I guess its about time I wrote a post!
Whilst Joy tends to be the more artistic of us and uses her hands, I tend towards the more industrial side of things and use all the power tools. This week I had a go at making some resin river coasters. River tables are very popular at the moment, taking some raw wood with a live edge and making some beautiful looking tables. With wood prices currently being rather high, I decided to start small.
First of all I took a short piece of obeche, which is an African hardwood, and made a wavy cut down the center on the band saw. Flipping one side gave me a nice uneven river bank type gap. Then, using some foamcore I made a mold to hold everything.
Lining the mold with packing tape to help reduce how much the resin sticks was definitely a good idea. The wood does have a tendency to float, hence the clamps. Blocks of wood wrapped in packing tape help stop the risk of any excess resin sticking to the clamps.
I use Polycraft OptiCast 2000, which has a pretty short cure time and can be ready to demold the next day. I added a few drops of blue pigment along with a healthy does of blue PearlEx powder to give it the shimmering look.
Ideally I should have used more clamps spaced out, rather than just in the center. The ends lifted up and resin got underneath. It wasn’t the end of the world, but does mean a lot more sanding.
Once cured demolded, it was time to start sanding. The backside of them wood had a lot of resin that needed removing. On the top it was mainly taking the wood down to the same level as the resin, apart from at the end where there had been a bit of an overflow.
With a random orbital sander, I started at 80 grit to do the bulk of the removal. Working up through 120, 240, 320, and then even higher to about 2500 on the resin parts. Making sure to clean between each grit.
Next came the Yorkshire Grit. A present from Joy for my birthday after watching the Nick Zammeti youtube channel where it is quite popular. And for good reason, it brought up a nice shine on the wood and resin.
After that it was time to chop them into the final size. A quick run through the band saw to shave off the edges and bits of resin, then using a chop saw I turned them into squares.
They still need to have a chamfer added I think, and next step is to experiment with various finishes to protect them. Overall tho, I’m very happy with how they’ve turned out and I’m definitely going to be making more.
I did learn some lessons and have come up with a better, more efficient, process. Utilising the CNC machine, I’ll make the river channel as a pocket so its only half the depth of the wood. This will reduce the amount of resin used and remove the need for a mold. I’ve also got a thicknesser planer on order that will drastically reduce the amount of sanding needed with the lower grits. That saves on sanding disks and elbow grease!
After posting a picture of these to my personal facebook page, I’ve already got a couple of potential commissions!