Tying up loose ends.

The leg after the initial attempt at filling the split.

In a previous post I documented the process of using epoxy to fill a crack in one of the legs on the Shaker side table.  While the crack was filled on one face, the results on the adjoinging face were less than satisfactory. 

 Living in coastal North Carolina and not having air conditioning in my shop (my garage) meant taking a break from woodworking until the temperature and humidity in the garage dropped to sub-tropical levels.  The only thing to do was head to the Outer Banks and enjoy kayak fishing near Cape Hatteras.

 Now that temperatures are starting to drop I'm able to get in and finish up the table.  Fixing the split leg was the obvious first step to completing the project.  After that comes a light sanding and a magic application of boiled linseed oil.

For my previous patch I added black walnut sawdust from my tablesaw to the epoxy to help color the filler and add some texture.  I wasn't happy with the coarseness of the sawdust and decided to try something else for the second attempt. 

Black Walnut dust from my random-orbit sander.

 In the photo to the left you can see the dust I removed from the collector on my random-orbit sander (ROS).  It's much finer and colored the epoxy more evenly while leaving it somewhat transparent, acting somewhat like a powdered dye.



Sixty minute epoxy mixed with the fine sanding
 dust makes for a nice looking filler.

I prepared a small amount of 60-minute epoxy and poured in some of the dust, stirring it in until the mixture was evenly mixed.  A small piece of wood used as a spatula allowed me to apply a liberal coating of the epoxy mixture to the two faces affected by the split.  After 10 or 15 minutes I applied a little more in a couple of areas that had developed cavities as the epoxy was drawn into the split.



   

The leg with epoxy applied.  The dark spot is where additional
filler was applied to fill a cavity.



After allowing a day or three for the epoxy to cure, I'll carefully remove the extra filler and see if the patch was successful. 

In the mean time, tomorrow is the first day of rockfish (Striped Bass) season and there is still fishing to be enjoyed.







  



New posts coming soon...

I know I haven't updated this blog in quite a while as I've been spending almost every weekend kayak fishing near Cape Hatteras, NC.  As the beach season slows down I'll have more time to woodwork.  The heat in the garage won't be unbearable in a few more weeks either.

I have to finish the Shaker table, build a couple of picture frames, and start work on some type of workbench to make building all this stuff easier.  If you read my earlier posts you'll see how I had to improvise quite a bit to hold work while using hand tools.  Hopefully a new bench will make it a lot easier.