YJJPWrangler
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2005
- Location
- Charlotte
Playing around with the laser last night while doing some staining/painting on the bookshelf project...making some belated fathers day gifts for the BIL, FIL, and my dad. Cork engraves super easy, this is only at 20% power.
Had some epoxy issues with the bookshelf top. Specifically air bubbles. I want to believe its because I used walnut sawdust to color the epoxy and nothing specifically that I did. I used a deep pour epoxy(Ecopoxy) which I've had great results with in the past. I played around with digging out the bubbles with a soldering iron(terrible smell btw) and CA glue(thick and thin) and accelerator spray. Never got the right result I was looking for. I tried adding some black dye to get the white out but it never seemed to work. In the end, I drilled out all the air bubble pockets and poured some countertop epoxy/sawdust combo. This stuff sets up in about 8 hrs and not the usual 3 days of the Ecopoxy. Sanded everything down to 220, then wet sanded everything to 1200. It's the softest feeling wood I've ever produced(pun intended)
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I stained it with a foam brush and minwax golden pecan(clients request). Also touched up some final paint on the bookshelf while everything was drying/engraving. In a very, very, correct lighting/angle you can very faintly see the outlines of the epoxy finishes. In the future, I'll mitigate this by repairing the bubbles after the epoxy has initially cured and use the same type of epoxy to correct. It's easier to blend the corrections in while its still "new". This stuff had been cured for a couple of weeks so it was a bit harder. I have a few more epoxy projects lined up so I will be able to practice new techniques and procedures. I like the way it came out, I might add another layer of stain later today after I wipe everything down with very fine steel wool. I'll also had a layer of clear paste wax to protect the top. This was originally supposed to be a walnut inlay onto the white oak. We used a new technique with the CNC and we didn't quite have it proportioned right, so I decided to go with epoxy.
Had some epoxy issues with the bookshelf top. Specifically air bubbles. I want to believe its because I used walnut sawdust to color the epoxy and nothing specifically that I did. I used a deep pour epoxy(Ecopoxy) which I've had great results with in the past. I played around with digging out the bubbles with a soldering iron(terrible smell btw) and CA glue(thick and thin) and accelerator spray. Never got the right result I was looking for. I tried adding some black dye to get the white out but it never seemed to work. In the end, I drilled out all the air bubble pockets and poured some countertop epoxy/sawdust combo. This stuff sets up in about 8 hrs and not the usual 3 days of the Ecopoxy. Sanded everything down to 220, then wet sanded everything to 1200. It's the softest feeling wood I've ever produced(pun intended)
. I stained it with a foam brush and minwax golden pecan(clients request). Also touched up some final paint on the bookshelf while everything was drying/engraving. In a very, very, correct lighting/angle you can very faintly see the outlines of the epoxy finishes. In the future, I'll mitigate this by repairing the bubbles after the epoxy has initially cured and use the same type of epoxy to correct. It's easier to blend the corrections in while its still "new". This stuff had been cured for a couple of weeks so it was a bit harder. I have a few more epoxy projects lined up so I will be able to practice new techniques and procedures. I like the way it came out, I might add another layer of stain later today after I wipe everything down with very fine steel wool. I'll also had a layer of clear paste wax to protect the top. This was originally supposed to be a walnut inlay onto the white oak. We used a new technique with the CNC and we didn't quite have it proportioned right, so I decided to go with epoxy.
