Finishing large rounds for outside table tops

looking for some advice on how to finish off these large rounds and use them for outdoor table tops.
I am planning on peeling off the rest of the bark as most is pulling off already.
Should I lightly sand, fill in any large voids with an epoxy, finish with rounds oil?
Any tips/suggestions welcome.thanks guys.
Also plan to try and work them up on old cobblestones I have laying around to prevent the, from sitting on dirt or my new concrete patio.
Thinking of mounting locking casters of the smaller of the 2 rounds.

 

gonna watch this thread for sure.

Cant wait to hear the advice and eventually see the finished product MikeyB

 

There's a product called Pentacryl used for wood slices. Never used it, but was told about it here on the forum. I think it prevents checking/cracking. Linseed oil is always a time proven exterior finish as well. Used to use it on wood ladders years back. If you try it used the boiled type, the other takes forever to dry from what ive been told.
Keep us updated

 

Thanks buzzsaw/ Marvin. I hear Tung oil is a good choice for these kind of situations. The wider end will be the bottom (1st pic) and I will have to figure something out for the top cut there.
I wanted to see what the sides would look like after a quick sanding. Hit with 60 grit then 120 grit. Really nice looking. Just peeled off the rest of the bark from this round earlier so I will let the side dry out before sanding the rest of it.
Also sounded the top and bottom a bit as well.

 

Sometimes a really cool crack can be mended or held together with a butterfly

 

Very cool, can we see a pic of the entire piece. Is it an outside or inside top?

 

Need to update this one a bit. Finally Pulled the trigger on a Makita 3 1/4 HP VS plunge router and a 2” surface planing router bit. Got the material to make a router sled and will work on flattening the top of the lager round very soon, got a few ideas on epoxy coating the top and finishing it off.
Will up date as I go along,

 

Built the sled today and tried out the new router. This round is all over the place, it’s gonna take some planing with the sled and some sanding to get it flat, will have at it again tomorrow. Time for some bbq and beers....

 

When you cut cookies it is really hard to stop any cracking and if you fill them with epoxy it will sometimes not expand and contract the same as the wood especially if you keep these tables outside year round.

I have some items that I built that are out side year round and I finished them with an exterior urethane from minwax that I got at Lowes. It has held up half way decent but the hail has damaged the finish on a small table and bench. Just about anything that is kept outside year round will need refinishing sooner or later. Now that being said there might some products out there I do not know about.

 

Quite the build for the jig. Was it your own idea? Nicely done Mike! Looking forward to seeing the top when your done planing & sanding. Are you gonna burn/carve the FHC logo in it?

 

Got a few ideas from you tube. Looking to plow out a circle/ wavy type design in/near the center about a 1 1/2” deep and “entomb” some seashells, rocks, maybe a couple of ocean creatures in a epoxy coating.
Sand and finish off the sides.
Also have the other smaller round sitting in my garage, will work on that one when I’m done with this beast. Lol

 

beast is right. Careful of your hernia moving that one!

 

I Was able to move this beast with some 1 1/2” wood dowels and a 2x4x8. The ground was frozen at the time and it made it easy to move it to the location it’s in now. Worked out well.

 

Nice. I have a similar machine I built years ago for smaller projects. Used it mostly for cutting many wood slots cleanly. Mainly building solid wood CD racks. That’s how long ago. I call it a radial arm router.
Thought about building an outdoor one for planing big objects. Even mused the idea of using a lawnmower engine and shaper blades. Had a spare engine A router will do just fine tho.

As Mag Craft said getting cookies to not split is difficult. Different woods have different results. IME Tulip Poplar is one of the best for not checking.
One of the easiest methods to help stop large shrinkage cracks is bore out the center (pith) of the tree. The wood cracks because it cannot shrink in on the center. Not a cure all by any means and I always found it didnt fit with my visions of a finished product. If your going to inlay anyway it wouldn’t be a problem.
He’s also correct that wood is going to move a lot. The epoxy May crack if it cannot expand and shrink at the same rate. Outdoors will add to that effect with rapid temp swings
Also, not to be a Debbie Downer but you’ll want to investigate the UV resistance of any epoxy you use. Been more than a few years but when I was playing with epoxies sunlight was a killer. Maybe they’ve improved that since then or my memory may be off.

Look forward to seeing the progression and results.

 

WOW , that thing is a monster ! That's not going to blow away in a wind storm.
Nice job on the sled for the router. A co worker did a similar setup that he used for cleaning up some slabs and he made a desk for his office. He said it was quite a bit of work but looks amazing after he finished.
Keep us posted .

 

Sometimes the cracks can be more uniform and give it a better appearance than an ugly one. Even if the cracks happen, you could slow them down and prevent the larger cracks from appearing by maintaining a slower drying out. I had cut cookies for my lady for her projects, she put them in her house and they cracked big fissures while the ones she didn’t take we left outside under the saws cover tarp, just seasoning cracks. Nice looking project Mikey. I’ve got some wood ideas while this social distancing is in the works.

 

Got a lot more done today, routing, planning, sanding (lots of sanding) and plowing out the middle for some decorations to entomb. Got the top to about 95% flat, super pleased with that.
I’ll keep you updated.
This Makita router is a complete beast.