Hi all, doing my first epoxy inlay. The epoxy had dried for about 36 hours before I did the surfacing toolpath to get rid of the excess.
As seen in the pic, the epoxy is staining the surrounding wood badly.
Do I need to seal the wood before applying the epoxy and then surface it all off? Urgently needing some help please.
I have found it easier to seal the wood before carving. This will seal the project but leave the place you carve raw so it accepts the epoxy no problem. Also epoxy can take 72+hrs to fully harden and its easier to surface once its fully harden. I have found epoxy will heat up and spread when its still soft.
You may want to just wait a few days and surface it again and see if it gets any better.
Hi Kyle - as @JDog mentioned, you can seal the wood first - it will help some. I’ve used Minwax Sanding Sealer (https://amzn.to/2SQ4tdP) in the past with fairly good luck. Otherwise, simply sand until the bleed is gone. Also, your choice of wood matters here. Really grainy and porous woods like Oak should be avoided if you can. Soft woods like Pine are not optimal either. Keeping the pour to the target area with as little over-pour as possible is a good idea too. Hope this helps.
-Tom
Kyle,
I have been doing research on this as I am about to start trying epoxy inlays. There is a local guy I follow on IG (getofthecouch_design). He will do his carve and then seal the entire top surface with a small batch of epoxy with a brush. Once it has cured the proper amount of time to allow a second coat (not fully cured), he will then fill with a color pour.
This makes total sense to me as there would be no incompatibility issues with the sealing material and epoxy pour since they are the same. Also there would be no bonding issues between the sealing coat and pour if the manufacturers directions for waiting the recommended time between coats/layers are followed. I see some require cleaning of the surface after full sure to remove haze or surface residue which will effect bonding to the fist layer.
Coating the whole surface will also seal for any spills or over pour. Once fully cured the entire surface will be flattened and can then be finished with the method desired.
Again, this is not from experience, just what I’ve found in my research in preparation for my first attempt.
Good luck on dialing in your process for this and keep posting updates so we can all learn and I will do the same when I start proving out mine.
Best regards,
Kyle
