I purchased a ~6ft diameter Monkeypod Cookie to make a dining table out of when I was living in Hawaii. Military moved us to Texas this summer, and the transit on a boat, plus the summer humidity change from Hawaii to Texas to inside the house has created a crack in the table. The cookie was originally sealed with a penetrating epoxy to stabilize the checking, deep pour epoxy to fill the large voids, flattened, sanded, tung oiled (more for look), then polyurethaned (5 coats) once the oil had fully cured. Despite all that this crack has still presented itself.
I am looking for some advice on how to fill this crack. I am worried about purely epoxy because in order to flush it with the rest of the table will take some sanding, and I am concerned about the color changing due to sanding/creating a gouge (monkeypod is not a very hard wood). I think I will need to take a fine bit on a dremel and clean up the white outline of where the poly cracked, but that is only going to make the crack larger. Most wood filler type things don’t harden and can’t be sanded or polyurethaned over, and won’t go all the way into the crack to fill the whole void.
Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.
P.S. Will post pictures once I can get the size down to 3MB
Replies
Photos as promised.
First, you will never get this crack to disappear entirely, without sanding away all the polyurethane. You will not be able to adhere anything to the poly to blend in anything new. I would try long-set epoxy, as it seeps deeper into cracks than 5 minute. Assuming the bottom is finished with the poly, I would put a drop of epoxy on the bottom and see if it pops off easily. If so, you could fill the crack (may take multiple applications) and then cut the epoxy level after it cures, and after you loosen it from the poly. However, sometimes the epoxy will fracture as you cut it, so check that out in advance as well.
It may be that the least visible solution is to leave it alone and live with it. Cookies are always going to be unstable.
Don't do anything for a year, the odds are good that it's not done moving... and since you're in the service (many thanks!!) neither are you. Build your table and wait to see what it does before deciding on a fix (or not).
Seconding the Leave Well Alone principle.
If the crack bothers you, consider some hot melt wax furniture repair sticks - they come in many colours and it will be very much less visible than a crack if you match it well.
An alternative if the crack seems stable after a while is to fill with a close match wood putty then you can use acrylic paint to match exactly and seal with a thin application of poly. You'll never se it.
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