Hi all,
I’m planning to build an epoxy resin desk out of three large hunks of wood that I’ve milled from a tree myself. My planned process is to:
- clean them up by flattening the edges with the CNC as a giant planner (yeah, I’ll buy some bits and chip in for costs)
- build a box for pouring the resin into
- Cut down the centre or cut the edges to get the final pieces into the box
- Tidy up live edges with hand tools so the resin will stick and not fragment
- Any joins or other structural metal needed to make it not split on pour
- mix and pour epoxy resin
- sand, clean and polish
I’m not sure where to store it and I’ll need to move it and start within a month. The pieces are very heavy (possibly over 100kg) but could be stored upright or outside. I’ll be purchasing and mixing a lot of epoxy resin so I will need to occupy an area for the resin pour to ensure safety of the piece and other members. I’m fine to do that overnight on a quiet day so as to cause the least possible inconvenience. I’m more than happy to share offcuts, leftovers and resin with other members. I’ll buy a lot of ply or other laminate to build the box for the resin pour too. The final product is expected to be 2000x1500x40-50mm in an L shape.
Size : three pieces roughly 2000-2500mm x 600-900mm x 120mm
Cost : The slabs are heavy at the moment and not safe for one person to lift. If the project needed to be terminated suddenly the easiest way would be to chainsaw it up and it would need at least 1 dump load of timber (which may count as green waste before being cleaned). There’s a bit of labour there so lets say $350. I’m happy to deposit that in escrow to minimise risk to the space.
Timeline : 1 month
Risks: The wood is mostly dry but still pretty green, it may split and fail. Resin is always tricky and can make a big mess if things go wrong, I tend to overengineer boxes for resin pours but it may still go bad so I’ll make sure I put down enough plastic to not get resin on the floor even in the event of a catastrophic failure. It may be over the weight limits for the CNC or table saw and require me to prep it with hand tools and jigs (to discuss).
I’ll be at the meeting on the 9th of May to discuss this further. Picture of the original tree, I’m offsite from where it is currently stored so I can’t get a more up to date image at the moment.
