I have been working on a dining table top from some mesquite. This project is especially fun for several reasons. A fellow ag brought me some mesquite logs, so I have been able to take it from raw log, to milling it in to slabs (having a kiln dry it) then making the top. It may not be the most economical way to if I added up all of my labor, but I find it far and away the most rewarding.

The top is a pretty straightforward project, but mesquite always has its quirks, and the middle board in the table required some extensive efforts to fill and stabilize all of the cracks.

The boards back from the kiln:


The selected boards:


I selected boards that would give a table that bows out at the middle. The idea here is that I want everyone at the table to have clear eye contact with anyone else. I hate sitting at a table and having to lean forward to talk to someone 2 seats down.. annoying..

Lots of epoxy work.... LOTS...



the boards rough edged to give an idea on the shape:


planed, so the grain really starts to show:


debarking and grinding away sapwood:

I am always nervous about mesquite sapwood in furniture. I love the color contrast, but the risk of bugs is high. I was happy to see that each time I came across a borer in the board it was thoroughly cooked from the kiln, so in the future, I may be a little more comfortable with leaving some sapwood in.

clamping/glue-up:


all glued up:


The next step is more epoxy and butterfly dovetails. The two big hollow spots will have a block of wood countersunk on the backside, then filled with epoxy from the topside. I have tentatively marked out 5 or so butterfly dovetail locations, but I need to flip the top and better evaluate the depth of some cracks to see if they are required and in the right locations. While they may look cool, the dovetails serve as one of the best ways to make sure cracks don't expand any more. The owner isn't a fan of them, so they will be minimal in size and out of mesquite so they don't stand out, but I definitely think they are needed in several areas.

Cool pictures. Keep us updated on this project.

Is that the mesquite from Southlake?

Fido, this is from an Ag out in Midland/Odessa area, where he got the trees. I haven't really found a project yet to use the mesquite from southlake. It is air drying still, but I may get it in to the kiln sometime soon just to finish it off so it is ready when I finally do find something I want to make with it. One of the large branch pieces from southlake is going to be used to make a curved, natural edge floating shelf along a curved wall for a neighbor, it pretty closely matches the curvature of their wall, so should look pretty good.

Beautiful work agrams.

Agrams- really impressive looking. Great work so far.

Can you share your filling/stabilizing methods?

I have some small blocks of really pretty mesquite burl but some have the voids/cracks. Intended use is knife scales and gun grips. Are you filling with two part epoxy? CA glue? What's best?

Neat project. This and other threads like it are reminding me of the big pile of mesquite slabs I have languishing at a friends that I need to reconnect with.

dtrain, it depends on the size of the crack. I have thin, medium and thick CA glue, and then epoxy. For the small cracks <1/8" wide, I will usually just go up the viscosities in CA glue to fill them up. For the really big cracks/holes, I use west system 3 epoxy with some dark brown/black transtint dye to darken it. I then have a silica thickener to adjust its viscosity as desired. The epoxy is prone to having bubbles in that will leave pinholes, so the little propane burner in the picture is to brush over the epoxy, this helps pop any bubbles near the surface and leave it smoother, but it still usually takes several applications to get a good smooth buildup.

Wow!!!! Too cool.

dtrain....I have done a lot of projects with mesquite and epoxy over the years. I also use System 3 but I use two different products....Silver Tip & the original System Three. I use Silver Tip on smaller cracks as it has a lower viscosity....in spite of what they say. Bubbles are less with it and it dries clearer. It can be difficult to work with in the summer as it tends to set up quickly.

For larger cracks I use System Three. It dries with a somewhat amber tint in case you aren't using a dye or paint. I use Sherwin Williams Kem Lustral Iron Flat Black. The negative is it only comes in gallon sizes. A gallon will go a long way when you are only using 1-1/2" on a Popsicle stick.

I measure the base and then stir in the paint and mix well...throw away that stick and use another with the hardener. You must mix this very well..if you don't and it doesn't set up.....you are basically screwed. System Three will give you more bubbling. I also use the propane torch. If you wind up with bubbles on the surface they can be very hard to get rid of. I use a 45 degree tapered Dremel bit and then the Silver Tip....waft the torch over the pour rather than at it.

When you pour epoxy on one side of a board it may come out anywhere on the other side. I usually pick the side that has the larger cracks..turn it over and mask anything that looks like a crack especially the edges. I try and avoid pouring more than 1/2" at a time....so the process can be arduous and it's messy. I always work over paper with the piece sitting on scrap slats.

I use different viscosity levels of CA glue with turquoise.

Thanks to you both for the info. Good stuff!

What's the process of getting the slabs cut. I have a 16-18" diameter mesquite in my yard that has been damaged before I moved in. It's basically a 8-10 foot tall trunk with some new growth at the top. I would like to cut it down but don't want to just haul it off or cut small logs for the smoker. I am in San Antonio.

You can go to a place like this. I'm sure there is one closer to SA than Sanger. They can do a lot of cutting for $100.

http://www.woodsofmissiontimber.com/sawmill.html

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What's the process of getting the slabs cut. I have a 16-18" diameter mesquite in my yard that has been damaged before I moved in. It's basically a 8-10 foot tall trunk with some new growth at the top. I would like to cut it down but don't want to just haul it off or cut small logs for the smoker. I am in San Antonio.

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I have a friend here in Boerne who has a mill like the one chaser posted, who'd rip it up for you. PM me if you want his name and number.

I've always wanted a mesquite dining room table and chairs. I'm just waiting for that lotto jackpot to hit....

You don't need to win the lottery. Get a chain saw and find five good trees.....take them to a saw mill and then barter with agrams. Save a few pieces of any burl and you can barter with tx4guns for a set of grips.

B183, shoot me an email at gramswoodworks at gee mail dot com. Ive got a handful of other mesquite boards that may work for a top depending on what size you want.

There is another ag in cedar park that mills some, i think his texags handle is jt2hunt? Ill direct him to this thread. There are lots of saw mills in the hill country that do mesquite or can mill your logs. The trick is always getting them dried to a useable state.

agrams

I've done some pretty crude milling with my chainsaw and planed down some smaller slabs of mesquite, but have a 30-36" pecan tree that fell 8 months or so ago. I cut up all the smaller stuff for the smoker but I have two 8' sections of the trunk that are still whole. I'm fairly close to the mill in Sanger and have thought about getting some slabs cut. I know the trunk is solid, but what are the chances that it's full of bugs?

They can do every thing for you. Saw, gas the bugs and kiln. You may have to sweet talk them because of pecan. It's pretty rough on blades.

Hutch, pecan isn't nearly as bad a of bugs as mesquite is. I wouldn't worry too much about it unless the logs have been sitting in a damp/wet area.

I dont find green pecan that hard for cutting. I did that full 30-36" log with 1 chain on the saw and just touching it up every 2 cuts or so.

Hutch, i am curious what their price to cut/dry is. I've seen their mill and 36" may be on the high side of what they can handle. If you get numbers shoot me an email if you can at gramswoodworks at gee mail dot com, maybe if their price doesn't work for you, then you and I can work something out. Do you have the ability to move a log that large to their mill?

I have talked to woodsofmissiontimber about buying kiln time, but they don't rent/sell time in their vacuum kiln. It is low volume but high turnover/throughput is high given it is a vacuum kiln. They may only do kiln work if you do the sawing through them.

I have never used them for that purpose. My oldests son's Mother in Law's Mom had about ten very large pecan trees die on her place. He agreed to cut them down and we were going to take them to Woods of Mission as my daughter in law wanted some things made from it. The only issue that WOM had was blades. They had recently completed a large job for a guy that cut some on the Red River. It gave the sawmill fits....the water that came out of the kiln drip was about 50% sand.

Sadly the MIL felt it was too much work from too far away for us and had someone come in, cut them down and haul them off.

They are trying to pull some mesquite together for a project for me. I'll ask when I go back up there.

Out of curiousity I called WOMT. Their mill I think is a 32, they said they would have to flatten the sides some to fit a 36" log on there for slabs. They also do not do drying either, so you get the wood back green/stacked.

I tempted to build a bandsaw mill, I am going to explore that option.

When you glue up the blanks, do you use biscuits to reinforce the joints, tongue and groove joints, or is the glue just that good?

That surprises me as they say they do on their website and I know multiple people that have done it in the past. I'll find out when I go back up.....might be steady customers over a long period of time thingy.

What a fantastic talent you have agrams, thanks for sharing the pics.

Midland Odessa just had a bad ice storm before New Years.
Despite being a dry wasteland we do have some nice trees or in some cases used to.
May be too far outside the range for agrams though.

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While they may look cool, the dovetails serve as one of the best ways to make sure cracks don't expand any more. The owner isn't a fan of them, so they will be minimal in size and out of mesquite so they don't stand out, but I definitely think they are needed in several areas.

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Can you inlay butterflies from the bottom side so that they aren't visible?

whoop, these trees were from around brownwood/zephyr, its just the customer was able to bring them to me.

mustang, I did, about 8-10 of them on the back side. I did 5 on the front in strategic spots.

It is normal glue in the joint, with biscuits for alignment. With a good fit and a tight joint, the glue joint will be stronger than the wood.

Thanks for the help. I looked at the logs today and they are most likely right at or under 30". I was planning on just loading them with the tractor and trailering them over. I live in Cooke co so Sanger is a short drive over. I was hoping to have them dry it as their website advertises a kiln but may just have to let nature work unless anyone knows of another kiln in NTX. I was wondering about the hardness of it but I figured mesquite was just as hard. I know in the past I've seen a vendor at Bowie trade days selling slabs before, maybe from Decatur or Weatherford. I don't know if they do custom work or drying but it may be worth checking out.

hutch2882, email me at gramswoodworks at geemail dot com. I may be able to help you on the drying. It has been one of the hardest things for me to figure out myself. But I have been working on developing a relationship with a smaller mill that has let me rent time in their kiln. If you are looking to get raw lumber/slabs from your trees then renting saw time may be the way to go, but if you are looking to have something made from the wood, lets talk.

If you air dry them, it will take a few years to get to a decently stable moisture content, and if you cut them in to full width slabs from the log, you will have to address warping/cracking during that time. I don't pretend to know a lot about drying, but enough to be dangerous.

Mesquite (short of the bugs) is the easiest wood to dry, it is one of the least warp/crack prone woods there is in the drying process. Pecan is less forgiving, and oak is a nightmare.

In terms of wood hardness, there is a scale called the janka hardness scale. Mesquite is about 30% harder than pecan/hickory, and about 100% harder than oak.

hutch.....Call Jim and talked to him before you head to Sanger. His cell is 940 206-5309

Beautiful work.

some finish applied. The finish schedule is going to be boiled linseed oil, wipe on shellac, then 5-6 coats of waterlox varnish. The first 3-4 coats will be gloss, and the final 2 coats a medium sheen.