On 24 Apr 2006 07:40:28 -0700, "scott Doyland"
wrote:


In my garden I have a tree stump from a connifer tree that was cutdown
before I moved in, so at least over 2 years ago. Its started to grow
white hard/spongy fungus out of it.

What I've done for mounting tables to stumps is to whack out as much
of the soft center of the stump as I can with a hatchet, then fill the
cavity with sand-mix concrete. Try to get it slightly proud of the
wood, flatten it out with a board, stick in a few bolts heads down in
the concrete, leaving enough thread upright to go through the slab
top. Once the concrete is set, position the slab on the bolt faces,
give it a whack with a mallet to mark the hole positions and bore
holes through. Put a wood or metal spacer between the concrete and
slab bottom, counter bore the slab top for the nuts, and bolt it down.
The concrete stabilizes the stump rot to some extent.

Finish, as others have suggested, with LOTS of oil (tung oil works
well, but I have used Diesel - the smell goes away after a few weeks).
Soak top and bottom to reduce splitting, but it will probably split
here and there anyway. Melted crayon of an appropriate color can be
used to fill cracks if desired.

Regards.