Epoxy Resin Coasters

In this tutorial, I will walk you through the process of creating an epoxy resin coaster. These coasters are quite easy to make and don't require much in tools besides some glue, wood, and some sort of saw. They are especially easy to make as their body serves as a mold for the epoxy resin. Epoxy resin is a great material for coasters due to it being an insulator and due to its high heat resistance.

Material

• A flat sheet of wood around 9cmx9cm (at least 1.5mm thick)
• Wood stick (long enough to go around the square base) (e.g 36cm)
• Epoxy resin
• Coloured Pigments
• Wood glue
• News paper

I didn't have a flat sheet with the proper dimensions so I took two pieces of thin wood sheet and glued them together. I then drew out the square dimensions (9x9cm) and cut using a hand saw. This had to be done gently as the pieces were very thin and at risk of snapping under excessive strain.

The first thing I did was cut each of the sticks to 8.5cm (this is because they were 0.5cm thick). I then arranged then in the pattern seen in the first photo and glued them together creating 4 butt joints. I made sure to rest them on a flat surface so that they were level.

Once the piece dried I put glue to one side and attached it to the flat sheet. I put a weight on top to ensure the two pieces were joined together. I then waited a while longer for everything to dry.

I wanted my wood to be a dark brown so I decided to stain it using a spray bottle. I set it under some news paper outside (for ventilation) and sprayed the piece with three light coats (around 10min in between for drying). That being said I wasn't very satisfied with the result.

As I said what makes this coaster great is that its body is its own mold so there's no need to remove any pieces after the epoxy resin process.

The first step is measuring the exact volume of the coaster that you want to fill. I wanted to leave some space on the edges so that any glass wouldn't easily slip/be pushed off the coaster.

Once this volume has been decided, using the recommended solution A to B ratio of your epoxy resin you should decide to split up that volume between A and B. For example, my epoxy resin had a 50:50 ratio. I split my volume in half between solutions A and B.

It's important to remember to have all tools like a mixing stick, colored pigment, and a lighter ready before mixing the two solutions as you only have limited time once this is done to mix in color and make changes.

Ensure this is done in a safe area where the risk of spilling is minimal (e.g I did everything in a plastic tub on top of a newspaper in case some epoxy resin spilled.)

Tip: I have found that there is a difference between adding pigment before pouring the resin into the mold and after. In larger molds, it's better to add the pigment before as after it can be difficult to ensure it gets everywhere in time when added after. However in this case, because the surface area is so small either can be done. I added the pigment after and mixed around a variety of blue and white pigments which turned out quite well.

The reason a lighter is important is that sometimes air bubbles can form at the surface of the resin and one of the best ways to get rid of them is to hold a lit flame next to them, causing them to pop.

Just be sure not to heat the resin itself too much as that can expedite the hardening process.

Once the resin has dried, the last step of the process is putting on the finish. The epoxy resin itself does not recquire a finish which is why I recommend covering it up with masking tape at this stage. The finish is for the wood. I did a couple of light layers of polyurethane spray finish. Ensure to not spray too much as a build up can lead to white spots forming on the wood. I did three layer over 20 minutes. Ensure that the spraying is done in a well ventilated area.

Once this step is done, the coaster is complete.

Above is another type of coaster I made using resin. Here I glued for scrap pieces of wood together and made a curved square hole in the middle using a dremel. I used a thick paper as the base for the mold as I intended to sand it off after letting the epoxy dry. I glued the wood to the paper to create a seal that prevented resin from escaping. I then did one thin layer of clear epoxy. Following that I inserting some sea glass that I wanted embedded in the coaster and then filled it the rest of the way up with clear resin.