New project with belt sander

[zakthor]

I had this table made 23 year ago and its probably dry by now, time to give it a nice surface.

Ive got no clue except internet reading.

Bought this giant belt sander on ebay and the rare frame that was made for it. Supposed to make it more difficult to mess up. Is weird you cant buy a new belt sander with s sanding frame in the us.

Ive got to take 2-3/32nds off the top of the table to remove the pits and scratches.

Starting with the benches since theyre pretty nasty tops filled with course sawdust glue

I got an 80grit belt and its fast enough for now. I stop clean and remeasure every minute or so, but i expect itll go faster once ive some time in. I thought the benches were flat but with my straight edge im now making them actually flat. At some pount ill move up in grits until it stops mattering. Not sure how shiny teak can get with sanding.

Not sure about finish. Probably just oil. The guy i bought it from ran a beers and sausages stand across the street from the neka myseum in ubud. Lots of spilled beer and pork grease and the wood looked great to me.

Id appreciate any advice except im not goong to do this with a hand plane.

[masraum]

I've got no advice. There are lots of other guys that can offer the benefit of experience.

That's a hell of a table and benches! Good stuff. Keep posting your progress.

[look 171]

That is an old Bosch belt sander with a sanding frame from the 90s. They make a great product BTW. Now back to the interesting part. My suggest would be to sand it enough to get rid of the grease and junk, locate a shop or business that has a wide belt sander or serious drum sander (its basically the same machine) and have them run it through. Normally for 60-80 bucks. it will save you a whole lot of time. The reason for getting off the junk or oil is that it tends to clog sanding belt and most people dislike running used lumber through their machine. Belts aren't exactly cheap. The whole thing will come out flat with little to finish up with a finer grit sand paper using a small palm, orbital, or vibrating sander. Finish it how ever you like, oil and wax would be very nice but it offer little protection but done well, its beautiful. What will it be used for?

[jyl]

I tested a bunch of finishes on butcherblock for stain resistance, and Emmet’s Good Stuff came out on top. No staining after 24H exposure to espresso, soy sauce, red wine, etc. Osmo Polyx was a close second. Both are wipe on, rub in finishes that penetrate the wood and leave it feeling like wood, not plastic. With both you can sand a spot then wipe/rub more finish on for an undetectable spot repair. Emmet's is a urethane resin, Osmo is a veg oil/hardwax. Both are foodsafe after curing, which takes about 8 hours. These will darken wood a little but are otherwise clear. Two coats of Emmet's is working great on my butcher block counters. I apply a mineral oil/beeswax on top, mostly because I like the slick waxy feel, and also as a sacrificial layer. Osmo told me its product can be applied to wood that has previously been mineral oiled, with some steps that I can look up if you want.

[TimT]

A local shop charged me $75 to surface both sides, an elm table I was making. This means taking your table apart... I used my belt sander to better finish the table since the industrial drum sander had 50 grit on the drum

[zakthor]

Ok, its really a table not a slab. Im not keen to disassemble. It was built and glued when it was made . They said it was kiln dried but the wood was still quite wet when it arrived. I am wary that it would be tough to reassemble once its apart.

The thing weighs over 500 lbs which is a lot less than when it was new! I think that getting it professionally planed will be way more work and aggravation. But maybe youre right and flattening it myself is too difficult. It doesnt seem difficult. Time will tell.

After above recommendations I started reading about finishes and realize the choice is a lot more fraught than i anticipated. Or at least theres people on the internet that want things to be a certain way and never change. I want something to bang beer bottles on, im not precious about rings i want wood not plastic, and id like to spot fix areas that bother me. Weve had many hundreds of meals on that table and its held up ‘fine’. Its going to live under cover but outdoors so subject to soot and pollen.

I guess i need to test some finishes, or see them with my hands. That osmo stuff sort of looks like the ticket for me and i love that you already tested it. I was going to just rub it down with coats of boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits and then wax it.

Given I've only used urethane and spar varnish and not really liked anything i expect my opinion will evolve with experience. I love the finish on stickley furniture in the fancy furniture stores but ive never seen how it looks after abuse - i sort of expect it looks even better.

Ps just noticed the sander plaque says made in usa? I didnt think anything was actually made here during my life. Its a 1276dvs. Its not from the 90s, people were buying them new in 2012.

[Bill Douglas]

Zakthor, I remember a lady who made beautiful tables. After sanding the top she would cut and break window glass to use as a scraper over the surface. She said sanding makes it slightly fluffy and not a perfectly smooth hard surface. She would use a cut piece of glass for five minutes then cut it again to get a fresh surface. Then went over it with a bees wax finish.

[jyl]

Finishes For Butcher Block

Mineral oil and wax doesn’t protect much. I was surprised. Maybe you need to get more oil soaked into the wood than I did, but I flooded the test piece with oil, let it get absorbed, repeated over and over until it stopped absorbing, then applied beeswax at least 2x. And it still stained easily.

I thought Waterlox would do better, and was surprised.

As far as I know, boiled linseed oil and tung oil are hardening oils, meaning after a (long) curing period they harden and become very protective. I didn’t test them because I don’t have the patience for multiple coats with several days curing between coats.

For the Emmets, I’ve been wiping on, rubbing in, wiping off excess, letting dry 8 hr, then very lightly sanding (like 400 - 600 grit) to take the slight roughness out (maybe it raises the grain? dunno), then applying the second coat. Similar for the Osmo.

[jyl]

I have sanded down a couple of well used butcherblock cutting boards recently, and will all the oil and wax built up in the wood, they turn out like glass, sooo smooth. So you could try wet sanding with mineral oil. I’ve seen videos about it.

[zakthor]

Thats cool about the glass! Amazing. Its so weird i kind of want to try it. Ive also heard that hand planes make an amazing finish but i really dont want to go there. Im not yee olde woodworker - thats someone else.

I think you all have convinced me to experience various teak finishes in person. Probably theres lots of right answers and choice comes down to taste.

Definitely ive got time its already been waiting 24 years. I dont want to make a soupy sticky toxic mess.

[zakthor]

Jyl: wow science!! Super cool that you did the work and shared it. I will still ask around local places but with your data id be a fool not to use that osmo. Ill call osmo on monday and see what they recommend.

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by zakthor

. Its so weird i kind of want to try it.

Yeah, she was holding the 4"or 6"bit of glass at about a 33 degree angle and scraping the surface. Disclaimer: I haven't tried it myself, but her and the job she was doing looked pretty darn good.

I think a hand planer would leave tiger stripes on the surface as it takes a fair bit off.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

Yeah, she was holding the 4"or 6"bit of glass at about a 33 degree angle and scraping the surface. Disclaimer: I haven't tried it myself, but her and the job she was doing looked pretty darn good.

I think a hand planer would leave tiger stripes on the surface as it takes a fair bit off.

I wonder why she didn't just use a regular steel cabinet scraper card?

Interesting concept, though. I might have to give it a try one day.

[Bill Douglas]

I'm guessing she used glass so she could recut it and it's always very sharp. But just a guess.

[zakthor]

Started with the benches so practice before the main event.

80 wasnt enough so tried 50 and finally 36 grit. The 36 tears up the wood but makes good progress. For giggles i brought surface up through the grits 50, 80, 120, 180 then 220 on random orbital. Surface ends up feeling like a slab of steel.

But I had to take a lot more wood off a bench to get to the bottom of some hatchet marks (that were there when it was new), and i uncovered a huge void. Tried to fill with epoxy but it would need gallons. And realized one side of the bench is constructed around that big void. Next i poured 12 oz in, taped the hole and inverted bench, next morning it was a surface. I need to wait some days for it to cure.

Today i started on the table with the 36 and it went so fast, maybe 30 minutes and the big gouge is gone. Started on the 50 but it was my last belt and it wore out so more tomorrow.

Really something how much harder sapwood is than the regular stuff. Can see the big gouge in original pic is gone now.

Whats neat is once material is removed each grit takes a few minutes. Check carefully that i got all the scratches then swap belts.

Cant wait to try the osmo. I called them and guy recommended the extra thin fir first coat, then a layer of gloss polyx.

Edit: oh and i forgot to say wow the sanding frame is great. It aggressively sands any rises, ignores low spots so table is much more flat than when i started. Sanding frame good!

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Nice work! Looking forward to seeing more progress.

[CurtEgerer]

Originally Posted by jyl

I tested a bunch of finishes on butcherblock for stain resistance, and Emmet’s Good Stuff came out on top. No staining after 24H exposure to espresso, soy sauce, red wine, etc. Osmo Polyx was a close second. Both are wipe on, rub in finishes that penetrate the wood and leave it feeling like wood, not plastic. With both you can sand a spot then wipe/rub more finish on for an undetectable spot repair. Emmet's is a urethane resin, Osmo is a veg oil/hardwax. Both are foodsafe after curing, which takes about 8 hours. These will darken wood a little but are otherwise clear. Two coats of Emmet's is working great on my butcher block counters. I apply a mineral oil/beeswax on top, mostly because I like the slick waxy feel, and also as a sacrificial layer. Osmo told me its product can be applied to wood that has previously been mineral oiled, with some steps that I can look up if you want.

Thanks for the tip. I built a bar a couple years ago with a live-edge top. I didn't want the typical glossy deep clear poly finish and decided to simply use furniture wax. The look is exactly what I wanted, but the stain resistance absolutely sucks. It's good for maybe 5 minutes of any kind of moisture before there's a stain. I'm in a constant state of terror whenever anyone is near the bar with a drink! I'm going to try the Emmet's.

[Scott Douglas]

Nice work!

IF it were me, I'd be putting a @1/2" radius on those corners. I never enjoyed sitting at a table with sharp corners along the edge where my arm would fall naturally when sitting at it.

[Alan A]

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

Yeah, she was holding the 4"or 6"bit of glass at about a 33 degree angle and scraping the surface.

They taught us to do that in wood shop at high school.
40 years ago.

Damn I got old somewhere down the line.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

Nice work!

IF it were me, I'd be putting a @1/2" radius on those corners. I never enjoyed sitting at a table with sharp corners along the edge where my arm would fall naturally when sitting at it.

Yeah, I don't like a sharp edge on my legs or arms.