Epoxy Resin Wood Projects for Beginners

January 8, 2022

My old mentor in woodworking once told me that as a woodworker, I should also be an artist. I believed him, and I still do. Hence, I always want to raise my woodworking projects a notch higher by infusing a tinge of my artistic proclivity into my works. If you’re like me, who wants to infuse a touch of your creative penchant in your works, you should look for a raw material that would allow you to explore more creative possibilities. 

One such raw material is epoxy resin. Epoxy resins will enable you to explore endless handcraft and artistic possibilities. The combination of wood and epoxy resin will allow you to produce excellent artistic wood projects that would delight anyone who sees those projects. Moreover, you can use the epoxy resin to seal wood surfaces, cast forms, manufacture entire tabletops or tables, or engage in aesthetic repairs of wooden surfaces.

Types of Wood that Work Well With Epoxy Resins

When choosing wood for your epoxy resin projects, it will be best to check the wood density. Remember that softer wood allows for easy sanding than harder wood. Moreover, it will help if you consider the pore sizes of the wood. Remember that wood with larger pore sizes can soak more resin. Hence, you will need more resin when working with wood with larger pore sizes. 

Besides, it will help if you consider how thirsty the fibers of the wood are. If the wood has liquid-seeking fibers, the fibers will soak in more resin and allow the resin to flow into areas you wouldn’t want to bathe with resin. This spilling over of resin leads to a halo effect on the wood’s exterior surface.

Some of the best wood types that work well with epoxy resin are walnut, cherry, maple, and cedar. Nevertheless, you can also use epoxy resin on any other wood. However, you will notice that some wood reacts better than the other wood types. Most of them will have a polished appearance after applying epoxy resin. Yet, you can also add pigment to create artistic patterns or designs on the wood.

The Best Beginner’s Wood Projects Using Epoxy Resin

If you are aching to try your hand on any wood project using epoxy resin, you might as well consider the following most recommended epoxy resin wood projects for beginners:

1) Epoxy Table

The main project you can engage in as a beginner is the building of an epoxy table. You can either cover metal or wooden tables with epoxy resin. As you engage in this project, you can allow your creativity to suffuse your project. Sky’s the limit when it comes to the level of creativity you can infuse your project. 

You only need to prepare well your epoxy resin and spruce it up with some colorants or dyes. Mix thoroughly and begin pouring over the surface of the table.

If you don’t have a tabletop, you can prepare a mold and pour over epoxy resin onto it. Once it dries, you will have a new tabletop. You can coat the surface with a clear epoxy resin. In this way, the table will be shinier.

2) Epoxy Doorknob

You can also start with an epoxy doorknob project. You might not have thought of this project. But it is possible to make a doorknob using epoxy resin. It is fun to make, and it might be an unusual project. Yet, it is never unachievable, and you can use cupcake molds to make rounded knobs. 

You can pour the resin onto the mold and leave it for a few hours. Afterward, you can work on the locking mechanism by attaching the locking mechanism. It may be a bit of a challenge to accomplish this task. But doing it is fun and exciting. You can make excellent and colorful knobs that you can enjoy using.

3) Repairing Wood Using Epoxy

You can repair old wood fraught with cracks using epoxy resin. You can fill in the holes and cracks using colored epoxy resins. Thus, you can work on projects like damaged cutting boards and tables. To repair damaged wood, you need to prepare the surface. Check if the resin will not drain through the wood’s bottom. 

You can also remove debris and pieces that would not work well with your projects. It will be best to plug all holes using tapes. You can also use silicone sealant to help prevent the leaking out of epoxy resin at the back and avoid drips. Once you’ve sealed holes and cracks, you can start mixing epoxy resin. 

Pour the mixed resin onto the surface. You can add contrast by coloring the resin. Moreover, you can use blue, black, or white pigments to add varieties to your design. You can also try “glow-in-the-dark” colors to make your work attractive during the night. Your creativity is basically your only limit when it comes to your designs. 

Check if you have suffused the wood with your mixture. To achieve a complete cure, you can pour more resin onto the holes and cracks. In this way, you will thoroughly cover everything when the epoxy dries up. You need not worry about excess epoxy resin, for you can quickly remove residues and excesses using sandpaper.

4) Applying Epoxy on Rotten Wood

If you have rotten wood and you want to repair it, you can use the epoxy to renew the timber. This one is a quick work. If the wood is around 15 to 25 percent rotten, you can still work on it using epoxy. If you want to repair a wood item with rotten parts, you can do so by using epoxy resin. To do this, you can soak the wood in an epoxy consolidant. 

Then, you can start working with the epoxy resin. Besides, you can seal damaged wood using epoxy resin, and it helps you arrest the rotting and decaying of the wood. You can begin by stripping the wood of all decaying parts. Afterward, you can coat the parts of the wood that are exposed using epoxy primer. 

Figure out likewise the reason why the wood gets rotten. In this way, you can arrest the rotting process and prevent rotting again. Before applying the epoxy resin, you should dry the wood entirely. If not dry, the wood might continue to deteriorate even after using epoxy resin.

5) Casting the Wood with Resin

You can cast any wood piece in epoxy resin. You can create vivid grain and wooden or burling squares. Additionally, you can create rings, necklaces, bracelets, pendants, and earrings out of resin. 

If you want to cast wood in epoxy resin, you can utilize silicone molds. You can buy dozens of various sizes and shapes of molds for creating ornaments, pendants, and cabochons. You can use these creations for your keychains, bracelets, necklace, and earrings. 

You can also make a mini chandelier. You only need to position the wood inside the mold and pour in your resin. Besides, you can use silicone molds wrought in synthetic resin.

6) Making Wood Desk Lamp 

You can use clear epoxy resin to improve the appearance and beauty of your DIY projects. You can use scrap glass, a concrete base, and aluminum for this project. You can render a new sheen to the concrete base using the resin. The resin can also hold in place some elements of the lamp.

7) Applying and Coating Stained Wood

You can also coat with resin a stained wood, and repair stained wood with epoxy resin. Yet, before you do that, you should first determine if the stained wood surface is compatible with the resin. If you have just recently stained the wood surface, make sure to allow the stain to dry before coating it with resin. 

Generally, you can combine epoxy resin with a stain. Yet, if you are not sure that the stain is compatible with the epoxy resin, you better not apply epoxy resin until you are sure that they are compatible. 

You might ruin the workpiece if you do so without ensuring they are compatible. Use a stain that is UV-stable. Once you’ve coated the wood surface with resin, you will indeed find it a challenge to remove the hardened epoxy resin.

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Conclusion

As mentioned above, there are some factors you need to consider before you use epoxy resin for a woodworking project. First, you need to consider density and pore sizes of the wood. You also need to consider if the wood has fibers that thirstily absorb resin. Once you’ve figured the abovementioned factors, you can begin to plan on applying epoxy resin to your project. 

As a beginner, you got various projects to engage in using epoxy resin, and these projects can showcase your artistic side. Of course, your only limitation when it comes to using epoxy for your woodworking projects is your level of creativity. Thus, the use of epoxy resin will surely allow for expanded creativity and artistry that you can never achieve with other raw materials.