Making a Kitchen Countertop CNC Epoxy Salvage Slab | ToolsToday

Making a large kitchen island top with epoxy pour on this reclaimed salvage slab using the STEPCRAFT Q.408 CNC machine and the Amana Tool® CNC Router Bits. toolstoday.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=shop-cart

This honey locust slab top came out looking absolutely amazing! What do you think? Do you like how this kitchen island reclaimed slab with epoxy pour CNC video turned out?

Feed, Speed & CNC Running Parameters

Amana Tool RC-2255 CNC Spoilboard Insert Carbide 3 Wing, Surfacing, Planing, Flycutting & Slab Leveler 2-1/2 Diameter x 1/2 SHK Router Bit
toolstoday.com/v-13329-rc-2255.html
RPM: 18,000
Feed Rate: 275ipm
Plunge Rate: 80ipm
Depth per pass: .0625”

Amana Tool 46206-K SC Spektra Extreme Tool Life Coated Spiral Plunge 1/2 Dia x 1-1/4 CH x 1/2 SHK 3 Inch Long Down-Cut Router Bit
toolstoday.com/v-13917-46206-k.html
RPM: 18,000
Feed Rate: 200ipm
Plunge Rate: 100ipm
Depth of cut: 0.140"
Chip Load Per Tooth: 0.006”

Amana Tool 46125-K SC Spektra Extreme Tool Life Coated Spiral Plunge 1/8 Dia x 13/16 CH x 1/4 SHK 2-1/2 Inch Long Up-Cut Router Bit
toolstoday.com/v-13940-46125-k.html
RPM: 18,000
Feed Rate: 145ipm
Plunge Rate: 70ipm
Chip Load Per Tooth: 0.004”
Depth per pass: 0.125"

AGE Series MD160-480 For Festool Track Saw Machine Carbide Tipped Crosscut Saw Blade 160mm D x 48T ATB, 5 Deg, 20mm Bore Saw Blade
toolstoday.com/v-11041-md160-480.html

The mess was all cleaned up using a Fein Turbo 1 vacuum, available on our website, and worked great for sucking the slab to the wasteboard as well! I then cleaned up the sides using a Fein angle grinder, available on our website, with a @kutzall disc to clean it up. I sealed the edges with clear 2:1 and poured the @totalboat Fathom ThickSet epoxy into the mold. The piece was then flattened again.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:

Hey, guys. How's it going? Today, I'm gonna show you how I took these honey locust slabs that were salvaged from storm damage and turn it into this beautiful kitchen island top. Stick around to see how we made it.

It's time to start on a new project here. We're going to be making a kitchen island for my house and we're going to be making the island top today. We got the slab all loaded on the STEPCRAFT Q.408 CNC machine and using the RC-2255 3 wing insert carbide flattening bit, we'll go through here and get this slab all flattened. Using the vacuum table with a Fein Turbo I vacuum to suck down this piece nice and flat, that way, we're able to get it all flattened.

You can see we're going through here in multiple passes. These slabs have sat out for quite a long time. I've had them for about seven years, and I've waited to use them on the right project, and this is definitely it. I paid $10 apiece for these slabs from a guy who goes and picks up down lumber and turns them into slabs and they look absolutely beautiful.

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So, after all of the flattening is done, we need to get everything all prepped and ready as we are going to be pouring epoxy in here to make a river look. I'm using a fine angle grinder here to just go through and remove all of the excess stuff off of the edges. Then I'll get everything nicely sanded so it's a little bit smoother to the touch and get the profile set the way that we want it.

This lab is full of hundreds of wormholes, and we need to get all of those clean so that we can get epoxy in those and make it easier to clean the top once it's fully finished. Next, we'll get all the wire brushing done on the inside edges and then we'll seal everything with epoxy. I went through and sealed the outside edges with epoxy as well. This is going to prevent any sort of bubbles from all of those cracks from coming up after we apply the deep pour epoxy. And we'll get all of the epoxy just kind of sanded down flush.

Cut a sheet to the exact size that I want the finished kitchen island to be so that I can lay out all the areas that need to be cut. Then using a track saw, I removed the excess wood and we'll use that for a future project. I went through and cleaned up both of the ends as well. So, that way, we can fit everything into a mold and it'll make things a lot easier to clean up later on.

I'm using the MD160-480 for the Festool track saw and it worked great, providing nice clean cuts. Next, we can go through and get the mold all assembled, just using some brad nails here, and then we'll get everything all silicone down. That way, we make sure this mold will not leak once we put the top in.

I went through and added some mold release to the entire thing after cleaning everything out. And this will help make sure that everything releases from the mold once we're fully done. And now we can get our two slabs put into the mold. You can see how everything's going to look and we're gonna have a nice river on this entire thing. I went through and made sure that the entire mold was leveled. So, that way, we get a nice pour.

I'm using TotalBoat ThickSet Fathom here, and I'll use a white, a teal, and a darker blue pigment to achieve this color that I did on the sample. Really like that, and it matches really well with what we have in our house. This ThickSet Fathom is great for thicker pores, and it's definitely going to be really nice for this kitchen island top.

I love seeing the way that everything mixes together and see that color come out just like we wanted it. I think it's really cool to see the epoxy work through the natural cracks and the natural edges in the wood. And it definitely looks really nice pouring into all of these different areas. Because I'm filming this, I only went and clamped the sides down so that we can get some really cool shots. But once I clamped everything down in the middle, all the epoxy kind of poured out from under the slabs and started floating. And now we have full coverage on this. There's tons of cracks throughout here. So, I really needed to have a bit of an overpour so that all of those cracks would be fully filled when the epoxy cures.

So, I went through and used a heat gun to get some of the bubbles off of there. And we now have our epoxy mold ready to go. We let it sit for about seven days to fully cure, then we can remove all of the clamps and begin the de-molding process.

We're just using a dead-blow mallet here to help with removing everything then a little scraper to help pry it off the sides. Everything came off smoothly until we got to the bottom. The bottom, unfortunately, and I should have put another coat of the mold release on, there was a part on here that definitely stuck way too well. So, some of the epoxy must have gotten through that mold release and adhered to the bottom of the piece. So, we went through and just used the CNC to flatten that. We need to make sure that we're referencing off this bottom surface is that's what's flat is that was what was up against the melamine.

So now that that's done, we got the whole slab flipped over and we can begin the flattening process. As I said, I overpoured here because of all the cracks and all the wormholes and everything that needed to get filled. But after the second pass, we're getting down to the wood. I'm again using the RC-2255 3 wing insert carbide flattening bit, and it does a great job flattening off this epoxy as well as the wood.

I'm just adding some water to the piece so that you can see what that looks like and it's going to look absolutely amazing. I love the grain within this piece. And definitely, these slabs have a ton of character in them.

So, we flattened the backside as well and I took that opportunity to show you about honey locust. Honey locust is one of the most unusual woods in it is actually UV reactive so I thought it was pretty cool to be able to see all of that wood coming off and you can see it reacting with the UV light.

So, while we have it on the backside, we're gonna go ahead and install some C-Channel to help ensure that this stays flat. So, I'm using the 46206-K 1/2" down-cut bit to go through and cut a pocket the size of the C-Channel. I'll then pick up the 46125-K 1/8" up-cut bit, and this is going to go through and drill some holes out here where we're going to thread into. We'll then use the same bit to cut the pocket for the sides of the C-Channel.

I actually tried on a test piece of this to use a threaded insert and actually ended up breaking the insert itself. So, I figured if the insert was going to be able to break, then the wood should be able to hold the threads just fine, and it definitely did. I did cut a little bit of oversized area here. That way, the C-Channel can kind of move back and forth within the pocket, and this will allow for a wood movement. It'll provide nice support to the slab and ensure that everything stays nice and flat. I got it just below the surface here and I did two of these, so that way, the entire piece is nicely supported.

So, after that, we can get the epoxy all removed. I started off by removing the sides off-camera and then we just removed the ends using that same 48-tooth blade on the track saw, and everything worked perfectly. I'm really impressed how well this Festool track saw handled this taking a full two-inch depth of cut and a full [indiscernible 06:10] of material off in a single pass. It did a really nice job and left a beautifully clean finish, which is definitely really nice to see.

Now we'll begin the sanding process. I started with 120 grit and moved up through the grits switching between the ROTEX and the ETS 150 to do all of the sanding. I went up to 220 grit, but we'll spare you all of that sanding as it is quite a bit. Once all that sanding was done, we used Walrus Oil Furniture Butter to go through and finish this entire piece. This finish worked flawlessly, and I absolutely love the way that it brings out the grain in this piece. So, we just basically got a nice coat over the entire piece, let that sit for 24 hours, and then we're able to buff everything off using the fine polisher. I used two pads here, one to remove the majority of the excess, and then one to do all of the final polishing.

As you can see, we changed out the polishing pad here. I put on a new pad and it buffed everything to a really nice matte finish, which I absolutely love. It gives everything a really nice look and brings out the grain of this piece incredibly well. We live on a lake so this is definitely going to be a really nice statement piece, fit the decor of our house and the decor of the area that we live. I absolutely love all of the natural imperfections in the wood and I definitely love the contrast that the epoxy gives to those to really set those off and show them off. This is definitely going to look really nice on the kitchen island that we're going to be building but we will get to that in another video. For now, the top is done so that we can size everything else out.

This has been a really fun project and I love how it turned out. Hopefully, you guys enjoyed it. Have a great day, everybody.

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