Epoxy Resin Wood Coasters

in today's video I'm making a set of wooden resin coasters this one is quite simple and I love the end result so if you want to make your own stay tuned and I'll show you how I did it but first you're gonna need a piece of tree branch so however you have to get one just get one in the type of true branch can work but pine is something that's readily available in my area now the park on this tree is kind of flaky and I like that because they kind of give a wild look to it so I'm gonna prep these and hopefully the oven can dry them out and also kill off any potential bugs that's on the inside now you can cut these with a handsaw but it's easier if you have a bandsaw or something like that maybe your miter saw even to speed up the process with the bark coming off this didn't go quite as smooth as I would liked it to but I got enough off of it for this project I'm gonna use a five inch PVC for the mold and one of the things that was a challenge here was I'm using a 10 inch blade on my saw so I cannot go all the way through I'd have to just cut what I can and then take a handsaw to make the rest of the cut now you can do this from start to finish with a handsaw but the best thing to do is mark a line on it so that you know where you're cutting I'll make the rest of the cuts on the miter saw and I just turned a PVC pipe until I was able to cut through I ended up trying two different methods on this project for the first batch I cut all the PVCs this way I can pop them easy from the mold I then took some packing tape to close off the bottom section for the second attempt I took a piece of hardboard cleaned that off then I placed a PVC pipe down directly on top of it a trout spreading silicone going around the base of it to hold it in place but I never seem to have any luck with already used silicone tubes as I was squeezing a gun it started coming out the opposite end now I wasn't gonna let this go to waste so I cut the tube open and spread it to silicone around the PVC pipe after letting the silicone set up I then took some paste wax and rubbed it inside and this should make it easier to pop the mold to get started I'm gonna mix up about seven and a half ounces of resin and I'll link that down in a video description if you saw the other epoxy videos I have those are a different type of epoxy mix those are for like countertops and artwork and different type of application in this case I'm casting so I'm using a casting epoxy and the other epoxy mix I use it's a 1 to 1 ratio in this one it's a 2 to 1 ratio now these were the first set of coasters I created and I try a different method as I mentioned before so with this one I poured the epoxy and let that layer get dry first the following day I put the pieces of wood on top of the resin after mixing up another cup of resin I then put that into the mold shortly after pouring the resin I realized some of the pieces was rising to the top and I figured that would be a little problematic so that motivated me to start the second floor to see how that would turn out unlike the first attempt I'm not gonna wait for the resin to set up I'm just gonna put the pieces of wood on top of the wet pieces and let them dry inside to see if this is a better option a quick way to remove the bubbles from the resin is using alcohol with 91% isopropyl now I should have did this before I put the wood in it because I'm sure there's probably air bubbles trapped under the pieces of wood I'm gonna let this set up then I pour another mix on top of it I ordered a vacuum chamber and in the middle of this project it actually came in so I'm just gonna hook it up and give it a try and see if I can get the results that I'm hoping for the main goal is to pull the bubbles out of the resin mix this way I don't have to spray the alcohol or also use the heat gun to remove the bubbles now I assure you you do not need this I'm just experimenting right now trying to learn how to use this vacuum chamber so once I get a hang of it I'll share what I learned in the future removing the mold wasn't so bad I took a handsaw then squirt the side of it now the cut line didn't go all the way through and if I did it wouldn't be a big deal because I'm still gonna stand aside down the small cut I put on the side or really help that gave the PVC just enough flex so I can pop out the coasters now it's kind of hard to see but if you look near the top you can see there's a sharp lip going around the edge I kind of like that but I'm gonna send it down a little so that it's not as sharp so now I'm gonna demo the coasters from the first batch and right off the back like the tape took a little while to come off of it which is not a big deal but what really happened was the tape actually created these dents in it which now that's gonna cause more work and you have to sand it down now these were a little easier to D mode but the downfall to that is it now has a line in the side just in case you wasn't planning on sanding it down but we're gonna sand these down so not a big deal I added some color in two of the four coasters just so I can have different flavors the coasters are crystal clear and I want to maintain that as much as possible so I'm gonna take tape and put it across the surface this way I don't scratch it up as much for me this is all an experiment but for you I would say just cover the entire top that way the tape can just be sanded off in two areas and you don't accidentally scratch the surface [Music] once I got around 800 grit against which Dover to wet sanding so after sanding them down and polishing them the best I could I gotta tell you I was not a fan of the all clear look so what I'm gonna do is now take some sandpaper and Reese and the outside of it I'm really diggin the hazy effect on the outside and I think with that being hazy on the outside it allowed the top to stand out by having that clear look when you look down into it so to get the final look I used 120 grit to Reece and it down finally I sanded all the way up to 320 grit I was really happy with that and I like how soft it was to the touch [Music] from my experiment I got a better results by pouring the epoxy first then placing the wood on top of it then poured another layer of epoxy for the second experiment I place the wood in the first pour this one ended up with a lot of bubbles in it and of course you couldn't see it from the top the wood has air in it and it will release it during the course of the cure time for the first experiment I babysit it is for a first couple hours and I sprayed alcohol to relieve the bubbles eventually a few came back but not as many the second mix I poured in left and as you can see the results there was a lot more bubbles that showed I think the big winner is experiment number one this has the better overall finish and I think you can take the plus from both to get something nice [Music]

Channel: DIY Creators

Views: 315,037

Rating: 4.8524728 out of 5

Keywords: resin, coasters, resin coasters, resin art, wood, coaster, resin coaster, how to make coasters, epoxy resin, how to use resin, resin painting, diy coasters, diy resin coasters, wooden coasters, how to finish resin coasters, resin on coasters, wood coasters, how to make resin coasters, resin art coasters, resin ink coasters, make resin coasters, resin river coasters, Posavasos De Madera En Resina

Id: 4sLFOTTAbhQ

Length: 9min 27sec (567 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 12 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Enigmius1]

Something that might be worth experimenting with would be placing the molds with the first layer of epoxy and the pieces of wood in the vacuum chamber and see if that helps to remove the bubbles from the wood as well.

I like these simple projects, and especially when it's about the project and not just a vehicle for sponsorship revenue. Nice work!

[u/frankalope]

Love you videos man!