fillings and finishings?

[timbertom]

hey team! :)

I'm back again with a series of ponderings and questions in regards to a new table top I've started gluing up which has raised a few 'new' issues for me as a budding amateur!

firstly, the table is made from messmate. it measures 2m x 1040mm x 60mm. its made up of 13 80mm wide sticks. thats right.. a lot of gluing! which is why I'm gluing in sections then will be joining 3 larger pieces.

as the title suggests, my first concern is to do with fillers. my joins are 95% perfect however there are a few spots between the boards where, because i couldn't see beyond the squeezed out glue, remains a 1mm or less wide gap after i cleaned up. can anybody recommend a specific filler for this type of issues and timber?

in addition to the above, and more broadly speaking, I've been reading lots of threads about you guys using watered down filler as a grain filler? should i consider this? how on earth can you get the same color as the timber? there are a number of open grains and splits in the timber, nothing bad, its recycled timber.

I've also just read something about sanding after applying danish oil can also act the same way..?? this may be useful as i plan on using danish oil as a finish. which leads me to my last question. i plan on using diggers casting resin to fill some larger holes. can danish oil be applied over the top?

thats it, i know there's a heap of questions up there so i apologise if its too many :-! i needed to get the queries out of my head!

timbertom.

[surfdabbler]

Just been through a similar experience. I was planning on using some epoxy resin to fill the largest holes in my slab, maybe 20mm around in the centre, with radiating cracks. However, after testing on a scrap, I decided that cedar wood filler looked all right, and I figured if I really didn't like it in the end, I would route out the fill and put in an inlay from cut-offs of the original timber. I did use an inlay on one of the end cracks, and it looks great.

Anyway, I believe epoxy resin should be fine with Danish Oil. Lots of people seem to use it, and you can mix some sawdust into it to match the wood colour. The Danish Oil won't soak into the resin, and will just wipe off afterwards. You might find that the resin is shinier than the Danish Oil, but you can buff back the resin with wet-dry paper or steel wool.

Wet-sanding with the Danish Oil is often done to fill the grain. To fill 1mm wide gaps will take a lot of wet-sanding though. If you have some sawdust, maybe you can pour it onto the table-top with the danish oil, and push it into the cracks!

I had some trouble with the danish oil finish going dull in spots after wet-sanding, but I think this depends on your wood. I've heard it's more an issue with softer woods, and mine is extremely figured, so you might not have this issue with yours.

[Jerry Thompson]

Timber Mate has worked well for me. It is water basted, it comes in colors including white which accepts dyes/stains, drys fairly fast and sands great. All that and made in Austrailia!