Turning lemons into lemonade

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The epoxy centre would be a great way to prevent expensive wine glasses from slipping into the chasm of death.

HOWEVER! The blue (al la a river) would not be my choice.
I'd go for something more organic and related to the tree, so maybe a big "sap vein" in a clear honey tone? (or variant of "sap" tones).

Just my thoughts. Whatever you choose it has to suit you and Mrs A and I can't wait to see the final result.

I hear you - deciding this colour was one of the toughest things to be honest. Since you mentioned this, I've been looking for an example of this, but haven't been able to find anything to give me an idea how well it might work. If you have seen one, please provide a link or photo thanks.

Originally, I just wanted something clear enough to see the live edge, and with some black tint. But when you see a table made this way, it is...well...lifeless. It still looks great, but the epoxy detracts from the look IMO.



This is a bit better, but still rather lifeless...



We still want the wood to be the star of the show here, but also want a little pop in the river. Of course there are extremes, which we will not be going to...even though it looks cool, I feel it would be dated pretty quickly...



I sent this video to my table guy, asking for this "midnight blue" that this company uses. It's not an "in your face" blue like the one above, but it's not completely lifeless like the black. The link should take you to about 16 minutes in, where they are unwrapping the table...


When viewed from below as they move and assemble the table, the blue looks quite prominent, but when viewed from above as they are wiping down the table, it's much more subtle.

What was interesting is that when we were at the shop, we were shown some really funky orange pigment. I couldn't imagine anyone wanting it. But then he showed us a top made with it, and it looked almost like amber and it really worked with the wood they used...so things often turn out very different than you first imagine they will.

We are in a way, trying to keep it a neutral as possible, so that we don't have to be tired to a particular colour scheme in the rest of the immediate area.
 
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We are in a way, trying to keep it a neutral as possible, so that we don't have to be tired to a particular colour scheme in the rest of the immediate area.

Have you thought about how you'll use the table too? How will the things you put on it work with it? Sort of like having neutral white wall paint or furniture but decorating with splashes of color from paintings or pillows, etc... Your dishes might be the color that brings it to life.

Then again, you may be thinking you will see the table bare more often so you would like color, in which case the dishes might be neutral.

The amber is very intriguing.

Hard to imagine it not being stunning, whatever color you choose.
 
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Having looked at a number of these, I think I like black resin best. It makes the wood be the star of the show. For example:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/113258...-1-2&pro=1&frs=1&sts=1&organic_search_click=1
il_794xN.3550649054_3tck.jpg
 
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If you search "resin wood table" in YouTube, a few shades of blue appear. Might give you some idea. I'm sure you probably have already, though.
 
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And what about amber résine ?
Something like that :

this is still neutral, somehow naturally alive and matching the wood/nature spirit of your adventure. At least in my opinion.
Whatever you chose I’ll be happy to see the result, I’m sure it will look good.
 
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Well, small update. We have a decision on the epoxy colour - more on that when the table is done and I can show you photos. Right now their surfacing machine is down, so they are waiting for spare parts, which is taking a long time. They are hoping to have the table ready sometimes in the next month or so...

But that's not why I'm posting. My wife's brother and his wife just finished a 5 week trip trough Europe, and made their 6th week a stay with us before they headed back to Australia, so I've taken some time off for that. We were hoping that they would be here to see the epoxy pour being done, but again the broken surfacing machine has caused a delay. But they were able to finish a Charcuterie board that we had made as a gift for them, so we picked that up at the shop last week, and I snapped these photos before it was packed away in their luggage:



Other side:



The wine coloured epoxy is not what our final colour is, but my wife thought if you are having some cheese, meat and red wine, it would be a good colour for this board. The finish is simply mineral oil, that's it, so this gives you a small preview of what our finished table is likely to look like. These are just iPhone photos I took in the sun on the back deck. This is a very figured area of the tree, but we will have a lot of this in out table when it's done, so I weas pretty pleased with what I am seeing so far.

I have to say this board was nice enough we wanted to keep it, but we have plenty of other wood to use up, so in addition to the table we are getting pricing on a series of floating shelves, and also a replacement top for our small telephone table near the garage entrance to the house.

But the priority is the table, and hopefully I'll be able to show you that in a month or so!

Cheers, Al
 
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^
Really nice : glad for you. You'll have a great & meaningful piece of furniture, keep us posted.
 
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Very nice. I hope you'll share a short video when it's done to show how the grain reflects the light at different angles. A "wrist roll" of sorts for the table.
 
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I abhor removing trees, but sometimes it's necessary. We had a monster oak removed. This tree was so big around that my daughter, wife, and I could not join hands and encircle it. 100+ feet tall, still producing acorns, but it had started to lean. The tree professionals took a look and confirmed it was dead on the inside and just a matter of time until it came down. We had them remove it and what we saw was frightening. The entire inside was rotted and bug-infested with just a couple inches of live wood around the outside. I bet this tree saw the Revolutionary War and it killed me to see it go.

A similar situation occurred at a house we looked at buying but eventually passed on. The new owners did a glorious job of cleaning up the property and restoring the huge house to its former glory. It's a "Laker" house, stucco exterior, giant wrap-around porch, and lots of large old growth trees all over the generous (for this neighborhood) lot. I bet they poured over half a million into the restoration/renovation but the result was awesome. That first winter after the year-long renovation the giant oak they chose to leave in and trim came down on the house. Cleaved the house in half! Back to the drawing board - another six months of repair. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and remove old trees.
 
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I abhor removing trees, but sometimes it's necessary.

I agree - I have removed at least 50 trees from my property over the years. The majority were ash trees affected by the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive beetle that has devasted ash populations over a wide portion of Eastern North America. I've removed other trees that were dead or dying, trees that were leaning dangerously, trees that were hindering other trees, etc. Managing the trees we have is an ongoing project, as anyone with a significant number of trees on their property understands (or sometimes learns the hard way).

The two trees removed in this situation were not removed out of necessity, but for a developer's greed.
 
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Bastard developers, it would be only fair to fell them with a chainsaw, but for some strange reason under the law they’re a protected species.
A jihad on developers……. The greedy pricks come into an area, bugger it up and piss off with their profits leaving the locals to put up with extra traffic, increased demand for services and some bloody awful shoddily built eyesore blotting the landscape.

For some reason that I can’t quite fathom, there has been a trend here in Oz that whenever a house is demolished in order to build a new one, every part of the existing garden is removed, not so much as a blade of grass left standing.
Leaving the site a wasteland.
Right up to the fence lines, indeed the fences are undermined by the excavations and collapse.
Now I understand that some clearance is needed to do foundations, drainage and services, but they even take out the bits of the garden well away from the construction, leaving the new residents to live in mud and filth until they can get a garden established, which always takes years.
Maybe it would be better to have some shade from existing trees, and some grass and shrubs to kick start the new garden, anything that isn’t wanted can be removed as you go.
 
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....................... I snapped these photos before it was packed away in their luggage..........

I hope they're aware of the quarantine requirements when they come back Al. It shouldn't be a problem but if they get a cranky inspector whose having a bad day, fingers crossed.
 
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Bastard developers, it would be only fair to fell them with a chainsaw, but for some strange reason under the law they’re a protected species.
A jihad on developers……. The greedy pricks come into an area, bugger it up and piss off with their profits leaving the locals to put up with extra traffic, increased demand for services and some bloody awful shoddily built eyesore blotting the landscape.

For some reason that I can’t quite fathom, there has been a trend here in Oz that whenever a house is demolished in order to build a new one, every part of the existing garden is removed, not so much as a blade of grass left standing.
Leaving the site a wasteland.
Right up to the fence lines, indeed the fences are undermined by the excavations and collapse.
Now I understand that some clearance is needed to do foundations, drainage and services, but they even take out the bits of the garden well away from the construction, leaving the new residents to live in mud and filth until they can get a garden established, which always takes years.
Maybe it would be better to have some shade from existing trees, and some grass and shrubs to kick start the new garden, anything that isn’t wanted can be removed as you go.

It's the same pricks that do " development " here in New Zealand.
The same also applies to people who Flip realestate.
Just had the house next door sold to a flipper who " Renovated " it.
It was a lovely very well maintained textured ( porous effect) burned charcoal brick house, very attractive, they painted the frickin bricks white FFS, along with all the exterior wood work, now looks like a cheap arse council flat.
All the carpets which were new, as was the new kitchen were ripped out and replaced with cheap loop pile carpets and a flat pack crap kitchen.
They painted the nice light coloured internal feature wooden wall panels stark white, the same with the old wallpaper, no prep just painted showing every flaw in the paper surface, looked like shit ( white shit).
They told me when I queried their project house that it would improve the look and increase the value with the knock on effect of increasing my value.
Last laugh was on them as the house would not sell ( painted brick FFS) and eventually they had to quit it at a huge financial loss, the new owners are moving in today as I type this.
Edited:
 
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I hope they're aware of the quarantine requirements when they come back Al. It shouldn't be a problem but if they get a cranky inspector who’s having a bad day, fingers crossed.

As long as there is no bark and they declare it 👍👍
No issues
 
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As long as there is no bark and they declare it 👍👍
No issues

There were no issues - they are already back and it went fine. It has been stripped of bark, kiln dried, and finished.
 
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There were no issues - they are already back and it went fine. It has been stripped of bark, kiln dried, and finished.

Noticed it was debarked 😉

(more of a comment for Jim)

Offer for a knife handle still stands 👍
 
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Ready for the epoxy pour...



Cracks are simply opportunities for a few "Dutchman" repairs...



What is this crazy colour?



Pumkin Latte...really?