5 EPOXY Tips I Wish I Knew As A Beginner!

epoxy projects can be intimidating and expensive if you screw up trust me I've done plenty of that in the past and you don't need all of this just to make beautiful projects in this video I'm going to show you all the tips and tricks I've learned over my years of screwing up so you can make beautiful epoxy projects at health so the first thing to mastering your epoxy project is going to be choosing the right epoxy that was a drum Bowl by the way so there's tons of options out there most commonly what you're going to be seeing is it's called tabletop epoxy and I've made the mistake in the past where I've taken tabletop epoxy now I tried to fill voids with it and then I watch it crystallize crack break and ruin the project don't do that what you want to do is make sure that when you are purchasing epoxy you're researching the depth of pour and what it's suggested uses are for you can't just buy anything and use it specifics of tabletop epoxy is it's for exactly that just the top there's tons of options out there for it you want to make sure you're reading the label when it's on the shelf before you buy it and then using it in the suggested application when you get into the pores you're going to be using more of the type of epoxy you see here this is the liquid plastic from eco poxy this is their what's it called sure cast Flow cast this is for their super deep pores but they still have like super specific types of usage that is distinctly labeled directly on the bottles so check it out this liquid glass product specifically says for pores up to two inches this casting resin is for specifically pores above one inch the liquid plastic I've used on the black rifle and on the river table are used for pores up to two inches as well that stuff is so important when it comes to making any sort of resin project that if you overlook it in the beginning you're really gonna pay for it on the back end now that doesn't mean you can't do multiple pores of super thin epoxy and layer that up and it won't be clear it's just not gonna be the same effect as some of these these are all slow setting epoxy they do cost a considerable amount more and they take forever to drive like the black rifle coffee-table took five days to dry it was ridiculous but because of that slow release that's what let all of the bubbles come out of all of the bullet casings and why we were able to get it to look crystal clear let me have more of like your standard usage type epoxies these are still gonna have extremely specific directions on the labels I've been using West's systems and total boat for years and you have your standard slow hardener and your fast hardener see it's right here fast it hardens in like two hours but because of that it's not gonna allow as much air to release and you can't pour it as thick it has limitations on the volume your suggested to use and all of that is laid out on the labels the point of this segment is to read the label there's multiple options out there and you want to make sure you're choosing the right epoxy for your application the last type of epoxy we use commonly is five-minute epoxy or 15-minute epoxy you can get this stuff it's great for quick fixes it's not really applicable in epoxy projects that you're gonna be making something with it's just if you want to stick two things together or you need to fill a hole a bug hole something like that it's a really cool usable product but you definitely don't want to be pouring or trying to do anything deep with it as well the one thing we've overlooked the most often in any sort of resin project is the temperature of the shop this is so important that like we needed to put a sweetie to sam note we need to put a sign when doing resin on the wall that makes us turn the damn heater on and because of that the epoxy doesn't set in and it sets improperly so if you look at like what's one we use most recently here right on the front it says for temperatures of I think it says recommended storage is 59 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit that's freedom units 68 to 77 degrees freedom unit for working temperature this is huge because if you're not if it's too cold in your shop the resin will cure it needs Heat in order for the chemical reaction to make it do its thing and it's just something that I've overlooked on literally every single resin project we've done and it's bit me on the backend as far as time of drying or the clarity of the pour you just want to make sure beforehand that your shop set to the proper temperature trust me on this one so tip number two is going to be building a proper form this has been a nightmare for me in the past because I underestimated how important it was so the first thing you're going to do is make sure you're choosing the right material a lot of people are using melamine for their forms and that's absolutely fantastic just understand on deeper pours that the heat generated by the epoxy itself can melt the melamine and it can melt into your project something else we like to use is MDF only because it's an extremely flat and affordable substrate because most of the time your forms are going to be thrown away so if you're using either one of these what you want to make sure you're definitely doing to your form is pre sealing it with some type of tape your two best options are going to be a tie back this is its tie back right Samm Tyvek tape which is like a roofing and sheathing tape for exteriors and homes and stuff or just your standard packing tape what happens is that creates a release with the resin and it makes it so much easier to take apart it also doesn't bond to whatever that surface is there's also an option out there to use PVC sheeting that's super expensive stuff but you can definitely make reusable molds phenomenal product we just don't choose to use it here because we don't do eight I like enough epoxy pouring to store those molds so we just make these like kind of disposable but with that you want to be sure you're building your mold oversized it's happened to us a ton is that we've built our mold exactly to the size of the table or whatever we're building and we've had to cut that down after and lose a few inches on all the sides because you're not gonna get a perfect edge out of the form so next thing you want to do considering the edges of your form is choose how you're going to put them together we suggest using countersunk screws in order to do so that way you can take the mold apart easily weep in some of our together with Brad nails and that takes a little bit more effort and also destroys the form when you're taking it apart but if you do it with screws you can get a couple uses out of it probably two three max before those screw holes aren't gonna hold up when you're putting a form together you'll see some of the guys I can another pros the big guys the ones that are doing it a ton are using screws to put their molds together but they're also using biscuits for alignment and then they also use caulking we like to use black caulking in our projects so you can see it from putting something on a white sheet or whatever I've got this tied like tape all over it and I use a clear caulking I can't see it I don't know where it's at and that way I can't clean it up so what we like to do is wax the corners of the mold and then put the caulking in and then that way where we take this little fondant tool from a tip we stole from our buddy Mike Clifford you press it into the corner and that way it squishes the caulking out that isn't in your actual seam giving you a nice smooth line there and then you can just peel it away the part that you waxed and that also helps with the release of the resin you definitely want to make sure that you're using caulking in your corners we also like to put caulking in the bottom of our table if we're doing a river what that does is it keeps anything that gets underneath your slabs from seeping all around the bottom there because that is definitely something that can happen ooh and another tip when you're building your form is to make sure that you're compensating for floating within your form so if you're building a box around a slab you want to make sure that you have the ability to hold that slab down we'll run screws from underneath sometimes to make sure we're holding things down if it's a huge table or you can use blocks on the top and clamps from the outside to make sure whatever you're putting in that resin isn't floating we use a mixer on a drill to make sure our stuff is thoroughly mixed it's just really easy and convenient you don't have to stand there and stir with your hand and you want to keep this thing as clean as possible for our clear pours we use a brand new one because you don't want to get anything in there but if you're introducing pigment which would be what you're doing right now at this time of your learning experience you want to make sure that you can you can reuse your mix or excuse me because you're knocking it's not gonna matter if you get like a little speck of dirt or dust in it you're not gonna really see it unless you're doing something translucent so speaking of pigment there's gonna be two different types you're gonna have your liquid pigment and you're gonna have your powdered pigment we prefer powder pigment just because it's easier to control in my experience the volumes you can you can use a little scooper you can use a tablespoon and teaspoon whatever you want whatever however you want to try to do that to make sure you're measuring consistently across your pores it's just easier to do that with a powdered pigment plus when we're doing smaller pores if you're introducing another liquid into the chemistry of what you're pouring if you put too much in it can affect the hardness to an extent in my experience I've sometimes there's been a few times where I've just put too much liquid pigment in and it didn't harden in the time frame I was looking for it hardening so I just leaned towards the sort of a that the powdered pigments and there's a bunch of great companies that they make this kind of stuff we like Black Diamond pigments and then eco epoxy carries around a lot of pigments as well the last thing you're going to make sure you have on hand for the poor is some nitrile gloves you don't want to get this stuff on your hands because basically the only way to clean it off is with acetone and acetone it's not good for your skin plus you can develop allergies and there's all kinds of stuff so keep a bunch of gloves around and I would highly suggest covering your work surface with plastic too if we're gonna be doing on-site can a work bench you're not building a mold that's gonna be somewhere else but before you pour you want to 100% make sure that your form is level looking back on our large sixty liter that's 80 liters yes the resin river table we did the blue one we made sure like 20 times over that every part of that form is level because this stuff is it's not viscous it is literally as thin as water when you're getting with the deep Pore resins and it'll go everywhere like if it starts running you're screwed look you cannot stop it and we've run into that in the past it is a nightmare it is really a nightmare you want an automatic trigger you don't want to have to get a striker out in order to turn it on because what happens is bubbles start popping up everywhere and you want to you want to hit those as fast as possible you can also use a good heat gun not an electricians heat gun but like a painter's heat gun the difference is the amount of heat but the heat will help you control bubbles and then some brands suggest vibration some don't that's gonna be brand specific we're not gonna get into that in this video but we definitely keep a torch on hand to make sure that we're dispersing of the bubbles as fast as possible as well as if it you know gets onto a plastic or certain metal surfaces and stuff you can heat up the resin pry it off with a putty knife so now that your form is level you're gonna want to vacuum the form out it is imperative that you vacuum and clean out your form dust debris all of us are working in a shop or somewhere that's not as like it's not as sterile as a as a hospital so you want to keep that form as squeaky clean is absolutely possible compressed air in a vacuum are gonna be your best friends in these situations and also considering vacuums if you're if you're pouring certain types of epoxy and they're not slow setting you can still use a resin that pours up to say a quarter or half inch thick in order to relieve the bubbles you want to consider using a vacuum pot or a pressure pot it's a pressure pot right yeah we think it's a pressure pot but you've seen some of the the Wizards out there like Paul Jackman he's always using a pressure pot for his resin because he's pouring the weirdest things ever and it's not typically a deep Pore and it helps relieve all those bubbles and he's had extreme success doing wild stuff with resin so surface prep for epoxy projects is an interesting subject first thing you're gonna want to make sure you do after your project comes out of the mold is get it flattened there's multiple ways to do this you can use a router jig to flatten things if you remember I did a five-minute router jig video with Mike Montgomery when I was out at the maker ranch and that's super easy you could you could take that kind of method and go about flattening it you could use your CNC which is what we did on the massive River table we poured recently or we use our woodpeckers named jig on the black rifle table but it is imperative that you flatten your piece because you can't run it through a planer and unless you have a wide belt sander which most of us don't you're not gonna be able to get those surfaces parallel and make a proper piece of furniture or table whatever you're trying to make with your with your resin project from there you're gonna we're gonna go through your standard sanding process that you would do on any woodworking project for us we really really really like using these a Burnett style sanding discs while we're working with resin being that they're porous and they have a lot more area for your dust extraction to come through they don't get as gummed up and they don't you don't run through as much paper as you would Mirka makes these as well as Diablo has options to that you can pick up at your home store they're both really really good for epoxy resin projects I would suggest going that route I typically start working from 80 grit and up so we go eighty-one 22 23 24 hundred on all of our resin projects we're trying to get as much sheen as we can onto the resin not necessarily throughout all of the wood what you're trying to do is eliminate scratches and squirrels squirrels squirrels swirls in your in your topcoat finish before you go and apply your finish if you're going for crystal clear resin which is a large amount of the questions I got on the 'black rifle table the next aspect of that is going to come in to buffing so a few things you're gonna want to get into can you still see me is we use polish from the automotive store you're gonna have different cuts this specific brand says the cut right on the front you got your light cut all the way up to heavy this is what Detailers use the polish cars if you're going from say a to 2320 ish sanding grit you're gonna use a heavy cut first and then just follow the directions on the bottle in order to apply it and then remove it super easy you can also substitute polishing with this stuff with wet sanding if you want to get into that and if you have the proper kind of tools to do so we did that on the black rifle table worked out great if you're going to be using one of these rub just you need to make sure that you remove it from the surface before you go to clearcoat but in order to get it to be as close to as clear and see-through as possible you definitely want to make sure you're polishing and buffing that up you can snag up one of these buffers for like 40 bucks at Harbor Freight oh they work great they're for car detailing they don't have like the best cord length I mean you need an extension cord but I've used this thing a ton I've got a little bit of a bigger one to that I've used a bunch both those are awesome get yourself some bonnets for them and then make sure that your just surface is as absolutely scratch free as possible before you get into finish so the last part to creating a phenomenal box project is going to be the finish you've got it prepped poured sanded and this is the last part but almost the most important part there is thousands of options out there for finish we prefer just a couple but that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't try the others so my favorite low-v OC and hand applied finish is always going to be rubio monocoat you've seen this on a lot of my projects super easy application and it has this accelerator too but you can just use the oil and it's a oil and waxed based finish that you can apply by hand why is this one phenomenal and great and should you be considering is because if you don't have a spray booth or a sprayer you're gonna want to use something that doesn't let off a ton of fumes that is easy to fix that's also going to give you that Sheen so rubio monocoat pure check it out it's a phenomenal option for any type of epoxy project there's also a great competitive product that's called Osmo the Canadians love it I've never used it I've heard it's actually really really good it's very very similar to kind of application you'd use Rubio on it's more similar to this Odie's oil which was something that I was seeing a lot of people using in the past another great product but these are all essentially a oil and wax based sort of basic finish and these all go on and then you buff them up the sheen really really easy to apply whether you have a massive shop or you're doing something like this in your basement now if you want to get into the more complex sign of finishes we like and prefer using a two-part catalyzed lacquer we pick ours up at the local Sherwin Williams there's a bunch of companies that make this I would call around to your like professional finish shops places professional finish places paint shops paint stores Benjamin Moore we have here on the East Coast DSi as a company they carry no it in just fart I can't remember the name of the company but they carry two part catalyzed lacquer the stuff you buy off the shelf is pre catalyzed lacquer this is catalyzed on-site before we bring it into the shop and it has a pot life of about six months drives in about twenty to thirty minutes and then we sand to 320 grit at excuse me we sand at 320 grit between coats after this gets sprayed on we let it off gas for two to three days and then come back with a wax and buff that to Sheen works really really well it is an extremely versatile finish it also takes a ton of abuse but it's one of those finishes where like if you don't use a coaster you're gonna get a ring if you if you screw it up you're gonna have to call someone to kind of fix it it's it blushes it's it's not the best finish it's just a really really easy and it's basically what like your cabinets are finished with you can also probably use a two-part Vaart calied like a two-part varnish a lot of pros loves that kind of finish too but this stuff's great we're big fans check it out if you're looking to spray a finish and then lastly is going to be the tabletop epoxy now a lot of people like Joanna use the deep pore why do I need to use a tabletop the classic tabletop epoxy concept works really really well on River tables and in epoxy projects because what it's going to do is bond with the the resin and it's going to eliminate like the scratch marks and create reflection inside of it and really bring it up to a shine just follow the directions on it I don't use it because it's typically gonna be a glossy or a very very shiny finish and that's not normally what I'm looking for in my my project but it's a great option and you can buy these off the shelf at all the box stores as well as from any of the brands that are making your deep pore epoxies as well and that's gonna be a wrap on this one appreciate you guys tuning in if you have any questions about anything that I covered here leave them down in the description and if not then I'll catch you on one of my resin project builds

Channel: John Malecki

Views: 1,272,437

Rating: 4.9060016 out of 5

Keywords: John Malecki, John Malecki Builds, Woodworking, How To, Epoxy, epoxy tips, Resin, Resin Tips, Beginner epoxy, beginner resin, beginner epoxy resin, beginner epoxy table, beginner epoxy resin projects, beginner epoxy wood projects, beginner epoxy projects, epoxy resin beginner kit, epoxy resin art beginner, epoxy tips and tricks, epoxy table resin tips, epoxy mixing tips, epoxy finishing tips, epoxy pouring tips, epoxy project tips, 5 things i wish i knew as a beginner artist

Id: OG9mr95od24

Length: 20min 31sec (1231 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 21 2020