When we were researching components for our new master bath, we prowled several "high end" fixture galleries in the more upscale areas closer to NYC. They each carried a line of wood sinks, from vessel bowls to farmer's bin sinks. The vessel bowls were all laminated/segmented glue-ups (no single piece bowls), and the salespeople were proud to point out that these $10-15,000 "artworks" were sealed in 18-20 coats of marine epoxy guaranteed for 15 years. Knowing those surface coatings would fail, I researched ways to render a turned bowl of size into a wood/epoxy composite material. There are several companies who do this for small items like pen blanks and knife or pistol handles, so I wondered what it would take to do.
First you need to oven dry your wood to as close to 0% MC as possible. Then you'll need a hard vacuum chamber that will handle the blank, plus withstand 26" of vacuum, as well as 150 PSI, and is fitted to handle epoxy infusion. You'll need a vacuum pump to pull close to 26" Hg, and a good air compressor. Blank gets dried and placed in the chamber in a "waste" container (that will contain the wood and the liquid epoxy). Vacuum is pulled and held stable for 15 min. Epoxy is mixed and fed into the container holding the blank until the liquid level remains constant indicating the wood's not taking up more resin. You then kill the vacuum, put on the pressure, and maintain it until the epoxy sets. Sounds simple until you figure out the specs on the tank of sufficient size that will withstand the tons of atmospheric pressure when you pull 26" of vacuum in it. From what I was able to determine, this will take a substantial financial investment.
