2/28/2023 0 Comments Resin ocean waves![]() I’m sure there is plenty of advice about this online - this is where I am in my learning curve, apparently.This little resin project is the perfect solution for those shells you brought home on your last beach vacation! It’s adorable, easy to do (yay beginner level projects!) and gives your shell a flat top so that you can easily rest jewelry inside! Also, a lot of the drips hardened into place and I had to do some work with a box knife to smooth it out under there. This worked pretty well, except that I didn’t sand the sides of the table! I think they were finished with some kind of oil-based finish, because the resin didn’t stick to them very well and is peeling up in a couple places. I masked the legs and base by putting them inside a garbage bag and taping it to the underside of the table top. I poured enough resin that it spilled over the edges and onto the floor, in hopes of coating the sides of the table nicely. But in the clear section it’s just kind of annoying. This doesn’t matter a bit if it’s in your ocean-wave section, bubbles look great there. Air will bubble up through unsealed wood, every time. I didn’t re-seal it with anything afterwards. I sanded this tabletop down to get the old varnish off (along with all the stains and old cup-rings). ![]() I had to do a whole lot of work with my heat gun to try and clarify it - I very nearly ruined my great big expensive project! Mix your epoxy by hand, and mix slowly and thoroughly. When I mixed my clear epoxy with this it turned solid white, because it sucked in a million tiny air bubbles. I watched some YouTube, felt all clever, and ordered myself a power mixer - basically an eggbeater that fits into a power drill. The directions on most brands say to mix for 3-5 minutes. This certainly isn’t 100% necessary, especially for smaller projects, but having the right environmental conditions makes a huge difference. I ended up sealing off my wine cellar, covering the floor in plastic, and putting an air purifier and space heater in there so I could get the conditions just right. A speck of dust will make a dimple in your project that’s WAY out of proportion to the size of the dust mote. When the directions say “ dust-free environment“, they mean “dust-free environment”. Resin won’t set up if it’s too cold, it’ll remain sticky forever and you’ll have to throw away your whole project. The clear is used for coating the bare wood part of the table, for a nice, level tabletop, and also to get a nice separation underĮpoxy Resin Pouring Tips – Mistakes to Avoid Temperature and humidity matters. Then I mixed about a quart of tabletop epoxy and poured maybe a half cup into each of the color-containing cups and mixed them all separately, leaving a good bit of clear resin. I didn’t have any green mica - I just mixed blue and yellow together to get the greens. I mixed about 2 teaspoons of medium green for my main color in a bigger container. One cup was white, then I had a light green and a dark green, and then a greenish-black. Once I got my temperature-controlled, dust-free environment set up, I got out five small cups (I used old spray paint can lids) and mixed about 1-2 teaspoons of mica powder in each one. Then I masked off the base of the table by putting it inside a big black garbage bag and taping the edges to the underside of the table. I didn’t get any build photos, since this was just my first try with this kind of thing (ok, second try), but there are a ton of tutorial videos online – just search “Beach Waves Epoxy Resin” and get some popcorn.įirst I sanded the table top and vacuumed all the subsequent dust from the cracks. I used mica powder mixed into the resin for this piece. Lesson learned: use the right kind of resin. ![]() I recently sanded it down and did another surfacing pour with Tabletop Epoxy and it looks a thousand times better now. I was going for “glassy smooth and buttery”, but I ended up with a lot of dimples and ridges. That table also had a pretty rough surface. First of all it took FOREVER since I had to pour in 1/4″ layers - this table is almost two inches thick so it took me weeks to get all the layers done. I’d used casting resin to make LED necklaces, so I used the same type to make my glowing resin river table. I’ve been a bit promiscuous in the past - I just used whatever was available or handy for whatever project I wanted to do. It’s a bit thinner and levels itself to around 1/8″ when you pour it over a surface. This is for finishing surfaces like table tops or bar tops. This is, as the name suggests, for thicker pours of up to 2-3″ deep. It’s generally for making smaller projects like necklace cabochons and the like. This is the kind you find at the craft store. There are three basic types of resin for this kind of project: ![]() ![]() Epoxy Resin Tips for Beginners Resin Types ![]()
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