How Is Epoxy Used?

How Is Epoxy Used?

Epoxy is used for a variety of projects. In the past, epoxy was used mostly for boats. It is a great alternative to fiberglass and in ways, it is easier to work with, especially on flat surfaces. However, now it is used for so much more. Some people use it to protect wooden surfaces, they may use it on floors, cement counter tops, decoupage masterpieces, and preserving treasures that they may have acquired over the years.

What Is Epoxy?

What Is Epoxy?

Epoxy is formed when you mix resin with hardener. It is also known as a polyepoxide. The two come in liquid form. When mixed together they slowly become a solid that is crystal clear and extremely durable. It is a thermoset plastic that once dried will leave a coating that is typically 1/8” thick along the surface area. This is ideal for protecting wood so that you do not have to worry about water damage or scratches, but it also has many other uses.

It can be used as a coating or an adhesive. You can use it to attach items that are decorative to wood or glass and then put a layer of epoxy over it to protect your creative ideas. Although you should consider using grout or some other type of filling as well; it can be used to seal up gaps between wooden slats or over tile so that you can worry less about buildup attaching to the grout.

Advanced Techniques

Advanced Techniques

 After becoming familiar with the proper application procedures, you’re ready to move on to advanced techniques. Please do not hesitate to reach out to our support team if you have any questions.

Embedding Pictures: Objects such as pictures, articles, and maps may be embedded in this product. The paper must be laminated or sealed with spray on clear coat otherwise the epoxy will absorb into the paper. Once the paper is properly sealed, they can be placed on your project surface. You should wait 30 minutes after applying your seal coat of epoxy before placing the objects. Subsequent flood coats will then cover and embed these objects.

Embedding Solid Objects: Wood, rocks, shells, bottle caps, coins, etc. may be embedded in this product also. All porous objects must be sealed first with the epoxy. If the objects are not sealed correctly, they will release tiny air bubbles which will form around the object during the flood coats. Placement of these objects may be done before you apply the first seal coat or they can be placed into a previously applied seal coat which has been allowed to sit for 30 minutes. Lightweight items such as bottle caps should be glued down to prevent floating.

Embedding Fragile Objects: To embed fragile items specials steps need to be taken. Using a sprayable polyurethane or lacquer clear coat is a great way to seal your object without touching it. Make sure you follow the directions for the sealer and ensure the object is fully cured before coming in contact with the epoxy.

Thick Build-Ups: This product can be used to build up unlimited depths. Each flood coat should not exceed 1/8”. Attempting to pour thicker can cause the epoxy to generate excessive heat which in turn will cause more air bubbles, possibly cracking and shrinkage. It is advisable to wait at least 4 hours between pours to allow sufficient curing and cooling.

Damming The Edges: We recommend allowing the epoxy to run over the edges of your surface as it will self-level at approximately 1/8” at a time. If your application calls for a temporary dam to be constructed, it must be done with great care to guarantee it can be removed after the epoxy is cured. Ideally, a smooth, soft or flexible plastic strip should be used because the epoxy will not stick to it. Alternatively, wooden trim can be used but only if it is first covered with a 2 to 4 mil plastic sheeting. Lining the wood trim with the plastic and tacking it to the edge should prevent the epoxy from running in between the edge and the plastic. Testing on a small mock-up should be done to ensure no leakage or problems will occur with your damming technique.

*Some very aged and kiln dried woods may need multiple seal coats to prevent air from escaping them. It is not uncommon for as many as 3 seal coats to be used on aged and kiln dried woods.


*If at any time you need help with advanced techniques, please reach out to us directly. We are always here to help

How Much Time Does It Take to Build a DIY River Table?

How Much Time Does It Take to Build a DIY River Table?

It takes several days – often longer than a week – to complete this project. The active pouring process isn’t time consuming, but you’ll be spending plenty of time waiting between pours and then waiting for the final curing process to complete. Keep in mind that very thick, impressive slabs require far more time and epoxy than their thinner counterparts.

What is the Average Cost to Build a River Table?

What is the Average Cost to Build a River Table?

Cost depends on the wood you use as well as the amount of epoxy resin you need. Expect to pay more than $50/gallon for high-quality epoxy resin. We encourage you to get the best you can afford for this project and avoid cheap products. Your handcrafted river table will be an amazing work of art when it’s complete!

We can’t stress enough the importance of learning all about the materials used in this DIY epoxy resin river table before you get started. It’s best to start small when learning this technique. Once you’ve mastered it, you’ll be ready to move on to larger river tables that look even more impressive.

How To Make a River Table Using Clear Epoxy Casting Resin and Reclaimed Wood

Overview:

In this how-to tutorial video, we demonstrate how to use a piece of reclaimed cedar to create a beautiful river table.  The clear EpoxAcast® 690 epoxy used in this demonstration creates a beautiful, UV resistant, high gloss surface on this woodworking project.

Materials Used in this Tutorial
EpoxAcast 690 Epoxy
Reclaimed Cedar Plank
Mixing Cups and Sticks
Wood Planer
Orbital Sander

How to Make an Epoxy Resin River Table

How to Make an Epoxy Resin River Table

Resin wood table tops are everywhere! This enviable look costs thousands to purchase, but is fairly easy to make yourself with some time, patience, special materials, and just a touch of building know-how. This easy DIY river table project calls for a reclaimed table base in a style that appeals to you. Using a pre-built base that you leave as-is or refinish to suit your taste takes lots of the work out of the process of building a resin top table. Let’s get started!

Essential Tools
Heat gun
Drill
Sander
Level
Sawhorses or a workbench large enough to support your DIY river table project
Essential Materials
This project begins with one table base of your choice. Choose a coffee table or a dining table, or go with a slim console table. You may want to choose a smaller design for your first epoxy resin river table, so that you can familiarize yourself with the process before moving on to something a bit larger. It’s all up to you!



wood, epoxy coat
Wood with epoxy coat, Wood with epoxy coat

The rest of the materials are a bit more specialized:

Two live edge wood planks of equal thickness, planed and sanded
Mineral spirits
Clear epoxy resin and hardener, enough to cover your project
Translucent tinting pigments in a shade of blue, green, or aquamarine that you like
Polishing compound
Silicone adhesive
Plywood for building frame to contain epoxy during pouring process
Tarp or plastic sheeting
Screws to build frame (this is broken down at the end of the project, no need to be picky about what kind to use)
Sandpaper, 1000 grit or higher

Prepping the Resin

preparing-resin
Decide what kind of color you'd like your table to be, this will help you to choose the right acrylic for your mixture. It's helpful to create a couple of test pucks that you can use alongside the wood for the best effects. Generally, about one drop of acrylic for around 4 ounces of resin is a good mixture. You can always add more drops as you continue with your pour.

Once you're ready, create the pen for your table. This will make the shape of your finished product. Remove any backing on your acrylic sheets and use your clamps to keep the acrylic pieces together in a five-sided box. You can balance the bottom over the wood pieces you bought.

Make sure that the acrylic is level, so you don't have a wonky table. When you've got the right shape, cut your wood to fit within it, and make sure that you decide what kind of look you want to go for. You might have resin down the middle, on both sides of a piece of wood, or to one side of the wood.

Ideally, for your last pour, you should probably keep the resin clear, as this will help you to keep the color and style of the wood. When your final layer is finished curing, you'll need to remove it from the acrylic mold, which you can do using a hammer and chisel. The sides should come off easily enough by themselves.

Even if you managed a perfect pour, and you don't have any bumps because you didn't like the acrylic with tape, you'll still need to sand your new creation. The good news is that you can do this with a relatively simple orbital sander. Make sure that you have grit or sandpaper options in 60, 100, 120, 150, 220, and various other sizes. The smallest grit will remove material from the top of your table, which is essential for getting rid of any mistakes.

If you wanted a perfect table to sell online, then you might need more of a hardcore sander. However, if you're using the table yourself, you should get by perfectly well with an orbital sander. Just make sure that whatever you do, you don't forget about wearing protection. You should have both your safety goggles and respirator masks on at all times during this part of the process. By the time you're finished sanding, you're likely to be covered in dust.

If you're worried about an extensive cleaning up process, a good way to simplify things is to wear long sleeves. Remember, sanding isn't exactly the best part of making your table, and it requires a lot of patience. However, if you stick with it, you should have a fantastic finished product.

A good way to make sure that your sanding goes as smoothly as possible is to take some time feeling over the resin before you start standing. If you notice a soft or sticky spot, tape of the side, and pour a thin layer of resin onto the spot. This will help to encase the sticky spot. If you accidentally sand over one of these spots instead, you'll have to heat up the spot manually and chisel the smeared resin out of the layer. Acetone can be a good way to remove any sticky residue until you get to a solid layer in your table, or you can try nail polish remover instead.

Once you're finished chipping out and removing your mistakes, you can sand down the entire table until everything blends properly together. Some areas will require a lighter touch than others, and it's important to be careful as you go. You can always finish any problem spots with an extra layer of resin.

Finishing and Adding Legs To the Wood and Resin Coffee Table
To complete the table, clean the surface with a vacuum and tack cloth, then use wood conditioner and stain to finish the wood. Once everything is dry, you can go over the table again with a polyacrylic base. Ideally, you'll want a spray finish, as this will help to give you a more balanced look throughout the entire table.

Based on the type of table design you're trying to create, you may not want to be able to see the legs of your table through the resin. This might mean that you choose a three-legged table or something else entirely. Whatever you decide to buy for your legs, make sure that you clean the pieces before you attach them to your table, then place them to wherever you want them and screw them in carefully.

Best Table Resin Guide

Before you Begin

To start your DIY resin River Table project you will need to choose your wood, it needs to be as dry and flat as possible and the more interesting the wood the better for this type of project, however this will depend on your personal taste. If you don't have access to a professional workshop you can ask your wood supplier to plane the wood to your chosen thickness and cut it in half ready to create the river channel. You will need to have access to various tools and materials and it is very important that you work in controlled workshop conditions to achieve optimum results - like a dry heated workshop and room temperature GlassCast® 50 throughout the working and curing time.

Preparing and Stabilising the Wood

For this conventional DIY live-edge resin river table the step by step guide assumes that the wood has a live-edge or waney-edge and is split down the middle then turned over and inverted so that with the gap for the river it forms an accurate rectangle. If the live-edge has bark or loose material on it this will need to be completely removed so that when the resin and wood meet they will form a strong chemical bond. The best way to do this is to remove the loose material with a chisel, then abrade the surface and remove any dirt/dust.

If your wood has any splits, cracks or knotholes on the underside these will need to be filled with a small batch of resin (those on the table-top can be filled when the main pour is done). You may need to top-up these small pours as the wood will soak up some of the resin. Flash/release tape is ideal for creating a temporary barrier if required as it won't stick to the cured resin, and the aim is to pour to slightly overfill the hole. Once fully cured use a hand-held sander to remove any high-spots.

Setting up Resin Barriers

Due to the resin river being largely unsupported you will need to set up a barrier (both base and sides) around the wood, check that these are watertight and made from material that the GlassCast® 50 will not stick to. We used polypropylene sheet which gives a great smooth surface finish and used a hot-melt glue-gun to fix and seal the barriers. At this stage you will need to add additional support to the sides to support the barriers when the weight of the resin is poured in and plan the clamping that will be necessary to hold the planks in position and flat. When you are happy with the set-up remove the clamps and your wood from the container and you are ready to pour!

Preparing and Pouring the Resin

We recommend that you measure or weigh out the GlassCast® 50 resin for the entire project if you are adding colour or effects as this will ensure a consistent colour/effect. In the tutorial we added blue translucent tinting pigment - adding a few drops at a time until we reached our chosen colour, we used a tinting pigment so that the resin was still translucent but would look like a river. Then measure out the correct amount of GlassCast® 50 hardener for each pour (do not exceed 25mm depth in a single pour) and mix thoroughly before transferring to a second container and mixing again (this is also known as 'double-potting'). Then the following pours will be made:

Base Layer & Sealing Coat

Main Pour - Layer 1

Main Pour - Layer 2

Repeat as required

After each pour the resin must be allowed to reach the B-stage - this means that the resin has partially cured and started to become firm when touching the surface (with a gloved finger) you can make a mark but no resin sticks to your finger. Pouring on top of the layer below at it's B-stage will ensure a strong chemical bond - as though the pour was done as a single pour.

Remember, do not exceed the 25mm single pour depth and mix multiple smaller batches as required and use the double-potting method to ensure a thorough mix. The GlassCast® 50 is self-degassing but if you do find that you have any bubbles use a heat-gun or hairdryer on a low heat to help remove them.

Pouring a base/sealing layer before the main pour is the most important advice we can offer - it will completely seal all the faces of the wood and minimise air entrapment. Pour a layer into the barrier container and reposition the wood then using a brush apply a thin coat of resin all over the exposed edges and fill any knotholes or cracks as before. Then add the clamps and fasten into position. Once the B-stage has been reached pour Layer 1 of the main pour and repeat as necessary until the resin is just slightly proud of the river channel then leave to fully cure.

Finishing the Surface

Once cured, remove the barriers and decide on the final finish you would like to achieve. The tutorial demonstrates a natural wood finish contrasting with a glossy high shine resin river. To achieve this you will need to completely flat the surface of the piece - there are different ways to achieve this depending on the equipment available to you. We used a router set up on a bridge and made multiple passes over the whole surface area. Then using a hand-held sander we worked through coarse to fine grits until a smooth finish was achieved.

The eBook also describes how to achieve a high-gloss finish all over - it really depends on your personal taste, you may even want to leave it with an opaque look after sanding.

Cutting and Bonding the Sides

We wanted to create a coffee table with a waterfall effect using sides made from the piece of wood and resin rather than separate legs, to make it look like the river flows all through the top and sides. We created mitred joints using a 45° blade angle and brought the joints together using a clear epoxy adhesive - Permabond ET500 Using release tape to all sides of the joint to create a hinge then applying the adhesive and clamping at a 90° angle whilst the adhesive cures.

Finishing and Polishing the Wood and Resin

Firstly it is important to seal the wood to protect it from the resin polishing process. Whether you use a stain, wax or oil is down to your personal preference - we used a clear danish oil and applied it with a lint-free wipe.

Finally we polished the resin river using Pai Cristal NW1 polishing compound and a hand-held polisher. Liberally apply the polishing compound to the resin and polish, topping up the compound as required until a full gloss is reached, then wipe down with a soft clean cloth.

After Care

Tips to care for and prolong the stunning appearance of your resin river table include:

Not placing hot objects directly onto the surface, make sure you use heat proof mats.

GlassCast® 50 has been designed to have the best UV stability of any epoxy resin on the market and will withstand years of indirect sunlight, but should be kept away from direct exposure to UV light.

Repairing scratches and marks - repeating the finishing and polishing steps it is possible to restore the surface to a high-gloss finish if it is damaged.

If you are interested in learning more about the product and alternative ideas go the GlassCast® 50 product page.