Wood Selection
Find a unique piece of wood that you like to create your project.
Moisture Content
The moisture content of the wood needs to be 8 to 12 percent if you buy a slab from a lumber yard that is kiln dried it will be in that range if you slab your own wood it can take up to a couple of years to achieve that moisture content.
Plan
Now you need to decide what you are going to make a river table, serving tray, coasters, etc.
Prep the Wood
Now you have your wood and a plan you need to make sure that your piece is flat you can achieve this with a planer, sander, router with a sled or a CNC machine.
Form
This is a critical step for epoxy isn't cheap and you don't want it all over your floor of the shop. The materials you can use are plywood, melamine or HDPE.
I personally use 9 ply Baltic birch plywood so cut the form to size and make sure to cut the sides a minimum of an 1/8 inch above your work piece.
Calculate how much epoxy you need there is 231 cubic inches in a gallon of epoxy. I use a 2 to 1 epoxy from Ecopoxy that will pour up to an 1.5 inch depth. Follow the manufactures instructions and mix well for colors I use Jacquard Pearl Ex powder.
Now you need to put house wrap tape on all the surfaces if using wood or melamine. Now you can assemble the form place a bead of silicon caulking on the sides before assembling and check that all the inside corners are sealed let the caulking cure. Make sure form is absolutely level in both directions.
Pouring the Epoxy
Make sure your shop temp is a minimum of 70 degrees. Seal all edges of your work piece that the big pour will be in contact with. If you have not already secured your work piece in the form do so now and make sure any blocks you have under your clamps is wrapped with tape.
Pour your epoxy and let sit a while the pot life is very long then come back and check for bubbles and get rid of these with a propane torch carefully.
Patience
Leave your work piece alone for a minimum of 72 hours then once determined the epoxy has cured strip your forms.
Sanding
Now its time to sand and trim up the work piece I use a track saw. But you can use your skill saw with a straight edge or table saw make sure you a quality saw blade. While sanding wear a respirator or have a good quality dust extraction system.
I sand to 1500 grit and take your time between grits making sure that your getting all the scratches off when you are satisfied time to finish.
Finishing
This is a matter of preference on my nonfood contact projects I use Osmo Polyx oil a little bit goes along ways. For my food contact items I use food grade mineral oil.
