# Minimum recommend wood thickness for live edge river table ?



## lincoln81 (Sep 28, 2020)

hey everyone, looking at making a live edge river table. We purchased 2 black walnut slabs from a gentleman and didn't realize how much moisture they had. We have since bought a moisture meter. Anyways the wood has warped so bad. I just got my lee valley router sled and built a table and my 2" thick slabs will end up being 1" - 1-1/4" give or take. Is this sufficient for a table ?.

Our table was going to be 84" by 44" with a 14" wide river down the middle. Happy wife is a happy life. 

I talked to polymeres techniques and they said not a problem for the pour itself. I'm worried about the table not having the strength

Any and all help is appreciated


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## John Smith_inFL (Jul 4, 2018)

welcome to the forum.
what kind of underneath bracing and legs are you thinking of ?
the support is the secret to a good river table.
there is a recent post here of a member that did a 3/4" thick river table.

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## lincoln81 (Sep 28, 2020)

I'll do whatever I can to brace it. Any tips? Tricks?


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## lincoln81 (Sep 28, 2020)

I am unable to find the post of the person who did the 3/4 " thick river table. Can someone link it got me ? I tried to search function and no luck


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## John Smith_inFL (Jul 4, 2018)

sorry, I couldn't find it either with search.
it was about 2-3 weeks ago. maybe someone else can find it.
you can continue your search with "minimum thickness river table" and see what you can find.
looking forward to seeing your project.

John

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## mackman (Mar 2, 2016)

My parents have a river table I made a couple years ago in their house, and it's only 3/4 inches thick. It's definitely doable, but it's all about the kind of resin you use and the kind of support you use. 

For the epoxy resin, do not use "table top" resin. I know it's cheaper, but that's because it's not formulated to be used at the thickness necessary for a full-blown river table. I've had nothing but issues when using table top epoxy, including severe cupping and bending at the river, which requires either extensive re-planing or a LOT of force underneath the table to bend it back. Use the deep-pour stuff from Total Boat, Black Forest Resin, etc, and follow all instructions regarding cure time, demolding time, etc. Not only will it give you sturdier results, but the longer set-up time will give you a LOT more time to get rid of any bubbles before the epoxy cures. 

For the support, I'd go with a simple skirt underneath it, 2.5-3.5 inches tall to fit the scale of the table, just a couple inches in from the edge. That should offer more than enough support to keep everything level and sturdy (as long as you attach it with clips to allow for wood movement!). 

Hope this helps! I don't know how much woodworking knowledge you have, so let me know if you need more info on anything said here.


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## lincoln81 (Sep 28, 2020)

mackman said:


> My parents have a river table I made a couple years ago in their house, and it's only 3/4 inches thick. It's definitely doable, but it's all about the kind of resin you use and the kind of support you use.
> 
> For the epoxy resin, do not use "table top" resin. I know it's cheaper, but that's because it's not formulated to be used at the thickness necessary for a full-blown river table. I've had nothing but issues when using table top epoxy, including severe cupping and bending at the river, which requires either extensive re-planing or a LOT of force underneath the table to bend it back. Use the deep-pour stuff from Total Boat, Black Forest Resin, etc, and follow all instructions regarding cure time, demolding time, etc. Not only will it give you sturdier results, but the longer set-up time will give you a LOT more time to get rid of any bubbles before the epoxy cures.
> 
> ...



Mackman, thanks for the reply, for the resin I am planning on using Chill 1 by polymeres technique, I have had alot of good luck with them on much smaller scale projects. 

I flattened my table yesterday I am about 7/8" thick, my plan is to pour it, flatten it again, assuming I will get about 3/4" finish, I will then cut 1" off all 4 sides and glue it underneath the table to give it appears of a thicker table, then in the middle I am planning on putting in a 3/4" hardwood plywood screwed to the table and I will screw my legs to that. 

I will be leaving 1" gap around the plywood for some movement. 

any issues with this? anything else you recommend? 

thanks!


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## mackman (Mar 2, 2016)

lincoln81 said:


> Mackman, thanks for the reply, for the resin I am planning on using Chill 1 by polymeres technique, I have had alot of good luck with them on much smaller scale projects.
> 
> I flattened my table yesterday I am about 7/8" thick, my plan is to pour it, flatten it again, assuming I will get about 3/4" finish, I will then cut 1" off all 4 sides and glue it underneath the table to give it appears of a thicker table, then in the middle I am planning on putting in a 3/4" hardwood plywood screwed to the table and I will screw my legs to that.
> 
> ...


If that resin is the one I just looked up, it says it's rated for pours up to 1.5 inches thick, so that should be more than fine. Just pay attention to the temperature: The thick-pour stuff is meant for cool weather, and I got into trouble earlier in the Summer trying a pour without a fan blowing over it (severe cracking and bubbling that took a long while to fix). 

Your approach with the plywood is potentially doable, but also opens up a lot of potential problems. For example, if you just straight up screw the board to the table, you're going to run into huge problems when the table tries to expand or contract and the screws stop it from doing so. I would predict that when the wood expands, either the plywood will split or the top will buckle, and when the wood contracts, it's almost certainly going to split at some point. You can work around this by placing each screw in a slot in the plywood, so it can move with the wood, but that's going to be a bit of a pain. 

More importantly, i may just be picturing it wrong, but I don't see the legs being super sturdy on a table of this size when they're just screwed to the bottom of the table. 

A skirt (potentially with an extra bar or two going across the width of the table in the middle) will give you the support you need while also giving you an easy way to incorporate sturdy, detachable legs, plus I personally think it will look better. 

But at the end of the day, it's your project, and either way, you're going to learn a lot about river tables!


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