Split ends in 12/4 oak

[Nick Bozovich]

Newbie help question -

I bought a couple cut-off 12/4 oak today for my workbench end caps - one of them has a split or check in one end. It's 6" wide, 4" long. I have enought to use for my cap with out the split part, but I was wondering if there was anyway to save that part. Would it work to inject some epoxy into the split, and compress that section with clamps to keep it from going further?

Couldn't pass it up - $2.50/bf!!! (semi gloat??)

Thanks for your help -

Nick B

[Brian in Hampton]

Squirt some yellow glue in the crack, clamp and that should do it for you.....Brian

[Bob S.]

Nick,

The epoxy will most likely not hold it together - but it will fill the void. To keep the spit from going further, inlay a bow-tie / butterfly patch across each split. Now use colored epoxy to fill in the gap.

I recently made a large tabletop using some old growth timber and had to deal with several splits (known as enhancements). I used walnut to make the butterflies, inlayed them into the top about 2" from the ends and then mixed in a dash of dark brown glaze into some 5 min epoxy and filled the cracks. Use some packing tape on the opposite side to keep the epoxy from falling out. Also used the epoxy around several loose knots.

Bob S.