, my hacksaw blade the other day was out of spare, so I thought I'd use my portable band saw, of course, angle grinder would have worked too. This actually gives me pretty consistent results, as you can see, but some of them still weren't. It's as consistent as I wanted, so I use the diskcut and grind that Milner Hoffman sent me to level them and then I use the same disc to polish the bevels in pieces to make room for the solder filler.

The amazing thing about these discs is that if you ever wear out or break one in any way, they will send you another one for free. I don't make enough money to have any luck getting things even close to square on my own, so I invested a little in this minion fireball square set to help out. For me this is the first time I've tried them, my dog ​​wasn't any help and I held them down but once I held them down they definitely worked as advertised and kept the pieces from moving out of position when the solder cooled .

I don't know enough about soldering yet to share much but I can get an interesting video so here it is and if you're having trouble soldering things Square consider trying them out, they definitely helped me. The first thing I soldered were both. rectangles that will be the ends before going any further, I polished my welds using the grinder and disc to hog most of the material and then a flap disc to mix it up, then I switched to a quick strip disc and set about removing the scale, this is the metal working equivalent of sanding, except there isn't any interesting tool yet that will make it quiet and dust-free, but now I'm ready to clamp the long stretchers.

Down to the final rectangles and to attach this base, I use the Minion squares to get the first two long racks on both rectangles, but for the last two pieces I just use some magnets to hold them in place and a square to make sure they stay together. Realign them before soldering at this point, there isn't much room for them to move so this is enough to attach the top to the base. I ordered some premade lashes from Amazon, my mini magnets did a great job of holding them up. into place and I just apply them and of course polish my nasty welds.

Now to finish the base I use some epoxy appliance paint after cleaning the entire base with denatured alcohol again. This has worked great for me and goes on quickly and is really scratch resistant for the price, the last finishing touch on the base is to put some plugs that will act as feet in the bottom corners and now to join the two into one, I will use those tabs on the bases to locate the position of the bottom of the table. A punch helps me make sure my drill bit doesn't stray and then I make a hole to the proper depth for my threaded insert.

It would be nice to screw the base to the top, especially since something like this is unlikely to ever come apart, but when someone spends a couple grand on a table, I feel like touches like this are part of the kind of quality that should follow , then the base can be placed back on the table and installed. I use 1024 inserts. So some 1024 bolts with washers are perfect deltad all together. The last finishing touch is to add some LED strips to the bottom. I thought it would be best to just place them on the bottom of the table so the top could be easily removed from the base without anything. connecting them to facilitate changing batteries.

I attach the battery packs to the bottom with velcro. I could have run both LED strips on a single battery pack but the battery life would have been greatly reduced and both strips will respond to a single remote control so I think this was the way to go, the LEDs ended up bleeding through the epoxy more than I thought and the strips were super obvious so I moved them to the frame and also velcroed the sensors so everything can be removed from the bottom of the cop quickly and there you have it, now it's time to take some glamorous photos anyway.

I hope you are inspired, learn something or at least entertain yourself, if you think I've earned it, make sure to hit the subscribe button, then the bell and Until next time, take some time to do something you love.