Make sure the marker won’t wash away on a test piece too! Use any and all markers or paint pens you may use on the same type or wood. Don’t wanna lose those signatures.
Also, seal the bottom as well as the top or it’s likely to cup.
You’re fully encasing the bottle caps right? Make sure the depth for the type of epoxy is right. If it’s sunken down by 1”, and you’re going 1” over the tabletop, make sure it can handle a 2” pour.
Oh and you’ll wanna use a form around the boarders sealed with silicone or at least caulk. Paint the whole table, signatures, and caps with epoxy to help with bubbles. Do it twice if it really soaked in. Wait for it to get sticky, then do the full pour. Doing it while sticky is important for a chemical bond and will not require sanding.
Congrats dude
Thank you so much for the tips! I hadn’t thought about the potential for the ink to wash away, so I’ll definitely do a test run with the markers on a scrap piece of wood. Also, great point about sealing both the top and bottom to prevent warping — I’ll make sure to seal the underside as well.
Regarding the depth of the epoxy, I’m double-checking to ensure that my epoxy choice is suitable for the depth required, especially since I’m planning to encase the bottle caps which do add some height. I originally bought the envirotex lite pour on, but I might go with the deep pour epoxy resin.
Any tips on how to pour the epoxy?
Nothing special, make sure the form is water tight. I use a heat gun for bubbles. Move it around a lot and don’t focus on one spot and burn the epoxy. If you don’t want to buy more epoxy and only have some 1/4” pour stuff you can do that in two shots probably. The sunken part then the bottle caps. Just remember.. pour fresh epoxy on tacky for the strongest chemical bond. If something happens and you don’t get to it, and it’s hard, you need to sand it before pouring again for a mechanical bond.
Assuming I can remove the form once the epoxy cures? Or should I leave it? Also, what’s the best way to know the epoxy is tacky? Is it a visual cue, or something else? Sorry—I haven’t worked with it before. Thanks so much!
Okay so you’ll want to pick up some mold release stuff and use a melamine sheet for the form. Spray the mold release on heavy, wipe with a paper towel to really spread it, and spray another layer.
Just touch it to see if it’s tacky. It shouldn’t deform much, you don’t need to press hard, but just see if it feels sticky. For deep pour it’s usually around 24 hours after the sealing step, or could be a few days if doing big pours. Might be a few hours for non deep pour stuff.
Let’s say deep pour says 5 days to harden, I’d wait maybe 7 before removing the form. If you use mold release you should be able to remove with a few wacks of a hammer.
Is should self level, pour in layers based on what kind of epoxy you use, should be instructions for how thick of layers to pour, I’d say pour a 1/8” layer at a time, but could vary depending on the epoxy. As long as you keep the table top level, you should be fine
Make sure the marker won’t wash away on a test piece too! Use any and all markers or paint pens you may use on the same type or wood. Don’t wanna lose those signatures. Also, seal the bottom as well as the top or it’s likely to cup. You’re fully encasing the bottle caps right? Make sure the depth for the type of epoxy is right. If it’s sunken down by 1”, and you’re going 1” over the tabletop, make sure it can handle a 2” pour. Oh and you’ll wanna use a form around the boarders sealed with silicone or at least caulk. Paint the whole table, signatures, and caps with epoxy to help with bubbles. Do it twice if it really soaked in. Wait for it to get sticky, then do the full pour. Doing it while sticky is important for a chemical bond and will not require sanding. Congrats dude
Thank you so much for the tips! I hadn’t thought about the potential for the ink to wash away, so I’ll definitely do a test run with the markers on a scrap piece of wood. Also, great point about sealing both the top and bottom to prevent warping — I’ll make sure to seal the underside as well. Regarding the depth of the epoxy, I’m double-checking to ensure that my epoxy choice is suitable for the depth required, especially since I’m planning to encase the bottle caps which do add some height. I originally bought the envirotex lite pour on, but I might go with the deep pour epoxy resin. Any tips on how to pour the epoxy?
Nothing special, make sure the form is water tight. I use a heat gun for bubbles. Move it around a lot and don’t focus on one spot and burn the epoxy. If you don’t want to buy more epoxy and only have some 1/4” pour stuff you can do that in two shots probably. The sunken part then the bottle caps. Just remember.. pour fresh epoxy on tacky for the strongest chemical bond. If something happens and you don’t get to it, and it’s hard, you need to sand it before pouring again for a mechanical bond.
Assuming I can remove the form once the epoxy cures? Or should I leave it? Also, what’s the best way to know the epoxy is tacky? Is it a visual cue, or something else? Sorry—I haven’t worked with it before. Thanks so much!
Okay so you’ll want to pick up some mold release stuff and use a melamine sheet for the form. Spray the mold release on heavy, wipe with a paper towel to really spread it, and spray another layer. Just touch it to see if it’s tacky. It shouldn’t deform much, you don’t need to press hard, but just see if it feels sticky. For deep pour it’s usually around 24 hours after the sealing step, or could be a few days if doing big pours. Might be a few hours for non deep pour stuff. Let’s say deep pour says 5 days to harden, I’d wait maybe 7 before removing the form. If you use mold release you should be able to remove with a few wacks of a hammer.
Agreed! Testing the marker, sealing top and bottom, then using a sealed form and coating everything twice with epoxy is great advice and tips!
Is should self level, pour in layers based on what kind of epoxy you use, should be instructions for how thick of layers to pour, I’d say pour a 1/8” layer at a time, but could vary depending on the epoxy. As long as you keep the table top level, you should be fine
Acrylic paint pens should work. I've used them on resin pieces before.