Here is a super fun and creative project if you're feeling adventurous and enjoy the look of wood in it's most natural form.   This was a first for us, so we had to really think outside the box on a way to level the surface and prepare this Redwood wood slab for finishing.

Our goal....turn this large rough sawn slab of Redwood into a gorgeous coffee table top.

Below: Here is the very large wood slab a customer asked us to sand and finish for use as a coffee table.

We like unique projects, so this job was a lot of fun!

Below....Sanding would have taken far too long, so that was never an option.  Instead, we made a special jig and used the router. The jig was simple. It consisted of  a piece of 1" thick , 6"wide oak mounted on a piece of  3/4" plywood. I attached the jig in the center of the table with a screw and washers so it would spin 360 degrees.

Below: Using the jig and the router with a strait bit (largest bit that will fit your router), we ran the router back and forth on the jig, rotating the jig a little after each pass.

Below: The larger your slab, the longer it will take to resurface.  It took us about an hour, but this was a fairly large slab. The jig and router worked flawlessly.

Below:  After routing 360 degrees, the jig is removed and we are left with a circular wood island in the center of our slab.  Now you can see how much we had to remove to get a flat surface. See why the sander was not an option 🙂  Removing the wood island in the center was pretty strait forward. Enter the belt sander!  We made quick work of this with the belt sander and a medium grit sanding belt.

Below... After removing the center section with the belt sander, we went to work with our orbital sander.  I don't suggest using the belt sander for anything other than removing the center. Belt sanders cause damage and can quickly create extra work for you.  We used it just enough to knock down the center, and then we put the belt sander aside and completed the job with out orbital sander and 80 grit sanding discs,

Below: After sanding the top smooth with 80 grit, we switched over to 120 grit discs on the orbital sander.  We sanded the top perfectly smooth and it's now ready to accept finish.

Below:  We used lacquer for our finish, but polyurethane or even waterlox would also be great finish choices for a project like this.

This is a really fun and creative project and using our simple method will save you tons of time without having to spend big money on equipment!!  What an incredible table top,  our customer just loved it!

 HAPPY  FINISHING!