Using Water Clear Polyester Casting Resin

[Osprey]

Hi,

Has anyone on this forum used Water Clear Polyester Casting Resin as a decorative filler?

I have a lovely 40mm elm burr board and it has a 4" dia hole going right through It, I would like to plug the hole with a clear resin. Once the resin has set, how do I finish the resin? As I'd like the finish to be clear, so you can see through the hole.

Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks

 

[Togalosh]

Hiya Osprey,

If you use a release agent on whatever you seal the bottom of the hole with & don't overfill it then you shouldn't need to flat it (which obviously leaves scratches on the surfaces). If you do flat it then you could scrape & polish it.. but coloured polish (such as jewellery makers "rouge") can easily get into the wood.

You don't have to fill it in 1 go - so if it seeps into any fissures in the wood & sags in the hole you can top it up later or another day. The more viscous the mix the more it will seep. That is if you want it level.

HTH
Togs

 

[Osprey]

Thanks Togalosh!

When you say scrape and polish, do you mean with a wood scraper? And then just buff the surface with a soft cloth or machine buffer. No paste needed? Or water? Wet and dry?

 

[rafezetter]

I think he means a scraper of some kind that has an extremley smooth cutting face - so a plane blade would work better imo unless you have a card scraper that has been exceptionally well prepared. You could then polish with micromesh pads, they can be used wet or dry and can polish to a mirror shine with no compound required. 4" is a fair sized hole - lots of times I've seen I've seen people put inclusions into something that large - semi precious stones, a keepsake or something the owner (if it's not you) might appreciate, especially if light is going all the way through.

 

[n0legs]

I used water clear resin as a finish for an end grain table top.
I let it harden for a few days then flatted it back up to 1500 grade, then polished it with compound.
I think it turned out well.

 

[woodpig]

You might be better to use clear Epoxy rather than Polyester resin as it doesn't shrink as much.

 

[Togalosh]

All of the above.