I decided to build the “Durable outdoor table” featured in FWW 183. I found some nice Ipe lumber reasonably priced, so I decided to go for it. Unfortunatly, I could only find 5/4 lumber, so I face jointed pieces for the thicker edges.
When I was routing the circular outer ring, I had a few places where I got some major tearout. I got better by the time I got to the inside edge. Among other lessons, it seemed to help to reduce the router speed. So now I have several chunks out of the outside edge, and short of starting over, I need to find a good patch. One option would be to reduce the thickness of the edge, but it would need to be at least 1/2″ narrower, and there’s no guarentee that I won’t get more tearout.
Are there any decent ways to patch or fill the divets? Wood filler? Epoxy with Ipe sawdust?
Here’s a pic of the problem:
Replies
Well, no to filler, no to sawdust & epoxy. I think if it was me and I didn't want to redo the section with the divot, I'd make a deadman patch. Just rout/chisel/cut out the divot and glue in an "inlay" of the same dimension. Actually, if done carefully, it looks kind of cool -- definitely better than a patch of some sort of glop!
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Frankford,
Ipe is very difficult to glue and, in fact, I've never gotten a n ipe glue joint to survive outside without some sort of mechanical attachment. I'd really try to find some 2x decking lumber. Anyplace that sells decking should have 2x material for railings. I'd pin those splines as well, just to be safe. There's a lot of wood movement outdoors and that combined with ipe's difficulty to glue makes laminations very likely to fail.
Steve
Steve,
Ipe glues readily with Gorilla or other polyurethane glue or with epoxy. As with any waxy wood, a freshly made glue joint is essential. Glue within an hour of preparing the joint or oils come to the surface.
Both polyurethane and epoxy should withstand considerable water exposure, I don't know about total exposure to the elements.
Some recommend using acetone to clean oil from the glue surface, others say acetone just brings more oil up from deeper tissue. I've had good success with both wiping with acetone as not.
Rich
Bummer - but I'm not real surprised. I had the same experience pattern routing Ipe and had to redo several pieces. I built some of Nawm's folding deck chairs from Ipe instead of Teak. I found it really, really sensitive to grain direction and kept having to alternate between normal routing and climb cuts before I was through. I also wouldn't try to pattern route that stuff again without getting as close as possible to the line when cutting out the blanks - like 1/16" MAX, and less is better. Extremely shallow cuts is not being too paranoid when routing that stuff. I also had a bit less trouble (but still had trouble) using a downshear bit vs a standard pattern bit. I also didn't find it real glue-friendly either and ended up reinforcing a few joints with pins (I used 3/16" brass) through the joints.
If you build it he will come.
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