SA "MANIA"

Let''s start off by making one thing clear....it is retarded to move these things by yourself as I did and regret.  These are some pieces of samania that a customer of ours imported from south america.  These slabs came in very rough form as you can see in the background  photo below.  

The photo to the right will be a floating bench in a powder room.

 I started off by milling them flat and then dimensioning them.  All of the flattening and dimesioning was done with a router and sled on rails.  Something we also refer to as "decking" them.   The process includes getting 2 rails co planar to one another on the sides of the slabs and then running a router sled on them at a maximum of 3mm depth of cut at a time.

To the left another shot of the bench.

 Next is the belt sander with 80 grit to take out all of the scallops left by the router.  I usually use a pencil or piece of chalk and mark up the entire face to have a reference.  When my pencil marks are gone I know it is time to move onto the next step.  Then the same process with 120 grit belt, 150 grit random orbit, 180 grit random orbit and finally 220 grit.  The photo to the right will be a floating vanity top in a powder room.  Final installation post will be added when that time comes.

 Here is another shot of the vanity top showing all the figure around a knot.  All knots and cracks in this wood were filled with dyed epoxy too stabilize them.  The sink for the vanity will actually sit atop the knot.  The sink is in a flower shape ,so I only thought it be appropriate that the figure around the knot surround the sink.  All pores are filled on these, as this is a very porous wood and tears out horribly.  Then it's on to one coat of oil (boiled linseed and tung equal parts) and 2 coats of wiped on polyurethane for protection.  The reason for wiping it on and off is for a close to the wood look and not a thick film.

 To the right we have a bar top that will be installed in the bar in the basement.  This is showing the piece sanded and a slurry of pore filler all over.  We had a large piece of ingrown bark on this piece that we filled with shavings from the flattening process and filled it with epoxy and the chips wound up being suspended in the epoxy..........it looks pretty cool and when this top is finished I will post picks.....next time i want to throw chips of brick in there too.

On the left here we have the leg for the bar.  I had the joy of fabricating it today.  The leg is a substantial structure of steel, of which is needed, due to the fact that this bar weighs in at about 700 lbs.  This bar will have a dado or groove in the side that attaches to an angle iron on the wall and on the other end will have this leg supporting it.  this leg will be painted lime green and will have samania panels made up for it.

Til next time when we have installed photos.  KAISER OUT!!!  Any questions on the processes I use please feel free to contact me @ subtri@yahoo.com.