Has anyone made or even seen....,.

Re: Has anyone made or even seen....,.

John K Jordan

I don't know anything specific about the river tables but a I'm suspicious of the long-term stability. I've seen epoxy fill on smaller things (woodturnings) that over time broke loose from the wood and even became proud of the surface, from seasonal movement of the wood I suspect.

Fortunately, I'll probably never have to worry about it since I personally don't like the look.

JKJ

Considering I'm a huge fan of George Nakashima,

Dick Coers

I find that style of table quite repulsive. Also the idea of a gob of plastic "representing nature" adds another strike to the count. Strike three comes for the concerns of wood movement, resin shrinkage, air bubbles, surface scratching during use, and interaction of wet wood with some types of resins. Just nest the two slabs closely together and add some butterflies to tie them together. Forget the goo!

Re: Considering I'm a huge fan of George Nakashima

Barry Irby

I am inclined to agree with you on all counts.

Even the ones with a strip of glass carefully crafted to match all the twists and turns bother me. I see the glass as being very fragile and irreplaceable. I am sure it would get some crumbs or other crud under the edges and when they tried to remove it to clean it, it would break.

I am also a fan of Nakashima's work. I have seen a little of it in person.

Well, Barry,

Bruce, a MN Galoot

Consider this your invitation to Minnesota. The library at the MN Landscape Arboretum is furnished with custom Nakashima pieces. They are spectacular!

I’ll even spring for a frosty one if you show up!

Boats

Jerry Gibbs

Wood boats are coated with epoxy and some kind of cloth all the time. Sometimes the epoxy is on the outside and often on both sides. WEST system has lots of free technical advice.

Re: Has anyone made or even seen....,.

Paul Blackwell

The current issue of Wood magazine has an article on how to do the river tables.

Re: Has anyone made or even seen....,.

Brian Holcombe

The original maker uses glass, I’m sure that’s for the wood movement reasons in addition to looking nicer (in my opinion).

I feel the same way about these as ...

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

... someone adding steel legs to a door and referring to it as a table.

Or, glueing blocks of wood as legs to a slab and believing it is the same as something by Nakashima.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: I feel the same way about these as ...

John K Jordan

>>>... someone adding steel legs to a door and referring to it as a table.

Behind my barn I used a table top as a door. Does that count?

JKJ

How about posted to Pinterest? 

The old fashion way...

Clint Searl

I made this table around '83 from a pair of book matched slabs of cocobolo. A local glass shop hand cut the center piece to my pattern, which I then used as a pattern to route the inset for the glass. Over the years, the infill pieces of wood at either end shrank enough across the grain to seize the glass too tightly to allow its removal. We are careful to cover the table in use to prevent crumbs and gravy from getting between the glass and wood. Been lucky so far.

Re: The old fashion way...

John K Jordan

Seems like something related to the sealing method used on automobile and aircraft windshields might be useful.

Nice pun

AZ in Colorado Springs

It's the "current rage" to build a river table.

Re: Bar tops?

Larry Clinton At Frankfort, (Central) Indiana

Several years ago there was a trend to cover bar top in taverns with some sort of clear coating (epoxy?), over wooden tops that allowed the insertion of coins - memorabilia - other items under the epoxy surface. Don't know exactly what the thickness of the coating was but had to be at least a 1/4".

It did seem to hold up without cracking and covered the entire surface edge to edge. Also when I built a new home in about 1963, there was an option offered for the kitchen floor for a transparent pour-able surface over a finished floor. I didn't go that way but it seemed to be fairly popular at that time. No idea how it held up!

Re: The old fashion way...

Barry Irby

Nice table. That's kind of what I thought. The wood would shrink and seize the glass or worse yet, break it. If you left enough space around it to be sure the glass woudl not be strpped, it would be a heck of a job to keep the crumbs and gravy out. I guess you could at least lift it out to clean.