Epoxy How To | 5 Tips and Tricks For Beginners (PART 2)

today we're going to teach you how to prep your live edge slabs for an epoxy pour how to properly mix your epoxy so you get a proper cure how to avoid and repair pinholes such as these tips for pouring clear epoxy over a colored pore last we are going to cover the pros and cons of using an epoxy as a finish versus an oil finish how to prep wood for the pour we start by removing all the bark from our live edge piece this step is important because when you pour epoxy you want the epoxy to bond to the wood itself and not to a layer of the bark as you can see here we start with a draw knife because that's the most efficient way to remove the bulk of the bark if you don't have a draw knife you can also use a hammer and a chisel but it'll take you a little bit longer when removing bark with a draw knife we like to use it until you start exposing some of that blonde sapwood that is underneath the bark once the bulk of the bark is removed we'll switch over to a wire brush here you can see us doing this by hand but there are also drill attachments or you can use a porter cable restorer to remove all those loose bits how to properly mix epoxy if you don't thoroughly and accurately mix your epoxy you may end up with a piece like this that never fully cures this was a result of mixing the wrong ratio we use ecopoxy flowcast which is a 2 1 ratio of resin to hardener now keep in mind that ratio is by volume not by weight the weight ratio will be slightly different the weight ratio is 2.46 to one resin to hardener in our experience we find using a digital scale the easiest way to get that proper mixture keep in mind that different epoxy brands will have different ratios and it's important to always double check and double check your measurements before you start mixing we always thoroughly mix our resin and hardener together using a paddle mixer before we add pigment and if you're wondering how much pigment to mix in with your epoxy we included that detail in part one of this series we chose to invest in a paddle mixer such as this one because we mix quite a bit of epoxy in our shop and we find it to be very efficient if you don't have a paddle mixer you can also use a scrap piece of wood to mix the epoxy and resin and pigment just make sure you scrape the sides of your pail and the bottom to make sure none of that hardener is stuck to the sides and here's an example of an incorrect epoxy mixture it just never fully cures and is very flexible how to fix pin holes in epoxy if you've ever sanded epoxy before you've likely come across pin holes these are those microscopic holes that are caused by air bubbles in the curing epoxy the easiest way to eliminate these is to put your epoxy into a vacuum chamber before you pour the vacuum chamber will remove all of those microscopic air bubbles from your epoxy and then those air bubbles won't be an issue when you go to sand later if you don't have a vacuum chamber here's the fix using akfix 705 we put some of this cyano glue into a small cup then we mix in some of our pigment so that this new fill pour will match the color of the original pour once the pigment is thoroughly mixed in we head over to our work piece and dab the cyano into each of the pin holes we use a popsicle stick to place that drop right next to the hole and allow it to leak in there so it fills it without trapping any air inside of the pocket once all the pinholes are filled we give it a quick spray with the activator and that cures the epoxy so it's ready for sanding again this step may need to be repeated a few times to make sure all those pin holes are filled tips for pouring clear epoxy over colored epoxy if you want to pour clear epoxy over a colored epoxy like this there's a few key factors that will play a role in having a successful pour first you're going to want to scuff up that surface once the first layer has cured the reason for scuffing up the surface of the first pour is to give that second pour something to bond to at first glance you think the piece is ruined because the whole surface is scratched but when you do that second pour the second layer will fill in all those scratches and you won't be able to see any of them we just use a simple sanding block with a 150 grit to do this step then we use compressed air to blast away any loose bits that are left behind as soon as that's clean you're ready to pour you'll notice this clear layer of epoxy fills all those scratches and voids and makes the epoxy look brand new again oil finish versus epoxy finish personally i'm not the biggest fan of epoxy finishes on wooden epoxy pieces but i'll go over the pros and cons to explain why the biggest upside to an epoxy finish is how clear you can get it the downside to that is that the piece looks like it has a plastic finish another downside to an epoxy finish is they are very tough to execute and very tough to make look nice that's mainly because you need a dust free environment to execute as well lastly they are very tough to repair if the customer puts any sort of nick or scratch into the surface now let's go over the pros and cons of an oil finish the biggest pro that i find when using an oil finish such as rubio monocoat is it's very easy to apply we've got a video coming out next week where we're gonna dig a little deeper into how to apply rubio monaco for a finish like this the biggest con with using rubio monocoat is that it's not ideal for clear pores which isn't that big of a deal because most of our pores have pigment in them anyways the next thing we love about an oil finish is that you can achieve a low or medium sheen we find most customers today aren't looking for a high sheen finish lastly we find the rubio monocoat is very easy to repair should you need to repair a scratch or a ding in the table if you found this video informative go hit that like button and if you have any questions leave them in the comments and we'll be sure to answer them and maybe add them to part three

Channel: Jeff Mack Designs

Views: 147,867

Keywords: Woodworking, DIY, How, To, Jeff, Mack, Designs

Id: EH3EiMCYikg

Length: 7min 5sec (425 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 17 2021