Help with resin for wood.

 Oh, if you could that would be awesome! 

Hi Jennifer,

I dont have any experience with this.  Im going to see if I can get one of my woodworker friends to comment.

Hi Jennifer,

Here is the response from one of my woodworking friends who is experienced with resin:

Ive done some similar things on a smaller scale, so Ill give my take on it. Certainly others will have their own methods too, and it all depends on your experience, the materials you have access to and how comfortable you are using them.
But the FIRST thing is to let your reader know that they will NOT (no how, no way, not possible etc.) get any result that resembles the glow factor in those photos. Those are heavily edited to highlight the glowing seam of resin and powder. There is no powder available that will glow anywhere near that bright, and certainly not the blue shown in the photos. (the chemicals that produce a blue glow are much less bright than the green, which still wouldnt show nearly as well as what you see in the photos)

Anyway.. having said that, Ill take a stab at an answer..
Filling voids in wood with resin is something Ive done before and I know of many others who do it. In fact, penturners love this technique because they can take pieces of wood that theyd normally have to throw away and instead turn it into something interesting and unique. In fact, they often call it worthless wood. And they sell the resin impregnated wood blanks to support their habit. er. .. I mean hobby.

Theyll also use colorless resins (or resins with dyes added) with soft or punky woods that would normally fall apart. This gives them new strength and stability that they wouldnt have otherwise. It is especially helpful for some burls that have beautiful grain and figuring, but wouldnt normally hold up to being turned on a lathe. Once stabilized, they machine more like a plastic, yet retain the beauty of the wood.

There are many different resins and techniques that can be used. Some people use epoxy resins, some use urethanes or polyurethanes and some use polyesters. Some techniques require either vacuum or pressure (or even both) to get the resin into the cells of the wood so that it isnt just a layer of plastic in a crack in the wood. (which might continue to separate over time.. leaving you a wider crack with some funny colored stripes of resin stuck in the cracks)

For something like a picture frame that Jennifer mentions, I dont think shed want to use a red glow powder if the purpose is for it to glow in the dark. The red glows are rather difficult to see in anything other than pitch black, and they fade very very quickly. (although she mentioned UV reactive, and thats possible… most fluorescent powders work very well with black lights)

As for the resin type .. the urethanes tend to stick to wood very well, but dont tolerate any water based additives well. Theyll foam and cure improperly. But with the appropriate dyes meant for that resin, theyll work well. Epoxies would hold to wood very well (think bar-top coatings) but are soft, so sanding might be an issue. Theyre usually meant to pour in place and they level out to their final finish. That might be difficult for a wood picture frame. Polyester resins dont stick quite as well as either the urethanes or epoxies, but that may not be an issue for a picture frame as it isnt going to be handled a lot. It has the added advantage of being sandable. It will even polish to an ultra high gloss with the right abrasives. Plus it bonds to itself. So if the voids in the wood are filled and sanded with colored resin, she could then pour a clear coating of the same resin with no coloring and cover the rest of the wood. That would help stabilize the crack and filler and also highlight the grain in the wood. This may work even better than an oil finish for cedar as the oil and resin arent likely to play well with each other. And you can control the gloss factor. If the high gloss looks too plastic you can cut it back with a lower grit abrasive or 0000 steel wool. I use MicroMesh sanding sheets on resins. I can get a glass finish on polyester with the MicroMesh followed by a good swirl remover from the auto parts store. (Meguiars Plast-X works very well, as does Novus 2 plastic polish) And I can back down a grit or two on the mesh to knock down the gloss.

Cost could be pretty reasonable.. polyester resins are in most hobby stores, as are the dyes. Or you can use powders to change the look of the resins. (I use makeup powders from Coastal Scents) PearlEx is a powder commonly used by pen turners, as most hobby shops carry it. Some use Testors model paints and some even use gel food coloring. I havent tried that one.

Anyway, thats all that comes to mind right now.. sounds like a fun project and should give some interesting results.

I’m thinking about doing some wall hangings. wood and resin. I wish to fill the holes with resin. should I cut the wood to size before or after doing the resin? I’ve never worked with resin but think it’s lovely.