making a table?

[Frogtarded]

Should I just polyurethane the legs and then attach them?

[Frogtarded]

Wait...how am I going to attach legs to this?

[B A R R Y]

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[dadiOH]

I'm a chemist? :) Never used the stuff but I *have* used their regular epoxy and it is fine. I seem to recall that there are a very limited number of manufacturers and that everyone else buys from them, and repackages it.

[dadiOH]

I would _____________

You could screw through the top, use hanger bolts (bolt on one end, screw on other...bolt end goes into a threaded inset), drill a sizeable hole (3/4-1") thru table into leg top and glue in a dowel....

[Frogtarded]

[B A R R Y]

I don't know either, so I'm asking you.

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[dadiOH]

Either that or drill through the epoxy. But after sleeping on it I don't think those were very good suggestions. Possibilities but not good. Here is a better way...

Glue the legs on. You can't use regular glue as the glued surface on the legs is end grain and won't have any strength when glued with "woodworker's glue" but will if you use epoxy. Turn the table upside down, apply a thick coating to the top of the legs and set in place, no clamping is necessary. Let the legs remain there undisturbed for at *least* 24 hours...the epoxy will get fairly hard after 12 hours or so but not strong enough to take much stress. It takes several days to thoroughly cure.

Almost any way of attaching legs is sufficient to carry the weight of a table top and things on it. However, lateral force is a different thing as the legs act like levers multiplying that force. That means the glued on legs would need to be reinforced laterally and there are two ways of doing that.

1. Box in the top of the legs with strips of 3/4"x3/4" wood glued both to the legs and table. The strips could be glued with any glue - epoxy, woodworkers. All surfaces being glued should be free of any finish. The strips don't have to be square shape in cross section, they could be quarter round, cove shaped, etc. They could be finished to match the legs in which case they'd look like part of the legs or to contrast with them. If you do this and have glued on the legs with epoxy, make sure you remove any epoxy squeeze out around the legs so that the wood strips will fit snugly. Remove the squeeze out *before* it sets up hard by wiping/scraping off.
2. Do something similar but with epoxy. Epoxy is fairly viscous but still runs. Places that sell it also sell thickeners so that the epoxy can be applied to vertical surfaces without running. There are numerous thickeners...talc, micro-balloons, powdered wood/sawdust, Cab-o-sil. The latter is very fine silica and what I use most. To use a thickener, mix it slowly and thoroughly into the catalyzed resin. In this case, you'd want it fairly thick. If you were using Cab-o-sil it would look like and be about as thick as Vaseline. One then takes the thickened epoxy and makes fillets around the legs, overlapping legs and table by 1/4-1/2". The epoxy can be applied with something like a tongue depresser but I prefer to use a finger to smooth it. Epoxy fillets add a lot of strength but won't look very good; for one thing, it is really tough to get them smooth and even without sanding them; for another, they will have the color of whatever was used to thicken the epoxy (with cab-o-sil, semi-clear) and need to be painted to look good. OTOH - depending on how far in you set the legs - the fillets may not be normally visible. ____________

Some epoxy tips...

It is sticky, messy stuff. The thing that cleans it up is vinegar.

It won't stick to many plastics...I use CoolWhip containers for mixing and when dry it just pops right out. Plastic painter's drop cloths can be useful to protect areas.

Clear tape (like packaging tape) can be used to protect areas (epoxy doesn't stick to it). If I were going to make fillets as above I would use tape to demarcate the desired area, apply the epoxy, smooth with a finger so it feathers out as thin as possible at tape edge then remove the tape either immediately or after the epoxy set up a bit.

Once it sets up. it gets a chemical blush on the surface called "amine blush". That has to be removed before applying a finish. You do so with water...just wipe off with damp sponge or rag.

[Frogtarded]

buy materials by the end of the week.