Hi everyone, my name's Rich and today I'll be
taking you through another GlassCast resin tutorial.
This time we'll be making this eye-catching neon resin plank table,
using readily available soft wood and our special GlassCast 3 Surface Coating Resin.
Which we'll ting with a neon yellow pigment and then simply pour to give
us this stunning glossy finish without the need to flat and polish the surface.
In this tutorial I'll explain what type of wood
and other materials you'll need in order to complete the project,
and then how to stain and flame treat the planks to create more contrast,
set up a baseboard and barriers to contain the resin,
calculate how much resin you'll need for the project, tint,
measure and mix the GlassCast 3, pour the resin in layers to completely encapsulate the planks,
finish the edges, and finally fit the legs to complete this amazing project.
Unlike our river table tutorial this resin plank table doesn't
require anything special in terms of the wood that we're going to use.
Instead we'll rely on some clever preparation of the wood and some really
vivid neon pigments for the resin to create the distinctive final appearance of the piece.
We're using this basic smooth, planed timber which
is very inexpensive and readily available from any DIY store or timber merchants.
Other materials and tools that you'll need to complete the project will be the
special GlassCast 3 Epoxy Coating Resin, your choice of neon tinting pigment,
a baseboard, timber strips to act as barriers, release tape, tile spacers, abrasive papers,
polishing compound, a planer, and your choice of legs for the table.
Although not essential I'll also use some wood stain and a blow torch on the planks.
I managed to buy the wood in a range of widths so having decided the size of the table, the first
thing I've done is to cut them down to different lengths so that I can create a staggered pattern.
I'll arrange the planks making sure that there is an 8mm gap between each one.
The tile spacers I mentioned earlier will come in handy for this.
As well as the gaps I also want to create some
variation in the appearance of the planks themselves,
and I can do this by individually lightening and darkening some of
the planks which I'll indicate just using some masking tape.
So these are the planks that I've decided I want to make lighter which I'll do using
some of this water based wood stain which I got from a local DIY store.
If you do choose to do something similar make sure you buy a water based wood stain,
oil based stains will leave oil on the surface
of the wood making it difficult for the resin to bond properly.
For these darker pieces I'm going to use a blow torch to lightly flame treat
the surface and this really helps to bring out the grain.
Before you go ahead and try on your final pieces
of wood make sure you practise the technique first on some offcuts.
The trick here is to keep the torch moving all the time over the wood,
not slowly down or stopping in one area.
I've now got the mix of lighter, darker and plane
planks that should give me that extra bit of visual interest that I wanted.
So from this point we just need to move on and get the base board and barriers set up.
It's very important to be accurate when you set up the barriers for the pour.
Done correctly it should leave very little by way of finishing of the resin once it's cured.
As you can see on this sample piece our finished
design calls for a resin border between each plank,
but also all around the outside edge of the table
making the planks completely encapsulated within the resin,
and so it's important that when we set up the barriers we allow for this resin border.
Before we start with the barriers we need a suitable baseboard.
It is essential that the material you use for the baseboard is one that epoxy resin won't stick to.
I'm going to use polypropylene sheet which I'll stick down with double sided tape.
This sheets totally non-stick,
reusable and gives a more than adequate finish for the underside of the table.
Since we'll be using a self-levelling resin we'll need to make sure that
the baseboard is perfectly flat and level.
To prevent the GlassCast resin from sticking to the batons I'll apply this special release
tape to this face of the baton that will be in contact with the resin,
overhanging the edge so that the tape can be used to seal the barrier down to the baseboard.
Of course it's important to ensure that there are no gaps in the tape at all,
otherwise the resin could either escape or stick to the batons.
With the barriers in place we're now ready to move on to the resin itself.
Choosing the correct resin is probably the most important aspect of this entire project.
The GlassCast includes the GlassCast 50 which is the
resin we used for the resin river table tutorial.
That resin is used for very thick, super clear castings,
however for this project we're going to use the GlassCast 3 which is a specialist coating resin.
being designed as a coating resin GlassCast 3 has special additives
that make it settle and cure with perfectly flat, glossy finish.
However these additives also affect the clarity slightly which means that it's
not a good for things like river tables where you want a deep clear casting,
but as we're heavily tinting the resin in this project we can make
use of the way GlassCast 3 cures with an incredibly glossy finish,
meaning we won't need to flat or polish the surface of the table once the resin has cured.
Working out how much of the resin you need for a
resin plank project like this one can be a little bit complicated,
because you'll need to allow for the resin underneath,
in between and over the top of all of the planks.
The GlassCast website can help you to accurately determine exactly how much resin you'll need,
however if you plan to use similar boards and spacings
to what I've used then you should allow for about 10kg for every sqm of table.
Our table is 1.2sqm so I'll need just under 13kg of resin,
so three 5kg packs will be more than enough.
To achieve this eye-popping yellow colour I'll be adding
this neon yellow GlassCast pigment to the resin.
Having done some experimentation beforehand I found that adding 3.5g
pigments per kg resin gives me the vivid, but still translucent appearance I want,
which means I need about 50g pigment,
which is two of these 25ml bottles, to cover all 15kg of the resin.
To ensure consistency colour through I’ll pigment all of the resin in one go.
To encapsulate these planks properly and to make sure that no air escapes from
the wood during the cure we need to pour the resin in four stages.
In stage one we'll pour the 3mm base layer and allow it to partially cure.
In stage two we'll pour a thin layer to seal the planks to the base and also to
seal all of the other faces of the planks to prevent air bubbles coming out of them later on.
Tile spacers will precisely position the planks.
In stage three we'll remove the tile spacers and fill all of the gaps between the planks.
And finally, in stage four we'll pour a 3mm layer to be the top surface of the table.
So, this is stage one. This is where we pour the 3mm base layer.
Firstly, we need to work out exactly how much resin we need to do this stage,
and the simple calculation is to take the area of the table in sqm and multiply that by three.
This table is 0.8m x 1.6m which is 1.28sqm. 1.28 multiplied by 3 is 3.84 so I’ll need 3.84kg resin.
GlassCast 3 uses a 2:1 mix ratio by weight, this means I'll need 2.65kg resin and 1.26kg hardener.
Accurately measuring out the resin and hardener is essential.
Because GlassCast 3 uses a by weight mix ratio this means you'll need to
use digital scales to weigh out each part.
Try to be as accurate as you can.
To avoid the risk of unmixed resin and hardener from the sides or corners of
the mixing bucket causing problems, we highly recommend the double potting method,
whereby you mix the resin and hardener in one bucket,
before transferring to a second clean bucket and mixing again.
If you follow this procedure you should never have a problem.
I can now pour this pigmented and mixed resin directly onto the baseboard.
Having already calculated the correct amount of resin to achieve the 3mm thickness,
I know that I just need to pour all this resin in one go.
Although not essential, here you can see that I'm
using a heat gun on a moderate setting to gently warm and disturb the resin.
This just helps to expel any trapped air within the resin,
although generally GlassCast does a very good job of this itself.
I now need to leave this base layer to partially cure to what we call the B-Stage.
That's where is it firm enough to support the weigh of the planks without them sinking into it,
but it still got some tackiness that will allow
the next layer of resin to bond perfectly to this one.
In an ambient temperature of 20°C this will take around 12 hours so overnight is ideal.
Whatever you do, don't just forget about it though because the next
layer of resin really needs to go down whilst this one is still tacky.
This base layer is now cured to the B-Stage.
Because the time taken to reach the B-Stage is so dependant on
lots of different factors including the temperature and the thickness of the resin,
it is very important to test this for yourself with a gloved finger.
With the resin at the B-Stage it should feel firm but slightly tacky on the surface and it should
be possible to just leave a mark and not dent it and you won't have any resin on your glove.
This is the stage that we need to reach between every layer we pour.
The purposes of the second pour is to sink the planks down onto the base layer, and also to fully
seal the planks to prevent air from escaping from the wood during the cure during the later pours.
The amount of resin needed for this second stage is 1.5kg per sqm.
From earlier we know we have a 1.28sqm table.
So 1.28 multiplied by 1.5 equals 1.92kg.
Splitting this amount at the 2:1 ratio this gives us 1.28kg resin and 0.64kg hardener.
Every time we mix for this project we'll use the
same double potting process that I described for this first pour.
Start by pouring all of this resin batch straight onto the semi-cured base layer,
using a spreader if necessary to even out the resin.
Once the resin is spread out start to gently lower
the planks into the resin in their correct positions.
When you lower the planks into the resin start with one side and then gently tilt them.
This will help to prevent air pockets from being trapped underneath them.
Keep going until all of the planks are roughly in position.
We now need to seal all of the other faces of each plank using some of the surrounding resin.
Just use a clean brush to paint the resin over the sides, ends and the top of each plank.
Once all the planks are coated use the tile spacers to set the 8mm gap between them.
if you didn't use tile spacers or something similar then the
planks would be likely to float around and move out of position after you left them.
For the slightly larger gap around the outside
I've made some simple packers to keep everything in position.
With all of the planks now sealed and spaced correctly we just need
to leave this resin again to cure to the B-Stage.
A few hours have now passed and whilst the resin hasn't yet cured to the B-Stage it has occurred
to me that it'll be easier to remove the tile spacers now, before the resin cures any further.
I'll leave this now for a few more hours to reach the B-Stage.
in this third stage we want to fill the gaps between and
around the planks with resin until it's flush with the top surface.
The amount of resin you're going to need for this is going to depend on a few factors,
the thickness of the planks, the number of gaps you have and the spacing.
So for these planks I've worked out that I need 2.5kg resin per sqm.
Therefore, 1.28 multiplied by 2.5 is 3.2kg.
I've then split this into the 2:1 ratio to find out how much resin and hardener I need.
Because this pour is the deepest I'm going to lightly use the heat gun
again to help remove any air bubbles from the resin at this halfway depth.
This just means the bubbles don't have as far to rise out of the resin.
I now fill the gaps up to the top.
It's quite important with this stage to fill exactly to the tops of the planks,
so you might find you're left with little excess resin or that you need to mix up a little more.
A clean brush painting resin over the tops of the planks helps to break the
surface tension and leave the surface as flat as possible,
and I'll use the heat gun for a second time just to help remove
any air bubbles trapped deeper down in this thick resin pour.
Once again we just need to leave this resin now to cure to the B-Stage before we the final pour.
This resin has been left overnight and is now at the perfect B-Stage so we're ready
to move on with the final pour which will form the top, shiny surface of our table.
We're going to use the same amount of resin as we
did for the base layer which will give us 3mm thick top.
The resin was mixed in just the same way as for all previous stages, if anything I
took even more time and acre to get everything measured and mixed for this critical final pour.
With this critical final pour now safely under cover we're going to
leave it to fully cure which will take at least 24 hours at normal temperature.
It's actually been a couple of days now since we did the last
pour and so the resin should be really well cured.
if you're doing this yourself it's really important to be patient at this stage and
don't be tempted to demould the table until you know that the resin is fully hardener.
You'll know that the resin is fully cured when it's impossible to leave a
mark in the surface no matter how hard you press down with your fingernail.
That's where we're at so we know it's now safe to handle,
we can remove the barriers and get on with finishing the table.
With the top turned over it's easy to separate from the baseboard and you
can see that we've got a really good finish on the underside of the table.
There are a couple of air bubbles visible where maybe I needed to
be a bit more careful to lower the planks into the resin on an angle,
but all in all this looks very smart for the underside of the table.
As you can see, it's easy to separate the barriers away from the cured resin and the
release tape that we used actually leaves a pretty good finish right from the off.
The next step is to tidy up the edges, we want to remove this
sharp meniscus of resin and leave the edges as flat and smooth as possible.
If you don't have an electric planer then it would be well worth considering one for this project.
You'll find that the basic model can be picked up very reasonably.
Alternatively, with a little time and effort you can do the same job with a hand plane ,
or if you have it these edges will cut back really nicely on a table saw.
This is the finish straight off the planer and as you can see it's actually pretty good,
but to finish it to a full gloss we're going to
wet sand it and then finish with a polishing compound.
Good technique is classed for when flatting and polishing resin like this,
you'll need to work up gradually through increasingly fine grits of paper,
I've started with a 240 grit paper, then a 400, an 800 and finally 1200 grit.
It's important to use a block behind the paper when you're
using the coarser papers to avoid accidentally radiusing the edges.
You should only ever move onto the next grit when you've removed all
of the scratches from the previous grit, and always change the water between grits.
To polish the edges I'm using Pai Cristal's NW1 Polishing Compound,
which is ideal for tough plastics like epoxy.
And on a small area like the edge of this table
the NW1 compound should allow you to achieve a full gloss by hand,
or you could use a power polisher to make this quicker.
At this point the tabletop is essentially complete and
now it's just a case of finishing it with the legs of your choice.
In the end we opted for these clean, modern,
industrial looking legs available for the hairpin leg company.
You'll find their details in the description below.
So here it is, our finished neon resin plank table.
For the quality and uniqueness of the end result it's surpassingly short of labour and complexity,
having taken us only a few short hours of hands on work to bring the table to life.
If you're following this project yourself,
providing you're using the GlassCast 3 resin, your results should be every bit as good.
Although we've made a table this exact process could be used to
make a fantastic looking headboard or shelf or bench or so many other things.
And you could complete change the final appearance by changing the colour of the resin or the planks,
or changing the layout, so having bigger gaps or no gaps, or changing the angle of the planks.
This really is a concept where the possibility are endless.
So that's it, I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial.
We've taken some inexpensive planks and turned them into an eye-catching table
that would be the centrepiece to any designed apartment or a modern office,
using little more than the GlassCast 3 resin and some pigment.
If that's inspired you to have a go yourself then order your GlassCast 3 online today.
GlassCast resin and all ancillaries to complete this project are available to
buy right now on the Easy Composites website for shipping to many countries worldwide.
Visit easycomposites.co.uk or click the link on screen.
If you've enjoyed this video and would like to know about other resin tutorials
as we create them, click the subscribe button now.
If you'd like even more in depth information use
the link on screen to download for free the full version of the plank
table handbook or click the link to see another great GlassCast resin tutorial.