Hello,
I am a college student who is currently making a table (8' x 4') covered in beer bottle caps. I have completed every step necessary up to the actual casting. My caps are in place, I have bordered the sides, now I just need to begin the casting. However, being on a college student budget- I do not know how much resin I need to cover the table. 2 gallons? I want the caps to be completely caramelized and the top being one flat layer. If you have any suggestions about how to make this work I would greatly appreaciate it as well as resin product recommendations! Email me if you have any help or if you would like to see a picture of my progress. Thanks for any help u can give me!
Dustin Cavanaugh
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Well Dustin , you should have asked this question before you started . Now a 4' x 8' table is very big and figuring that a bottle cap is thicker than 1/4" and you need to be thicker than the cap , your probably going to need between 5 - 10 gallons and at the price of resin these days , there goes your beer money for the next month . Also , since you never did this before , plan on a few mistakes . Maybe you should practice with a small piece before you try this one . Your also going to need to pour the resin in a few smaller layers so it doesnt build up heat and crack . Rick
Dustin, unless you have a raised border that will serve as a dam around the edges, your resin will run off the sides and on the floor. If your beer caps are not fastened the air under them will cause them to float around on the table too. As Rick said, you will need to do this in several pours and should practice on a smaller piece. It will be a lot of work but, it may be a good idea to countersink the caps into the table so there will be less pours, less air bubbles, and less cost. Good luck, TR
yes the border is raised, and thank you for the advice. I guess i'll just have to donate some sperm to support the capital for this project (jk)- however, does anyone have recommendations on a certain product to use for the casting?
Dustin
Well Dustin , call your local hobby shop or craft supply store . They should have casting resin . I think Home depot also sells something like what you want but Im not sure . Rick
Casting resin is kind of pricey, but be sure you get something that is made for thicker pours. Castin Craft puts out a clear resin. Something like Pour-On is made for only surface stuff, and builds up a lot of heat on too thick pours (ie cracks). Also, if you are going for multiple layers/pours, you could buy resin (one layer amounts) at a time and save part of that beer money!
I have done many of these types of tables, sand , fried chicken, pizza,seashells and everything imaginable. If you use polyester resin you will have to polish it, that is a huge job, DON'T USE IT!
Damn up the sides and use epoxy, it's 10x easier to use. Pull off the sides(damns made from tape) and sand with 80 grit, apply multiple side coats. Lastly:
Before you put on the last coat sand it with 80 grit then in a relatively dust free enviroment apply your last coat.
As a rule one gallon of epoxy will coat a 24" x 10' 1/8" thick. You should easily use no more than 5 gallons. I'll e-mail you more notes on how to do this if I can find the two page manual I sent a friend.
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