Large cracks?

[DoctorWu]

Anyone have advice regarding the filling of large defects and cracks in timber ie. slabs. In the past I've used a good quality epoxy glue and wood dust but it always seems to take on the appearance of milky caramel. Hmm? Anyone tried polyester resin and wood dust? Jeff

[Oddjob1]

G'day mate, try either builders bog or auto body filler.

Cheers Oddjob1

[DoctorWu]

G'day mate, try either builders bog or auto body filler.

Cheers Oddjob1

I have, but in this case it's for clear finishes.

[ian]

I've used epoxy and oxides
at the time I could get several shades of brown, red, purple and carbon black

Mixed the oxides into the coloured portion of the epoxy to get the colour I wanted then added the clear epoxy component -- was using 5 min variety so didn't have the time to add colour to the mixed epoxy.

I heard of using spirit based stain or concentrated paint colours, but have not tried them.
If you use paint colours, get the oild based ones :)

[rustynail]

Coffee makes a good colouring agent. The amount used determins the colour.

[DoctorWu]

Coffee makes a good colouring agent. The amount used determins the colour.

I'll give that a try...Brazil or Colombian? Thanks.
Coffee doesn't work with epoxy. Not soluble but probably ok with water based finishes.

[steck]

I had good results using polyester resin colored black with Feast Watson Proof tint. If it's a big crack fill it in several stages. Make sure you stop the resin from flowing through by taping up the bottom of the piece of wood.
I regularly use coffee grounds to fill smaller cracks. They don't tint the resin but the bits of coffee beans help fill the crack. They get sanded back and finished along with the wood.

[Hermit]

I did a small wormhole repair on a piece of NG Rosewood the other day with epoxy and fine Jarrah dust and it came up better than using other sawdust - a nice blood-red colour.
(The red staining was already in the timber.)

Would look good in cracks, I think. Better than the worm tunnel.

[BobL]

I have, but in this case it's for clear finishes.

For clear finishes I use "casting resin".

[DoctorWu]

For clear finishes I use "casting resin".

Casting resin, do you mean polyester resin? There are conflicting views on polyester, the 'experts' say it doesn't bond to wood and yet all the wood 'bogs' are polyester based. I went off to get some the other day to try but was dissuaded by a tech adviser, so resorted once again to the epoxy and wood dust but this time added talc to reduce the colour shade. It's ok. Epoxy and wood dust always finishes up far darker than the original wood, which I don't really mind. I really just wanted to avoid that caramel toffee appearance.

[austermite]

I like just clear epoxy with no colouring agent. You can see into the wood and it makes a nice natural looking feature.
It looks alive - not dull. To me it can make natural splits and voids look like an artistic feature rather than a defect that's been been puttied up.

Regards

Gerard