How to Epoxy Over Uneven Surfaces Like Barnwood
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 มิ.ย. 2021
- This video describes how to epoxy over uneven surfaces. In particular, 100 plus year old barn wood was transformed into 6 table tops for a local brewery (Ramshackle Brewing Company). I share techniques used to build up epoxy layers.
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Some of the products used in finishing this bar top:
Stone Coat Countertop Stone Coat Epoxy we used (heat and yellowing resistant) for the seal coats and top final flood coat can be found using this link: amzn.to/481NVAr
Metallic powder additive used with the super cast epoxy amzn.to/3oec7sy
Quality brush used to chop out the epoxy flood coat amzn.to/39cfNGM
or if you are planning on doing a couple epoxy projects or working with bark on, I suggest this bulk pack of 12 (you save over $1 per brush) amzn.to/3qMgegR
You can keep reusing your trowel by simply letting the epoxy drain off the square notches. This 1/8 x 1/8 x 1/8 square notch trowel is the size you need for the flood coat amzn.to/2M0SiYv
When using a 1:1 ratio epoxy, measuring your amounts is extremely important. Here is the brand of mixing cup I trust and has never let me down amzn.to/3iGUHU0
I use Diablo 5" random orbital sanding discs (I use different grits, working my way up to 220 - there is no need to go beyond 220 grit when using epoxy) amzn.to/2MizlAv
With the exception of a little hand sanding, I use this Dewalt Random Orbital Sander amzn.to/3iJVxzx
This is an epoxy cleaner which I use before delivering any epoxy product to a client. It also contains an epoxy polish to help maintain your finish. amzn.to/3iHRYd6
Use this self igniting propane torch to pop air bubbles. amzn.to/34yBXzV
You can keep reusing your trowel by simply letting the epoxy drain off the square notches. This 1/8 x 1/8 x 1/8 square notch trowel is the size you need for the flood coat. amzn.to/2M0SiYv
This is what I used to seal the barn wood and to retain some of the weathered barn wood color. This product is also great for an outdoor finish. amzn.to/3cPzCFn
Thankyou ! Finally someone who explains why we get bubbles. No one was able to tell me that it was my seal coat that wasn’t put on properly.
I’m glad you found it helpful! Thanks for watching!
Very nice. Great speed. Awesome close ups. Tell Ramshackle brewery wooden stools will make those tables pop.
Thank you and thanks for watching!
Thanks for the tips. Your camera work is fine.
Glad you found some of the information useful…thanks for watching!
Looks great love the old barn wood projects
Thank you...much appreciated!
Here's another finishing tip: Make sure your clothes and hair are free of dust and debris. I messed up day's worth of work not once but twice because of this. First was dandruff and the second was a big ol' glob of dusty spiderweb that decided to fall off the overhead lights right onto my countertop. Great video!!
Haha great tip! Thanks for watching!
I love these table tops! Great job!!
Thank you and thanks for watching!
Great work. I love that you actually explained what your doing. Much appreciated.
Glad you enjoyed it…thank you for watching!
Very, very cool! Thanks for sharing your expertise.... and you videography was just fine!
Haha thank you and thanks for watching!
Thanks a lot friend..
Now I will do up my table at home as a DIY.
Best of luck!
Great video! Thanks, man!
Thank you for watching!
Amazing clear videos. Thank you. Keep making them. Your helping us a lot No way could we hire someone so thanks for helping us little guys
Glad to help! Thanks for watching!
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
Looks great man!
Thank you...much appreciated!
Well done man!
Thank you!
Nice one dude! Just about to epoxy a hand flattend 2 board live edge yew beast, you've given what I needed 👍
Sounds cool…good luck and thanks for watching!
Thank you for posting. I have been fighting bubbles on bourbon barrel stave wood as it is very porous. I have been wanting to try the Minwax urethane first but all the manufacturers were very hesitant on that actually working. I also wanted that yellowing that comes with the urethane. I will be trying the urethane on my next project along with the very thin skin coats based off your video. My past skim costs were considerably thicker and unneeded. Thanks for posting!
Glad you found it helpful…thanks for watching!
Those came out awesome nice job brother 👍🍺✌
Thank you…appreciate it!
Nice work
Thank you and thanks for watching!
Thank you for this clear video! Is it possible to get a ‘satin’ finish using epoxy, without the high glaze but getting the ‘fill’ benefits?
Glad you enjoyed the video. The easiest way to get a satin finish is to pour the epoxy, let it cure for about a month, then sand it in a progression until you get into the thousands and then polish to the sheen you like. Thanks for watching.
Just to interject You can start on 1000 grit then 2000 grit and apply some osmo hard wax oil then wipe of depending how well the epoxy cured up that is ,you don’t have to start from 80 grit upwards like a lot of people assume especially for what you want to achieve .if you made a fresh cut on epoxy then you would start at 40 grit up to 2000 /3000 going up 50% more than the last grit used
Thanks so much for making this! Precisely the kind of video I've been hoping to find to help teach me about epoxy and old wood together. A few questions... Can I use polyurethane instead of spar urethane? Also did you use the quick coat epoxy for seal coating and flooding too?
I have used polyurethane before as well….you just want to make sure you get a mechanical bond. I used regular table top style epoxy on this because of the quantity I was working with. Thanks for watching!
VERY Nice job !!
Thanks for demonstrating the combined epoxy / old wood conundrum!
QUESTION -- Could SHELLAC be used as the seal coat??
Thanks!!
--a new subscriber !
I wouldn’t be afraid of epoxying over shellac….just make sure you scuff it with 220 to secure that mechanical bond. I’d probably test it out to make sure the epoxy makes the sanding marks disappear in the shellac. Good luck!
been following your videos, using your examples for our 1st river table.. it''s a "near disaster" but since it's our 1st and like I say about all my near disasters... it will be "functional " ! One of our problems is with the torch for bubble popping,, thought it was the bottle ( was from a kit, bottle and torch combo) so bought another bottle... same problem, whenever I tilt it to begin popping.. flame goes out. Is this a safety feature that the bottle must stay vertical and must use a hose for all the weird angle work ? Thanks for showing us your great work, looking forward for your next project.
Sorry to hear you had some trouble. I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way and still do...always learning. Thanks for watching and good luck on your next project!
Thank you for sharing your process. Epoxy is a pain to work with and risky, because it’s a pretty exact science to get the ratios just right. If I was building tables like that, I would have opted to run a barnwood frame around the outside, maybe letting 3/8” of the outside skirt hang below the table surface and mitre the corners. In the long run, I think it would have made the ends and corners of the barnwood flats much stronger without sacrificing table space. Over great project thanks for sharing
Gotta give the customer what they want! Thanks for watching!
Second time watching this through and ready to flood pour my desktop. One difference is it has a damn but the irregular surface is what brought me back to watch again. One question- I sealed already with oil based poly so should I do the epoxy seal coats too?
If you seal coated with poly on wood, I would suggest you do at least one seal coat to see if you have any bubbles before you flood. In this video the irregular surface helped the epoxy bond, but if you don’t have that it might be good to lightly sand the poly to make sure the epoxy has something to mechanically bond to. Epoxy on straight flat wood might not allow a mechanical bond without the light sanding. Thanks for watching.
Thank you for the quick reply! Really love what you did and keeping that in my back pocket for future use. My desktop is made from pine project board with many various sizes squares and rectangles. And the surface is not flat but more due to the knots and wood variations. I stained with four different wood stain colors masking each and using gel stain to keep borders crisp. Figured I’d seal with oil based poly and then epoxy. I’ve reached that epoxy step and am gearing up for the pour(s). Never having done it I’m a bit nervous but thanks to your opinion I will follow that and proceed! Rough up the poly and probably use total boat sealing epoxy because I choose their bartop product to get near 1/4 inch total thickness with a dam so I can attach a border I made. Thanks again!
It might be good to test out the poly and then sand it on a scrap piece to see how it will look with epoxy over it. It should make the scratches from the sand paper invisible, but might be good to test. Best of luck!
Awesome job. Any idea how much weight was added to each table top with the four coats you put on? Also, what grit sand paper did you use the Spar Urethane, was that a gloss finish?
Thank you! It added a little weight, but I think it really wasn’t too much of a difference with them not being really large tops. I used 220 on the spar and I believe it was semi gloss. Thanks for watching!
Looks great! I'm doing my first epoxy/resin project and have some spots where the seal coat "puddled" so there's a bit of a hump where the epoxy transitions from lower to higher spot. I noticed on your video you had similar "humps" after the seal coat. But, these humps disappeared when you applied the flood coat and one can't even tell there was once an uneven spot. Is that the natural process with the flood coat...that it won't show that "hump" under the new top/flood coat? Thanks.
Thank you! You are correct…when you seal coat the epoxy absorbs in certain spots more than other and these spots appear shallower. The flood coat should even everything out. Best of luck!
@@northernridgedesigns Thank you very much. As you can imagine, these new projects are both exciting and a bit stressful. But, in the end we learn and improve. Thanks again.
Did you sand it between each coat? Beautiful job btw!
Thank you! I maybe didn’t sand between the first and second coat of this particular project because it was sooo dry and had so many nooks and crannies. I’m sure I had at least sanded the areas where the epoxy pooled. After the second coat I definitely sanded between coats. Thanks for watching!
They looked nice but I saw a few raised puddles on a couple of them where you didn’t sand them before you poured ,did you sand and polish these after ? Either way great old weathered look 👌
No need to sand and polish in this case…they wanted the high gloss finish. Thanks for watching.
Thanks for sharing. Probably a completely different technique/approach but you may know or have an idea. I am trying to cover an embroidered patch. Do you think I should use a thin coat of resin to seal first or to use something else? Thanks, in advance.
I would try gluing it down first with some epoxy and then some seal coats right over it. Thanks for watching and good luck!
@@northernridgedesigns thanks for the quick response 😊
So glad I found this. Tried epoxy resin for my first time making some Cornhole boards, with some free wood lol. Nevertheless it was uneven and now I am hoping I have learned a bit to try on the next set. You were dead on with a lot of my faults lol. I tried torching bubbles and they went nowhere. But I didn't do a base/seal coat. Can't wait to do er again. Thanks a lot for the info.
Edit:P.S.If you do happen to answer back can i fix the low spots with the same process? Sand and apply again? I will be looking at your other videos to see in the meantime
Glad you found it helpful! Thanks for watching!
Well unless you have a direct line how do you help everyone that comes across you on TH-cam so can I get that number 🥺. Friend. 🤣
When you do a second seal coat you can move some product to the lower spots and help even those out a bit. The final thicker flood coat also helps to take care of these. Sand in between each boat to ensure that mechanical bond. Also, if you have a real high spot you can sand that down some too. Good luck!
@@northernridgedesigns thanks for replying to my smart ass comment brother.if I could share pics here I would lol. Cause I know you would have the answer. I ended up with a bunch of what I'd call fish eye and air bubbles so on the next one I'm gonna do better at cleaning and also gonna start with the seal coats which may solve all my problems lol. I thank you again for your response
Sometimes I forget that TH-camrs are actual peoplebso forgive me please
Would you normally brush in epoxy to seal it before pouring the first coat or is the first coat to seal it?
I would normally use my gloved hand or a squeegee to put down the first coat (a seal coat), but in this case we didn’t like how the epoxy changes the color of the old barnwood. So we used the oil product and then seal coated. I had to use a brush to keep the epoxy from pooling too deep in the big weather checks during the initial seal coats. Usually a brush isn’t necessary for seal coats. Thanks for watching!
What grit sandpaper did you use to lightly sand the spar urethane? And did you use and orbital sander or did you do it by hand?
I used 220 grit and did not use an orbital…it was easiest to use paper by hand in order to get into all the crevices. Thanks for watching!
Very helpful, thanks for sharing!
Nice job! How much epoxy have you used for this project ? I would like to make a small dj booth but i have no clue how much product i need to order (total noob here ;)
Good question…for seal coats I figure 1 ounce of mixed epoxy per sq ft. For the final flood coat I figure 3 ounces per sq ft. I usually do 3 seal coats and 1 flood coat. So that is a total of 6 ounces per sq ft for a wood project. If there are large edges, you would need a bit more. Thanks for watching!
@@northernridgedesigns Ok, thanks for your reply mate! I just subscribed to your channel ;) Cheers
How long do you wait to apply 2nd and 3rd seal coats
I usually wait about 24 hours, but it depends on temperature and humidity…they can affect cure time. Thanks for watching!
Would a heat gun work for torching?
A heat gun can work. Thanks for watching!
So you can put a table top coat epoxy on top of spar urethane? I read every where you couldn’t but you prove them wrong.
I don’t know if I would recommend doing it over a perfectly flat and smooth spar urethane finish. In this particular case, the tops had a ton of cracks and little nooks and crannies to help the proxy adhere to. Thanks for watching!
I’m always learning something from you gurus brother.
How do you determine how many coats to use?
I usually do at least two coats, but a lot of times a third before the final flood coat. I do seal coats until it is very close to perfect and then finish it off with the flood coat. Thanks for watching!
Have you ever done an epoxy in a 1956 Chevy delivery panel truck?
Brooklyn, MI here, about 25 miles east of Jonesville and that Brewery
I have not, but I’d keep in mind that direct sunlight is not good on most epoxies. Thanks for watching!
Does it drive any body else nuts how the ends came out lighter than the sides and top.
I haven’t heard anyone else complain, but to each his own…
Would it be dumb to epoxy a fence? I have a small 6 ft wide section that needs to be done.
Not saying it couldn’t be done, but very few epoxies are meant for outside application because they don’t hold up to sun damage…assuming this fence is outside. You’d want to look for some marine grade epoxy that could take the UV abuse. Thanks for watching!
@@northernridgedesigns Now I gotta google "marine grade epoxy"
I can not begin to tell you how helpful this is i found some really uniquely old fucked up wood that came frome some part of my neighbors house. I'm trying to turn them into a coffee table but since they are so old and they were outside for a long time they are being a dick but also are so pretty!
Glad you found it useful! If it’s really weathered and checked, make sure you support it underneath somehow. Thanks for watching!
I’ve done many many sq feet of termite, fungus, cow shit and weathered wood, toss in some rat chews and whatnot. Always kill the fungus. For mounting points they can be routed into the base and the plywood can be epoxied until the mortise. Chamfer, roundover or ease the edges if they are going to be a little proud. -it’s okay. Just route in deep enough to give them a location and more surface area to glue. I’m one to seal both sides of the board and stop it from cupping. One of the worst pile of boards was 75+ tables and benches for a brewery. The cocaine shut the brewery down but the punky lumber tables were fine. A little bit of surface rust on the parsons legs from too much bleach. I located any nails, cut them out, planed just a bit at least once on each side, hit it with a thick ugly layer of urethane, black epoxy in the larger holes, planed and sanded to remove the urethane clear epoxy to harden the punky stuff, sanded and planed, dado cut on (almost) all sides, splined together in wild lengths, cross cut and ripped to the bases I welded up, sanded, spar urethane, bolted on with 1” lag bolts I had to epoxy into their holes and self tap into the steel square tubing through a hole i(we)plasma and torched and drilled (until we had no bits left) in the 1x1 x1” angle iron brackets I(we) cut in large batches on a few different bandsaws. -that’s where the only injury came from. A swag made portaband stand and too many pieces stacked up rolled them over onto a finger nail. But we(I) drilled a hole in it and opened dudes beer for the rest of the day.
@@Theraindear1 first of all thank you for all the advice I'm really new to making things and advice is welcome. This is my first big project so I'm nervous and worried I'll mess is up. So advice from old heads of the trade is really reassuring! Oh and i made sure to sanitize the dickens out of the wood before i went further into the project it's jus being a dick.
I personally would have used black epoxy
Thanks for watching!