Building Your River Table Pt #2: Finishing the Underside of Your Table Project

So you have completed the pouring stage of the project, allowed it to cure properly, and you get to break it out of the form today! You pull it up and out, and see that the seal of the epoxy & wood didn’t seal so epoxy seeped under in some parts, but not all parts. So now you have large voids that lack epoxy. In a dream world, everyone has access to an extremely wide planer that would accept the project and plane down the entire thing in a few quick passes. For the majority of people, and depending on the project, you have 2 main choices; fill the voids with more epoxy to make it perfectly flat and level, or get rid of the epoxy that has seeped so it is perfectly level and flat.

If you want to get rid of the excess epoxy, a router sled is the quickest way to get rid of wider and thicker patches of epoxy. If you do not have a router sled, you have hours of sanding ahead of you.

I personally prefer to sand down the harsh and sharp edges of the voided areas, give a slight round to the outside main edges, so the epoxy will flow, and then do a flood coat and fill the voids missing epoxy. Once this is fully cured, I flip it over and sand the top flat and then flood coat that, and then… VIOLA!