The next step after the pieces have been beveled is to flue all of the puzzle joints together. Technically it should be done before you bevel but I've already addressed that it the previous post. joining the puzzle joints is pretty easy, so don't stress.
Step 1, get your tools together. You need the pieces you are putting together, the epoxy, thickener, wax paper, brushes, and clamping solutions.
2. Mix up the epoxy and the thickener until you get what CLC calls mustard like consistency. I would like to say that I measured an exact amount of mixed epoxy and thickener each time I did this and can tell you the exact mixture ratio you need, bu I did not. Why not? because I do stuff like that at work and get paid for it. Your not paying me for that information so you get to figure it out on your own like I did. And it's hard to write while mixing sticky epoxy together.
3. Once the epoxy is mixed we can begin gluing! Put the puzzle joints together and arrange them so that there is plenty of room to get the parts properly laid out. Put wax paper underneath the joint so that it won't glue to the table. Take a brush and wet the edge of one of the puzzle joints. Put the puzzle pack together and wipe up and excess glue. Cover with another piece of wax paper and clamp that SOB so its not gonna budge for a California earthquake.
You can see the first set of weights on the joint locations
4. There are several ways to clamp the joint. I used a 2x4 and about 75 pounds of weights. You could use a board and screw it into the table on either side of the joint as well or you could use some of those awesome quick clamps. However you do it, make sure that it is clamped between two very flat smooth surfaces or you will spend several hours sanding away the mess you made. I learned this the hard way, you don't have to.
After sanding for about 30 minutes
After the joints have solidified (about 24 hours) take some time and do a good job sanding them. If you clamped them correctly this will be a quick process. If not, well you'll do what I did and spend 2 days getting just the outside surface right.
What a mess
Before
After
One other hiccup was that one of the joints was cracked in one location which caused a whole world of unexpected delays. The joint was about 1/8" uneven and I had to sand down through the hard epoxy to get it to look right. This took much longer than I would have liked because the epoxy really gums up the sand paper.
That hair line crack caused me a world of hurt
