[Katherine Swift]

This question comes through email:

Hi!
I came across your website while searching for some help with my first-time resin project and really hope you can help me out!
I want to make a chess board out of resin and timber as a Christmas gift, I thought this would be pretty simple but have since realized that I have quite a job ahead of me! Especially since I have NEVER used resin before! Anyway, I purchased a clear epoxy resin and would like to colour it to make it look like turquoise stone and the I need to cast it to make the 32 little squares for the board…they wont be too deep, possible only 1.5 – 2cm deep. Do you think it would be best to cast them into a mould first and then glue all the timber & resin squares together or should I get a large frame (the size of the full chess board), stick down the timber squares in place and cast the resin directly into the voids between the timber? Would they adhere to the wood?
If I cast cubes separately, I have seen that one can use lego blocks to make cube moulds, would this work with epoxy resin and can you cast it directly into the plastic lego blocks?
I dont want to have to buy too many different things as moulds so if you have any tips for what other things I can use, that would be so helpful!
I am completely clueless with this and as Christmas is coming up fast I am getting desperate!!

Kind regards
Zoë

[Katherine Swift]

Zoe,This is quite an undertaking!  Ill go through a few steps and other things for you to consider.

1.  Making the resin look like turquoise.  Do you have some turquoise type inclusions to add?  I ask because you cant make turquoise, you have to start with the color turquoise.  While we don’t have any turquoise colors in our store, we do have teal colors. The Resin Obsession colors have opaque and transparent teal as options.
You can find them in our store here: https://shop.resinobsession.com/collections/colorants/resin-obsession

2.  You can make 32 resin squares, but how many molds do you have?  If you only have one mold, you will have to use it 32 times, which may mean you’re up day and night until Christmas mixing resin, pouring into the mold, waiting for it to cure, popping it out and do it all over again.  Unless you’re using a quick cure resin (polyurethane or some of the UV resins), you may have a hard time getting more than 1 a day made.

3.  You could certainly do it quicker to use your wood as the squares and cast the resin in between.  (one pour!)

4.  As for using lego blocks, they would be unsuitable to pour resin into because you have no easy way to get them out.  Legos aren’t flexible, and even with mold release. 

5.  Resin will stick to a toothpick, so I would expect it would stick to your timber.  If you had the time, I would test some first.  (Make sure your timber is dry.  Resin hates water!)

6.  Another idea for your game board would be to print out one (design it with some kind of graphics or something), adhere it to your wood, then coat it with resin.

7.  You asked about basic tools:  you will need the resin, appropriate size plastic mixing cups, stir utensils, and nitrile gloves. 

You can find supplies in our store here: https://shop.resinobsession.com/collections/tools-and-supplies/Supplies

Pigments and other additives would be good too if you want color. We have those in our store here:
https://shop.resinobsession.com/collections/colorants

[zoe]

 Thank you so much for the tips!

Just to clarify, I meant that I wanted to try and make the resin look like the type of stone, Turquoise, not necessarily the plain colour. I just wanted tips on how to get that mottled, stony look that Turquoise has.

I hadnt even thought about how long it would take to make the squares one by one, but now that you mention it, that is obviously not an option! I am going to get some silicone molding putty and make my own so that I can make a few at a time.

I dont have much of the timber, as it is a very small, burled piece so I dont want to risk wasting it by casting directly into it in case there is a problem.

What glue do you recommend using to fix the resin & timber pieces together once finished?

Thanks again!

[zoe]

 PS- I will probably use a turquoise powder pigment to colour the resin and have some gold leaf for the flecks of gold. Hopefully this will work!

[Katherine Swift]

The turquoise and gold leaf sounds nice.  I think it will look very pretty as a game board.As for adhering resin to wood, my favorite go-to product is the e6000.  

https://shop.resinobsession.com/collections/tools-and-supplies/products/e-6000-epoxy-jewelry-adhesive

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