At any given time, Woodlands Woodworks has one or more project in-progress. Our current project is an oak slab table from the Deanin Oak. This slab is approximately over 6ft wide and is being shaped into four quarters to put together in a single table. The table is 3 inches thick and with the epoxy that will be used to preserve the table, we estimate a 3.5 inch by 7 feet diameter on the table. Here are some pictures of the process and how the project is going.
Trunk Harvest
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Raw Trunk
http://www.woodlandswoodworks.com/wp-content/uploads/RawTrunk-600x600.jpgThis is the raw trunk before it was cut.
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Momma Mouse
http://www.woodlandswoodworks.com/wp-content/uploads/20170901_073627-scaled-600x600.jpgMomma Mouse had been living in one of the cracks in a nest she built under the tarp. We waited patiently while she moved her babies off the trunk and out to a new location. In all, there were four babies.
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Momma Mouse and Babies
http://www.woodlandswoodworks.com/wp-content/uploads/20170901_073633-scaled-600x600.jpgMomma Mouse was quite brave. She quickly grabbed her babies, jumped over the snakes that were in the big crack and rushed to her safe house. Back and forth she went until all her babies were moved.
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Occupants of the Slab
http://www.woodlandswoodworks.com/wp-content/uploads/20170901_072503-scaled-600x600.jpgAfter the slab had sat over a year, we went back for harvest of the final trunk section. There were several critters that had moved in, including three of little snakes that were prodded to leave back into the swamp before we harvested the trunk.
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Snake Departure
http://www.woodlandswoodworks.com/wp-content/uploads/snakes-600x600.jpgOur slithering little friends were sent packing after a few minutes of prodding them to leave the tree.
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Final Quarter Sawing
http://www.woodlandswoodworks.com/wp-content/uploads/Final-Quarter-Sawing-600x600.jpgThe tree trunk was so large that we ultimately had to section it into five sections. Each section weighed a 'ton' and we spent quite a bit of time working out how to move them onto a trailer for transport.
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Bottom Cut
http://www.woodlandswoodworks.com/wp-content/uploads/20170901_095842-scaled-600x600.jpgIt's super hard to cut a flat cut inches above the ground on a huge trunk. David was a master at getting the cuts straight and parallel.
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Loading
http://www.woodlandswoodworks.com/wp-content/uploads/Loading-600x600.jpgWe were really grateful when the next door neighbor brought over his tractor to lift the trunk pieces onto the trailer for us. We couldn't have loaded that day without him!
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Quartering Trunk
http://www.woodlandswoodworks.com/wp-content/uploads/Quartering-Trunk-600x600.jpgSetting up the cut lines from the top became critical in the processing of the trunk. Straight lines and straight cuts would mean eventual drying and piecing the trunk back together was possible. Unfortunately, not all the cuts were straight but were well defined.
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Transport
http://www.woodlandswoodworks.com/wp-content/uploads/Transport-600x600.jpgWith the trunk pieces positioned on the trailer, the trunk was transported over for slabbing to our shop.
Table Construction
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Epoxy Mix
http://www.woodlandswoodworks.com/wp-content/uploads/20220611_121013-scaled-e1684938393174-600x600.jpgFirst round of epoxy mixing for pouring into the Deanin Oak Trunk
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First Epoxy Pour Mold
http://www.woodlandswoodworks.com/wp-content/uploads/20220612_084812-scaled-e1684938636156-600x600.jpgPre-Molds were built to get an initial coating on the slab pieces. Through time, we were able to get the epoxy set and the bubbles out of the massive pours.
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First Pour Piece 3
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First Pour Piece 2
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First Pour Piece 4 and 5
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Outside Pour Review
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Post Slab Flatten after Pour
http://www.woodlandswoodworks.com/wp-content/uploads/20220529_121045-scaled-e1684938427886-600x600.jpgAfter the first pour, we opted to smooth out the epoxy for the final pour. This allowed us to fill in the many voids and to firm up the damaged areas on the slab.
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First Pour Piece 1
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First Pour Edge Crinkle
http://www.woodlandswoodworks.com/wp-content/uploads/20220603_163851-scaled-600x600.jpgThe first pours are always fun as we get to see the colors of the wood as it will show under natural epoxy. This was the edging on our piece and was just fun to see.
Trunk Slabbing
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Flattening
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First Slice
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Piecing it all Together
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Passes of Flattening
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The Two Triangles
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More Flattening
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The Big Coffee Cup Slab
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Repair of a Slab
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Damage to the Slab
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Flattening the Slabs
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Which Piece Goes Where
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Slab Thickness
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Piece Order
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Damaged Piece
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Our Slabbing Chainsaw
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