10 EPOXY Mistakes Beginners Make

I used to work for a construction chemical manufacturer here in the states, and had to mix epoxy resins for field demos regularly. John's right about keeping your tools clean. One trick I used was I kept a 5 gallon pail with a reusable lid, that had ~2 gallons of play sand in the bottom and about a gallon and a half of acetone. There should be enough acetone in the mixture to have the top of the play sand ~2 inches below the top of the acetone when fully settled. Once you are done mixing any epoxy with a drill mounted mixing paddle, keep the paddle in the drill, dunk the paddle into the sand / acetone mix and run the paddle in the sand for ~45-60 seconds in both forward and reverse and you will get a clean paddle with little effort.

Way to stay positive John, instead of sulking, you came back strong and ripped out a video to save the rest of us from making the same mistakes, you are the man, thank you sir.

This is awesome. We actually recommend the opposite of your #5 , though. WE say NOT to scrape the sides bc you might leave behind unmixed Part A or B. When you dump that out - the TOP of your project becomes anything UNMIXED that you scraped out of the bucket. It's now the sticky, uncured top parts and might be little areas, but generally is a pain and not what you want. So we suggest you DO pour your mixed resin into a new cup once combined. This leaves behind any unmixed resin in that first cup and now Cup 2 is only combined resin. The unmixed parts remain in Cup 1. We say this because we get this problem OVER AND OVER again. Why little spots of uncured resin on my piece? That's why!

Great info. I’ve been pouring resin for nearly 20 years. To this day it’s a bit stressful and unpredictable. These guidelines will save users a ton of headache.

Hi from Australia John & Sam. I've been pouring epoxy since 1975 in the communications industry and it definitely is a Science. It ws used to fill containers where cable was terminated ( just like filling empty beer cans). Always the same type and always handled like a medical clinic would handle blood in syringes. Great message and great pour projects. Stay Safe!

Thanks for the info. I was planning on doing a small side table for practice. I'll be sure get the proper stuff to make a mold.

This is proffessional tradesman! Even tools hanging on the wall make perfect square! Pleasure to watch

love the show you make it easy to learn things that you need to know for projects.

I've made a lot of these mistakes over the years : ) I added 2 steps recently - 1: after sealing the mold I fill it with 1/2" of water, from a graduated pail so I know how much water I put in, and let sit overnight. Answers the question - will the mold hold water?. 2: I then fill the entire void with water, keeping track of how much I put in, and then remove it all. Answers the questions - how much epoxy do I need to mix and is my mold level?

Thanks for the clear info. I’ve been wanting to do a smaller epoxy pour on a box lid. I’ll be sure to take this to heart and try not to be cheap about it.

I just did a massive river table for the first time and lucky me it didn’t leak but I wish I saw this before I did mine

Love the advice. I'm planning on making one for myself in the future. Would like to see a river chair instead of a table with a river style seat and back.

Great video John. Experience is a wonderful thing. Humility is a virtue my friend. Good on ya.

THANK YOU FOR THE INPUT .THAT HELPS A MILL.FROM DOUG IN HOUSTON

I love this stuff. I like the double cup method of stirring.

Thanks for the tips, good luck with the cleanup!!

I'm building a chess set for my son with epoxy squares and I'm pretty nervous. I'm glad I decided to watch this before starting the pour.

I think someone commented on your other video in the same way I feel about this, You are not only great maker but you are entertainer. Thank you for providing quality content to us DIY bastards that rather watch YouTube then another episode of Cardashians ( I think that's how you spell it) Thank you John you are awesome!!!

I was pouring my first epoxy river table last year, 10ftx45 inches, thankfully I built a fishtank around the massive pieces of wood because I had a leak too, it just ran under the wood and made it half an inch thicker there. Cost a lot of epoxy though. Great video mang!

New watcher and want to get into making tables w epoxy and wood. Love your videos, keeping doing what your doing!