Thread: a few more Resin Boxes

Yeah, nah! Some of Paul's creations in resin leave that guys stuff in the shade. The deep shade!

That was certainly very interesting reading. And thanks Aldav. Who knows, maybe that bloke was the first person to make a resin river table 12 years ago. All I can say is now it has exploded all over the world, resin tables and any other small item made from resin that you can think of. I'm now in about 4 or 5 FB groups associated with resin. 1 an aussie group, the others from anywhere. I've become very pally with a woman down in Melbourne via FB. She owns a company that sells resin and makes tables. Huge tables, she has a 6 month waiting list for customers. I buy all my resin from her and any questions I ask her I save her answers to a word file that sits on my desktop for my future reference. Her overhead router system is probably bigger than the kitchen table I am sitting at now.

Getting back to my resin boxes I can honestly say I have not seen many, even if any, that go into the detail to do a lid like I do. The process just for the lid is very time consuming. I can make the box and tray much faster.

And as for my resin fender strat guitar which is in the instrument making section on this site. I have definitely not seen another like it anywhere.

I'm currently making a large box at present, poured the lid earlier this week, its still in the mold. I'll put it through my mini overhead router this weekend, along with 6 other smaller resin lids for 6 ring boxes. After the router, the lid is glued to the top section of the box, then the resin flood coat is done after all that. I'll do pics when they are finished.

Paul

Originally Posted by Pauls321

... Who knows, maybe that bloke was the first person to make a resin river table 12 years ago. All I can say is now it has exploded all over the world, ...

That is part of the reason why I posted; not just that it was an interesting article.

I seem to remember resin river stuff being around more than 12 years ago. Perhaps it is just my memory?

Sorry, Paul, I hope I am not hijacking your thread. I just thought it was a continuation of the genre.

Hi Paul,

To carry on from where I left off earlier with a couple more questions, I have the box just about ready to glue up, the epoxy part has come up pretty good but I should have tried it out on some scrap 1st instead of going straight to the main act. The question I have is regarding the finish, the insert the bit in the top with the epoxy is a combination of epoxy and raw timber I have sanded to about 800grit, I want to polish the epoxy so it is clear and have a soft oiled/waxed finish on the timber, what/how would you recommend I proceed from here, any recommendations on what products to use?

Thanks. Rick.

Hi all and Rick,

I've been a bit all over the place lately. I did finally manage to finish 9 boxes that I have been working on for a while now. 6 of the boxes are ring boxes, all the same. I'm getting rid of smallish size timber that has been sitting around for a bit. Another box is one of my large resin boxes which come up very nice. The other two boxes are not resin boxes.

With the 6 ring boxes I did originally only intend to do a top like Rick is describing, offcuts of old slab timber on either side with a pour of casting resin for the rivers and let it go at that. Had I would have gone that way I would have sanded up to 1,000 grit with 125 mm mirka pads (on my random orbital sander) which I buy from my resin supplier in Melbourne. (this is of course after I put the lid through my home made router sled.

After fixing lid to top of box I would have then used my Meguiar's dual action car polisher which I bought from Repco (when it was on special). The fastest speed on it is still slower than the slowest speed on my De Walt ROS. And I would only have it about half way on the speed. A couple of polishing products I keep for this purpose would be either Meguiar's PlastX, or Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, or Auto Glym super resin polish. All these works well, for a final polish. Another one I have is called Kustom Grit Steps 1 and 2. It is a grit which is supposed to polish to about 50,000. I bought it from some resin place up in Brisbane.

So Rick, that's what I would be doing in your situation.

HOWEVER, during me making these ring boxes I decided I would go for a flood coat on the lids. To make a really classy glass like finish. I did two coats of these. A lot more work involved and more days involved but the finish is amazing, just like on the tops of my large resin boxes.

With the ring boxes I wanted something cheaper in price for my Etsy shop, people just haven't got the money these days. So just trying to add a few more cheaper priced boxes. I put them on at $160. Having said that I have sold 5 boxes in the last 4 or 5 weeks, which is good. Nothing like it was a few years ago though.

Paul

On no, please, no more resin boxes,...! Not too often I come across a slice of an old RedGum Burl with a big hole in the middle and a lot of cracks and deformities all through it. And I think "wow", how good will this come up in a lid. The slice of this burl was quite large, I still have another big section of it, which I have already done a pour with, waiting for me to make a box for it.

The resin here is "fire red", same as I used in my guitar build on the musical section of this site. Once again with a flood coat to produce that glass finish on the top of the lid. Other timbers used are Australian Red Cedar and Silver Ash. And of course using Aldav's hinges.

I've also made a very cute little ring box using Gifkin Col's "jig" for 5mm barrel hinges that he featured on his show a few weeks ago. I've used these barrel hinges before but never mastered how to get them correct, top and bottom etc, always sort of floundered along. Col's idea worked pretty good. I was that happy with it, I've already cut up another 5 of these ring boxes, firstly to use of small offcuts laying around the place and secondly to have some "budget" priced boxes on my Etsy shop.

I took a pic of Col's jig which is pretty self explanatory. My brass is 1.6mm, timber is 10mm, measure in 6.6mm from the corner of the brass and drill a precise hole. Equal length from each end. Butt and clamp jig to box sides and drill 5mm hole.

I also included 1 other pic, I made a chessboard and pieces all from resin, flood coat on top of board, will be a Christmas present to my little adopted grandson.

Paul

Another beautiful piece. With the amount of work you put into those smaller ring boxes they would still have to be a reasonable price to cover your time involved.
I made a jig for drilling those barrel holes off Col's design but only made it out of really hard wood as I didn't have any brass angle around. It works very well and hasn't shown any signs of wear yet.
I brought some cheap barrel hinges a while ago but I think half of them might be throw aways eventually as a lot of them don't have the pivot pin right in the centre of one half, so the top and bottom pieces are not concentric. When inserted, no matter how well your holes have been aligned, the lid and base still don't align perfectly.😥 Once bitten twice shy😖
Here are some photos of some of the culprits, good to really bad.

Good.jpg Bad.jpg Ugly.jpg

Hi Dallas,

I bought my brass angle from a metal shop up in Coffs Harbour. I used it also for another of Gifkin Col's jig that he featured some weeks ago also. Yes I also purchased a packet of those 5mm barrel hinges from China a few years ago, and put them aside. They also are not exactly the same length pivot to end, but a lot closer that the ones in your pics. I think they might be something like 9mm one way and 8.5mm the other way. What I did find when if I drill my hole maybe 10mm, that works ok. When I put my glue into the hole and then open and close the lid and make sure the hinges look right, they work good. I used 5 minute epoxy glue.

Probably have to use a bit of nail polish remover with acetone, to remove any glue that oozes out. At least now I can start to use some of those cheap hinges and they seem to be ok.

Paul

Originally Posted by Pauls321

... Probably have to use a bit of nail polish remover with acetone, to remove any glue that oozes out. ...

Paul, suggest that you just buy some acetone or MEK from your local paint shop or yacht chandlery - a lot cheaper than nail polish remover.

Great looking boxes.

The box I started a while ago and asked some questions about in this thread has been put aside for a while and is now back on the bench. I Have started to finish and polish it but it seems that the epoxy hasn't cured properly, as I sanded it the paper has clogged and seems to gauge the epoxy badly. Any suggestions as to what I have done and any way to overcome it?

Thanks for any ideas or suggestions,

Cheers. Rick.

Hi Rick; how long ago did yoy do the epoxying? Epoxy should take 24 hours to dry and then 2-3 weeks to cure, longer if it is cold. You may have to just wait a bit longer.

Assuming the epoxy has cured, I can thnk of two possibilities.

First: You are sanding too fast and generating heat and melting the epoxy. Just slow down.

Second: You have got the proportions of resin and hardener a little wrong; they must be measured to an accuracy of ±3% which is very difficult to achieve for small batches. Solution is to mix some more epoxy accurately, paint it over the old epoxy and allow alll to cure.

Hi Rick and Graeme, I hadn't been looking at this thread for a bit, been away visiting with son for a while, and just noticed your question. I think Graeme's second option would work. If the resin is sanded and scuffed, then another layer or resin should fix it all up. I used to use proper measuring containers with ML's on the side and still would use them should I be doing a very large mix. But usually I use a plastic drinking glass and a set of small kitchen scales I bought from Target. I never have any problems. Plus the plastic glasses cost me nothing. At my bowling club the barmaids bring out iced water and plastic glasses to keep the bowlers cool. They only get tossed out, so 2 of the barmaids keep them for me. I have heaps of them, use them once, then toss into my bin.'

I actually poured some resin this morning into 2 molds for box lids at 8.30am. During winter I would do a final swirl about 12 hours later, at that stage it was a thick honey type consistency. Today pretty much a summers day I did the final swirl at about 4.30pm. 8 hours later. Climate and temperature is very important.

Tomorrow it will be pretty hard, I could be putting these through my mini overhead router sled in maybe 3 days. Then through my homemade drum sander that day. Then each side sanded with ROS and mirko pads, bottom side to 1000, top side to 240. Then glued (with Weldbond) onto the top of a box. Bottom side to 1000 because that is pretty much it, you cant get to it after that. Following day I would be taping all sides up with painters tape, just leaving top exposed. Doing a seal coat pour of flood coat onto the 240 grit top. Following day another sand (while sides still taped up) with 80, 120, 180, 240 mirka pads and then second and final coat of flood coat. Checking regularly in first hour all looks good, no pesty insects or dust etc, few hits with small gas torch. Next day will be like glass. I would put this aside for a few more days at least. Then remove painters tape, do another sand with ROS on the timber sides only, right through to 3000 with w&D. Then danish oil, 2 coats, second coat cut in with 1200 w&D, then 2 coats wax.

Lot of work, mucking around, but that's ok. End result is amazing. Some weeks ago I went through all my offcuts, pieces you keep putting aside, too short, too thin etc, and prepared timber for 23 boxes, like the little ring boxes I think are on my last post. Basically a get rid of timber exercise. I made some of the 23 into that same size, some are a bit bigger and a few a bit bigger again. Some will be just trinket boxes, some will have ring sections in them. All a work in progress, slowly getting through it now.

Paul

Nothing happens fast, does it. You've more than earned whatever money you get for these boxes, Paul.