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Epoxy Finish

olaf Vogel

olaf Vogel

Joined
Mar 10, 2015
Messages
347
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150
Location
Aurora, Ont, CA
Website
www.revolvingarts.ca
My wood turning has been pretty slow over the last year - it seems that starting a business and having a baby concurrent... sucks up all my time. Not sure what I was thinking. 🙂

So my inventory that was drying is in need of finishing.

These are large bowls and shallow dishes, with many voids. (it was a rotten old Manitoba Maple)
Epoxy was to fill those voids, specifically Art Resin - my wife has several gallons left over. It sands well and looks great on the voids.

I managed to finish one tall vase, but at huge effort. Painted the epoxy on, spun it up on the lathe and sanded through the grits down to 2000 wet. Then buffed.

The remaining pieces are large (up to 30" in dia). During the drying they distort, so spinning them up again won't work. Also, they are rough edged platters.

So are there any good sites, videos, references on how to:

1 - apply the epoxy, so it doesn't run.
a - Moulthropes seems to use a device to spin at slow speed so it doesn't drip. I'd have to build one first
b - I could wait a few hours so the epoxy gets thick before applying.

2 - how can I polish at the end for an awesome shine?

Olaf
 
Had a member of our chapter demo epoxy finishes. He had built a gizmo that would hold three bowls and turn at just a few RPMs. I built custom fishing rods for several years. Thread epoxy was turned with an old microwave motor at about 5-6 RPM. Kept the epoxy from running and automatically leveled it. I think he got the low rpm motor off eBay or Amazon. Good luck and show some pictures of your finish. Interested in this.
 
Ed Lewis of Chattanooga is a master at epoxy finishes. I think he might be who John was talking about. He uses the West system of epoxy. Brush it on and let it self level with a slow turning motor. I mean slow. I tried it with my lathe at 50 rpm and it was way to fast and caused build up at the edges. Probably 5 to 15 rpm might be closer.
 
Several years ago I saw a clever way to implement a slow speed motor ( I am thinking it was Dennis Edwards but can't find the video) He made a fixture that sat next to the headstock handwheel. He could connect a gear motor to the handwheel via a belt, and thus the lathe could turn at 4~5 rpm indefinitely.
 
A bunch of guys in my club have used BBQ spit motors to turn pieces while applying either epoxy or spray laquer..

John Williams built a machine that will turn many pieces at the same time at 8 rpm.
Not sure what motor he is using.
There is a demo he did for the sarasota woodturners on the web.
John is a master of epoxy finishes.
View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wr5LGQ9njM
 
John, the demo was by DAWG's Joe Price. I might have a photo of the setup but it's probably buried with fishing and grandkid's photos.
 
I visited Ed Lewis in Chattanooga several years ago to learn from the master himself. I developed an epoxy drying apparatus based on Ed’s machine after that visit. I used an old metal stand as the base, a fractional gear motor, homemade motor cover, sprockets, and rods for threaded shafts, mandrels to support the shafts, lathe chucks and roller chains. You will need to calculate the bowl RPMs based on the RPMs of the motor and gear ratio chosen (sprocket diameters). See pictures. Send me you email address and I will send you a video of the apparatus in motion.
Epoxy Drying.png
 
hockenbery said:
A bunch of guys in my club have used BBQ spit motors to turn pieces while applying either epoxy or spray laquer..

John Williams built a machine that will turn many pieces at the same time at 8 rpm.
Click to expand...

So the consensus is to spin the finished piece, slowly, as the epoxy dries. Thanks for confirming
Currently what I do is:
1 - fill all the gaps. This can take several rounds. My last big platter had a 5" dia hole.
(BTW - filled a large hole on a table is one thing, doing that on a 3D object is more fun.... 🙂
2 - sand heavily until I get it all level and flat (or in this case curved the way I want.
(no I can't spin and recut them. Too big, too far out of round)
3 - I apply one coat, cut 50% with alcohol, to get deeper wood penetration and hence better grain.
4 - Lite sanding
5 - Then a heavy finish coat. On a table, this is normally self levelling. But again, that 3D requirement complicates things.

I've previous built a sanding station, that uses an industrial rotisserie motor: 1 hp, geared down to 2 rpm. My chuck goes on a spindle and spins slowly so I can power sand.

However, my new pieces are live edge platers. I don't want all the epoxy running off the edge and onto the live edge.
So I think I need to tilt this to the correct angle. Which mean rebuilding my entire solution...sigh
 
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