Thread: What is Wongo up to – WIP

Stop it you lot. You are making me feel embarrassed.

These pictures will give you an idea what I had to deal with. The top is going to be colourful but I love it. The timber certainly looks better in my house then being burned.

Another good day away from the office.

How are you going to fill those large holes Mr Wong

Beautiful Wongo. Keep up the pics.

The holes are filled with casting resin mixed with cement colour. I taped around the holes so the black stuff wont spread too much. It makes the sanding later on a lot easier.

I will have to repeat this 2 to 3 times to fill the holes completely. It is a lengthy process but I need to be patient.

I tried to use casting resin once on some old bolt holes from a bridge pylon that I wanted to make a feature. It never really seemed to go hard

Can you actually overfill the hole marginally then sand it

Howdy, I think you are meant to do a little bit each time. And yes you need to overfill it and sand it back. I must say working with casting resin is frustrating.

Wongo,

Dumb questions continue but maybe I'm not the only one who will learn something from this

As you have said I filled the gradually, about 2-3mm, leaving 24hrs between each layer but it always felt slightly tacky. I hit it with the ROS about 3 days after the final layer but it gummed up the sandpaper like paint does and left an awfull smear across the resin

Does casting resin have a shelf life Matbe mine was no good

Howdya, you might not have added enough Catalyst or Hardener to the Resin

Originally Posted by Howdya do that

Does casting resin have a shelf life Matbe mine was no good

Some types are supposed to have a shelf life of about 12 months, but as there are several types (epoxy & polyurethane) they may not all be the same. I use Araldite M which I believe is an epoxy. It's about 8 years old now and still works OK. I've always kept it in a cool even temperature so maybe that helps. It takes at least 24 hours to go hard and a few more days to reach full hardness. I usually put a wall of hot melt glue around the hole and fill above the hole, as it does shrink a bit. Hit it with a hot air gun of a blowtorch to get air bubbles out.

Also, it's important to use the right amount of hardener. Using more will not make it go off quicker, it will leave you with a tacky mess. Could this have happened to you?

Another nice piece from you Wongo. So will it be finished in time for the show?

Originally Posted by Wongo

Howdy, I think you are meant to do a little bit each time. And yes you need to overfill it and sand it back. I must say working with casting resin is frustrating.

If your using black tint, might as well cast it all in one hit. I tend to use a little less catalyst with big pours, to minimise cracking, but heat the resin to help setting. If it does crack, just recast with more, you wont see it with the black colouring. If you hit the surface with a flame, I use a cigarette lighter blow torch, it also helps it set faster.

Picture 1: The casting resin set well over night and it is pretty hard. I will leave it for a few more days before sanding it down. After that I will use some 2 parts epoxy to fill the small holes and cracks.


Picture 2&3: 2 boards of Kauri Pine are just enough to make 6 drawers. It is a great feeling when the numbers work out perfectly. (very close to no waste)


Picture 4: Some Austrian pine as drawer bottoms. They come from a pallet which supported Wood borer tablesaw when it was floating from Austria to Australia. Thanks Brendan and WB.

Scott I find that the casting resin planes better than it does sand.

Al

Yes Al, I do that too but only with my old Falcon plan.

There is no way I will use my LV planes. No way.

Did not see any of that black stuff on the Rockers.!