Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Woodworking). This thread is read-only.
I built this epoxy and wood serving tray for my sister as a Christmas gift. It was the first time I have ever done anything with decorative epoxy. I used Mahogany for the wood. The green river and dark grey L and circle were cut out with my Shaper Origin cnc. The epoxy had Black Diamond Pigments mixed in for the colors. For the epoxy I used Total Boat brand table top epoxy. I realized that was a mistake in the sense it could only do 1/4 inch thick pours at one time so i had to do multiple pours which resulted in more work because I could not pour in one shot. I decided once I finish what I have, I will be switching to Black Forest Wood Co deep epoxy. I expect to get one more board out of what I currently have before I need to order more epoxy. Took about 1/2 US gallon of epoxy for this pour and I had a one gallon kit. The finish I used was also from Black Forest Wood Co. I did two coats of their furniture oil. It was the first time I used my Rotex for applying finish. The Rotex worked great. When the oil was cured I put on their diamond level furniture ceramic product. It is a two part product. I did a coat of the diamond base coat then I did a coat of their top coat. I want to say I had an estimated 20 hours spent on the board not including the dry time for epoxy and finishes. I think I could get it down to almost half of that if I can pour the green section in one shot, get the cnc time cut down and optimize some of the other tasks.
Wow that is such a nice job, came out awesome. The first time is always more than what you think. I poured Ardex in my mudroom thinking it would be a simple process. Would have been simple if I read the directions, but didn’t. In the end, I had to do 4 pours when I could have done one pour. Oh Well.
Eric – TIA wrote:
On 1/9/2023 at 9:20 AM, Eric – TIA said:Wow that is such a nice job, came out awesome. The first time is always more than what you think. I poured Ardex in my mudroom thinking it would be a simple process. Would have been simple if I read the directions, but didn’t. In the end, I had to do 4 pours when I could have done one pour. Oh Well.
Should take me less time next time I do it.
I’ve done a similar project and also learned the hard way about pour limits, ended up doing extra sanding between layers. Switching to a deep epoxy makes sense.
On one of my projects I was also hunting for a good release agent for concrete for a side mold job, and found a site that made it easy to compare options.
PhillyJp wrote:
On 9/25/2025 at 4:39 AM, PhillyJp said:I did one with a similar mix, maple and epoxy, and sanding between layers helped a lot. I used 220 grit before the final pour, and it came out smooth.
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