Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Rustic pine slab table
Steve D, CT
I grabbed this slice from the side of the road to make a porch drinking table. I expect it to open up somewhere but don’t know where.
Should I wait for the split to put legs in it? I see small checks starting now, it’s been in the back of my car for the past week. If the split was there I would center two of the three legs around it.
I do have armor seal but don’t know if all of it would be removed when cleaning it up.
Re: Rustic pine slab table
1Keith Newton
If you can drill a fairly large hole down the center, this will reduce the risk of splitting. After it has dried you can go back and plug the hole.
Re: Rustic pine slab table
Steve D, CT
Interesting idea. Are you thinking 2”, 5”?
It’s easily 2 feet in diameter.
Re: Rustic pine slab table
1Keith Newton
2” might be enough, and 5” might be better except when you come back to fill it in it would be more obvious. I haven’t tried this on anything that large. A little while back I was out on a timber tract where the loggers had driven over a High-bush Hickleberry. I knew it was a tough wood that might make a good crude mallet, so brought some back to the shop. It was only about 3” D and I used 1/2” to bore out the pith. The 1/4” thick test piece didn’t check, so I drilled a couple and put them in a paper sack. A year later none had checked.
If your getting surface checks, you may need to slow the drying down. Find a cardboard box large enough to stand it on edge in and set it aside for a a few months.
Re: Rustic pine slab table
Barry Irby
Keith's idea might work, time will tell,
Shame you did not get two cookies. You could let them crack and take a pie shaped wedge f rom one to fix the other.
Your cookie appears to be about 6" thick. If you knew someone with a bandsaw mill they could slice it into two pieces and use them to do the pie shaped wedge thing. If you are skilled with a chainsaw you could do it but more problematic that with the bandsaw.
You could slice in from the rim to the pith and control where the crack occurs and make it nice and straight. This would relieve the stress and accelerate dry a bit.
Data
Bill Tindall, E.Tn.
This pine disk is a slice made in a cross cut saw contest. Two women cut it in about 7 seconds. Imagine how fast they could cut dovetails.
Green it was 19" diameter,shrank to 18.5. Circumference shrank 1". The stress from the circumference shrinking more than the diameter was relieved by the pie shaped crack.
I have never tried what you want to do. If I did I would make a 1/2" deep saw kerf on an edge and hope one pie shaped crack initiated at this stress point.
Coating the slab with a sealer makes no sense. It will slow or stop drying but that will not change the outcome. This situation is entirely different from drying lumber.
Re: Rustic pine slab table
Steve D, CT
I have an Alaskan mill and a 30" bar. If there is enough chain exposed I may be able to re-slice the cookie into two 3" slabs.
Re: Data
Steve D, CT
I don't expect the ArmorSeal to stop the big split but it may help with the small checks in the end grain where the moisture is leaving the wood quickly.
I do need to slow the drying. I may do a wash coat of shellac to slow the drying and avoid the waxy residue from the sealer.
My back can only move that a few more times before taking early retirement.
Replace the pie slice
Tom Dunlap
I've never tried to work with round cuts with cracks. Sometimes just by luck I've had some rounds dry without cracking. When I came across the tip to cut a radial relief cut to force the pie crack I knew that is the solution. Over the years I've seen a few repairs with this technique that were almost perfect.
Bill T came up with another idea with his dovetail comment.
Instead of trying to match the growth rings with a pie of the same tree choose another species of wood as the pie repair slice. Or use the same species/tree and change the grain orientation. Is the repair slice were thicker it could become something else...cup holder???
I'm not a fan of large area epoxy fills. Contrasting materials/grain do have some eye appeal though.
Re: Replace the pie slice
Bill Tindall, E.Tn.
That would be a novel and attractive way of dealing with a radial crack. I intend to try it on some piece of wood when the opportunity presents itself. I will saw a kerf to the center of the tree and hope the stress is all relieved at this point to open one pie shaped void to be filled with a contrasting wood. I'll bet poplar and walnut would be grand.
Re: Replace the pie slice
Tom Dunlap
My mind is racing with designs using a pie shaped 'fin'
Make a sled for planing a floor to ceiling 'fin' then slip on several slabs to become shelves. The base could be the stump cut of the tree. Make slabs that are progressively smaller diameters like the tree trunk. Even pieces of trunk with branch unions could be retained.
Re: Rustic pine slab table, another option...
Barry Irby
Cut the piece into two cookies. Slice each one with the radial cut Bill T And Tom D are discussing. Might even put in the radial cut before slicing the thick cookie to insure alignment. Let them dry and they will assume the shape Bill's picture showed. Finish slicing them in half, and then joint the edges of the two "big" halves and carefully glue them together to form a new, grain matched dry table top.
Or, insert a contrasting wedge into each and have a pair of tables.