Wow, that table is beautiful! Great work, Brian, and thanks for sharing the process with us!

Very nicely done.

I like the bewbies in the closeup pic. Some of the live edge slabs have similar protrusions but that are very sharp and hard. I'll try to snap a photo the next batch I come across.

I had a few questions about spalted lumber.
Spalting is the growth of a fungus before the log is milled. The colorations can be muted or intense, sharp black lines between areas of different species of fungi are especially desired in some of the NW species, especially Alders and Maples.
If left to spalt too long, it becomes rot.

Spalting: highly desired by some.
Rot : Not so much.

Lightly spalted wood has almost all of its original strength, heavily spalted wood is more decorative and should not span too far. Have to go by your judgment on the condition and strength of your pieces.

I was looking for a spalted piece to show one of the looks.



Damnit, had some more on this but have some work jerking at my chain.

Neat

So here is the thing. Don't cheap out on sanding belts. I am major damned pissed right now. Don't fking want to type about it.

Cheaping out often comes back to pork you in the rear

This Maple gave me the toughest opening challenge. I have never before had a log sit on the mill for 2-3 days while I tried to figure out the best first cut.

Spoiler: show

But I finally pulled the trigger on it, and here she is in 5 thick slabs, with one thick top slab that can have another 1-2 slabs out for smaller projects, like a coffee table or end table.
These are between 2.5" and 3" thick, and 6'2" long.

Spoiler: show

I had to vary the thickness to try to get the cut path through the best burls.

Spoiler: show

The bark sides are on the 2 on the left. The 2nd Maple from left still weighs about 200 pounds, probably 2 more slabs in there. The Maple on the right is the 5th full slab. 5 between 2.5" and 3" thick and 2 end caps still to be monkeyed with.

The Black Walnut boards came from this:

Spoiler: show

That is a chunk of B Walnut that has been hanging around here for 20 years.
When I started in on it, it was 14" x 17.5" x 6'2" long.

Spoiler: show

Resawing that Black Walnut cant 17.5" thick was the most tedious cutting that I have done. What a pain in the patooty. It was kiln dried, then set aside for a later project 'lo those many years ago, and that bugger was HARD. I had to resharpen my blade at least every two slices, and they took a long time.
The sawdust pile is interesting. If you cut into it like a cake, there are very sharp layers of bright white yellowish and dark purplish brown. Looks like a layer cake. Occasionally one finds a "My Little Pony" or Unicorn in there.

Spoiler: show

A fun thing happened today. The bee guy came by to play in the hives, and he stopped to visit on his way out. Well, he doesn't have a very good containment system for his honey, because he left a 5 foot wide streak of drippings from the front of the bed of his pickup, and the yellow jackets were swarming.
After he left I got back to milling... and the yellow jackets were so thick that I saw something for the first time- a yellow jacket fly into the saw blade and get cut in two pieces. When I'm milling I am paying very close attention to the blade as I move through the log, so I got to watch it kind of hovering, then zip into the blade. Kinda cool.

Wow.... That Maple log was beautiful...and those Black Walnut slabs? I am at a loss for Words.

Beautiful.

The pain and suffering that went into those B Walnut boards ...
The one circled in red was cut while my blade was starting to dive, and I nursed that dull blade through that rock hard monster with it on the edge of popping off the wheels the whole time. The surface circled in green is what they are supposed to look like. I wish it was more common than it is.


I had a lot bigger English walnut to do right afterwards, and as I finished the last cut on the B Walnut I looked over at the E Walnut and actually verbalized "No F'ing way"
The E Walnut was halved, then cut into 12' long 5, 6 and 7/4 x 8.5" lumber, and even that 8.5" cut width was making me work with how hard those cants had gotten. The E Walnut had a lot more defect in it too, so there wasn't as much worth in trying to cut 17.5" wide.

Amazing. It will take a bit more finish work for the Red Slab, but they both are Beautiful. I love Dark grained Wood, but contrasting colors in a Slab is what turns me on.

I had some redwood once from an old Picnic table i sawed and then planed out was exceptional. That gold lines through the grain was amazing. Wish i still had some, i made some Longboard Skate boards out if it back when we were on Strike in 08.

That was some Pretty Wood. You don't have any Redwood.....Do you?

You cupped your Slab?

No. In fact, I have most of the "natural" cup all gone. No....I bought some well reviewed 4X24 belts from Amazon. Got off to a great start with these belts, the 80, 100, 120, 150 grit seams are good. In fact they are great sanding belts. But the 220, 320, 400 absolutely suck! They almost all have a glue hump or two at the seam, and also after just a few minutes to 10 minutes of sanding the seam will fail. Use the finer grits at your own risk. It's almost like there are two actual manufacturers, if I look at the marking - the coarse grits have directional arrows, the fine grits don't. Different stuff printed on them....

I will need to resand a cedar slab now and the project is halted. I was almost complete TWICE and the seam failed. And make these small barely perceptible saucer divots about the size of a dime.....the last time was with 400 grit, final pass................faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

I prefer to use an orbital sander for most sanding duty. I only use a belt sander on the ugliest of surfaces.

https://www.amazon.com/Makita-BO5031K-5 ... B002FJYE0G

Good idea!!

Hey I have the same orbital sander. On hindsight, yep. But frankly I've been doing fine with the belt sander, clearing with a stick frequently - until these belts: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07 ... UTF8&psc=1

I have a 3" Porter Cable and 4" Makita belt sander. I also think the steel plate is not that great on the Makita. It has some hot spots. I ordered a new plate and the Makita carbon plate. Cheapie belts and a lousy plate = crap.

I don't, but Pablo's table made me start keeping my eye out for Cedar and Redwood like that. delliottg hauled up some Cedar that had that very striking contrast between the heartwood and sapwood. It was like milk and dark honey. I kind of hated to say goodbye to it, but it's in good hands now.


That's a good reminder to me about online reviews. I have read some reviews that seem to be for a completely different product than what I purchased, as far as quality and satisfactory performance.
I'm left with thinking that the reviewer is any of these :
1. clueless as to what and how the product should function
2. trying to justify to himself that he wasn't "taken" (a form of confirmation bias)
3. a fake reviewer writing bogus and fatuous praise of a lousy product.

I hope that you will review those 220 grit and up sanding belts!
I've had a few belts break near the end of that stage of a job, usually putting a nice gouge or 10 in the work surface.
What a joy!
There's almost always a little "thump thump thump" before the break , but it sounds like that glue lump that you are describing might have masked that imminent break. Fack.



I think of belt sanders as fast, coarse removal for large surfaces and orbital sanders as finish sanders.
Is an orbital sander a reasonable alternative for the first few grits using a belt sander on a big slab? I've never tried that... To my way of thinking, it seems like using a finishing hammer to drive a wedge into a piece of firewood.
That's coming from someone who has never tried it, so forgive the "old dog new tricks" thingy please.

I just roughed in a old growth doug fir slab that is about 52 inches wide and 8 feet long with my Makita orbital.

The hook and loop kind, not the square clamp the paper in style. I never thought they were cool until I was helping a friend restore a boat and he had one. It would cut very aggressively compared to the old square clampy style.

But don't get a crappy one. I helped a neighbor with his deck and I recommended he get one. He went and got a Black and Decker one. It sucked, shook my hand to sleep and got very hot and didnt cut very fast at all. Get the better Milwaukee or Makita ones. Get the more expensive of the two models that each offer and you will be happy. And dont buy papper for them at the Harbor frfeight, get good 3M stuff or Mak/Mil stuff.

Keepit off of corners and don't tip it up and use the edge. Flat sand only.