Wood fillers for oak office table top

[tibi]

Good afternoon,

I have bought an adjustable office table base and am about to build an oak tabletop. The final dimensions are 1400 x 850 mm and its final thickness is 40 mm.

I would like to ask what some suitable wood fillers for cracks and knots are if I do not want to use epoxy resin (everyone is using it these days as a fad and I would like to keep it more traditional). Below are pictures of the individual (yet unglued) boards. Boards are arranged so that they alternate the directions of the growth rings.

They are just out of the planer, so I will finish plane them and do the joints with a hand plane to make the proper glue-ready joints.

Thank you.

 

[toolsntat]

Mix this stuff with the sandings from your work and it creates a paste which sets really rapidly to a crispy hard finish.
Cheers Andy
ps I wouldn't be trying to get the boards too close to finished size before gluing up.
You could glue it up in 2 or 3 widths ( to fit over/under your planer) and then one last one to keep control of flatness.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lecol-Wood...2&psc=1&mcid=58250f22ad653b4381dad6a9d029de0d

 

[MF1000]

Or simply oak dust from sanding mixed into your glue of choice

 

[skeetstar]

I've done the dust and glue thing, but found it just creates a very dark filler, I tried the same with dust and shellac and it wasn't much better. Maybe using the wrong glue, in my case just a common or garden PVA.

 

[XTiffy]

Shellac sticks are available in a wide range of colours that you melt (drip) using a soldering iron into holes etc. Sand off and use whichever finish you want.
If going for a wax finish then bees wax as a filler again can be coloured with earth pigments..

 

[tibi]

Mix this stuff with the sandings from your work and it creates a paste which sets really rapidly to a crispy hard finish.
Cheers Andy
ps I wouldn't be trying to get the boards too close to finished size before gluing up.
You could glue it up in 2 or 3 widths ( to fit over/under your planer) and then one last one to keep control of flatness.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lecol-Wood...2&psc=1&mcid=58250f22ad653b4381dad6a9d029de0d

Thank you Andy,

I do not know if I can get this in Slovakia, but I will take a look.
I am not in a production environment, so I always glue one board to an existing panel and hand plane the joint, so it is even. Then I glue next board, etc... It takes me longer, but I do not have to worry about serious misalignments.

 

[tibi]

Or simply oak dust from sanding mixed into your glue of choice

I was never successful with this method. It always turned into some sort of grey mixture. I started using transparent acrylic silicone with sawdust and the results are much better. But I do not think it will be suitable for such big cracks and gaps. I used it only for minor gaps, e.g. dovetails.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I find sometimes with jobs like that it's better to have a contrast than a near match. I'd be tempted to go black or dark green, with or without bronze powder. White, even, if you limed the whole top.

 

[toolsntat]

Thank you Andy,

I do not know if I can get this in Slovakia, but I will take a look.

The main users of this type of product are solid wooden floor fitters and you may find it at a trade supplier for them.
Cheers, Andy

 

[recipio]

It's pointless trying to blend a filler to try and hide the splits. Buy a box of Liberon shellac sticks and choose a colour. I would just use black shellac filler which runs into the cracks by a kind of osmosis. Black sticks can of course be bought individually.

 

[peter-harrison]

https://www.hafele.co.uk/en/product/hard-wax-sticks-repair-kit-haefele/P-00878970/
If you can afford it, this is a great set. I got one a couple of years ago, having struggled with soft wax, sawdust and glue, and pigments mixed with epoxy filler for decades.

 

[niall Y]

I use two part filler for these type of cracks in knots - the standard polyester sort, like car body filler. I have ebony, mahogany and pine ones that I can intermix to get the desired colour.
You can mix your own powdered pigments in, if that is easier. I also have a can of polyester resin - as used for glass fibre work which I use to thin down the fillers, when they become too stiff over time.

 

[Ollie78]

Use hot melt filler sticks basically designed for this its even called knot filler gun or something.
I have this one, Morrells do the sticks but there are loads of brands.
https://woodrepair.com/BCD180-Knot-Filler-gun/50000

Ollie

 

[tibi]

I find sometimes with jobs like that it's better to have a contrast than a near match. I'd be tempted to go black or dark green, with or without bronze powder. White, even, if you limed the whole top.

I originally did not want to use epoxy, but I got an idea to use transparent epoxy. So all the cracks will be visible and natural, but they will be smooth, so nothing gets into them. Is that a good idea? What should I put underneath the board, so that epoxy does not get out from the other side of the crack/knot?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Why not? Masking tape, parcel tape or anything that will stop the stuff running through. It can be removed afterwards.

 

[MF1000]

A quick squirt of hot melt glue to seal the void is an easy option

 

[BarbaraT]

I've tried a few of the options above...

I'm not sure what glue people recommend mixing with the sawdust, I tried it with titebond 3 Ultimate and was slightly disappointed, it dried quite dark, it also shrank quite a lot. I'm sure in the past I have had better results with different glues.

The photo is a gap between elm/birch plywood. It is also completely hidden by the drawer runner so I haven't spent much time cleaning it up..

I had far better results using 5 minutes epoxy and Micah powder off amazon you can mix what ever colour you fancy..

I've tried hot glue, but it didn't fill the small gaps as well.. also doesn't sand nicely. But it is super quick.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The reference to hot melt was for it to seal the underside, not to use it as a finish filler.

 

[okeydokey]

I originally did not want to use epoxy, but I got an idea to use transparent epoxy. So all the cracks will be visible and natural, but they will be smooth, so nothing gets into them. Is that a good idea? What should I put underneath the board, so that epoxy does not get out from the other side of the crack/knot?

I quite like the transparent epoxy idea its easy to get (practice on offcuts to make sure first) and will settle into the cracks after sealing the underside cracks as Phil has suggested - does it matter of the finished level is slightly under the wood surface?
What final coat will you use for the oak joint lines between the boards? Will that applied in several layers be good enough to fill the cracks?

 

[tibi]

I quite like the transparent epoxy idea its easy to get (practice on offcuts to make sure first) and will settle into the cracks after sealing the underside cracks as Phil has suggested - does it matter of the finished level is slightly under the wood surface?
What final coat will you use for the oak joint lines between the boards? Will that applied in several layers be good enough to fill the cracks?

I think I will use BLO or some other similar oil (e.g. Belinka). I will try the transparent epoxy, plane/sand it and then several layers of BLO.