Hi I am new to resins and for a school project have got hold of a piece of yew wood. My plan is to encapsulate the sanded bit of yew within the clear resin. I am going to use the resin to fill out the edges of the wood so that it is square because the wood has a rough jagged edge with bark still on. The project is to be a coffee table. The rectangular size for the whole table will be 88x64x5cm so it is fairly large. I have calculated the amount of resin needed and will be roughly 5kg worth of it. I will make a plywood box for the mould lined with mould release. Is clear polyester resin suitable for this table and if so would I be able to do the resin in one go.

Our Waterclear Polyester Casting Resin would work for this project with a couple of factors you need to consider.  First is on a large section like that, there may well be some shrinkage you need to factor in.  You may be able to reduce that by pouring in layers to help reduce heat build up.  Secondly, polyester resins cure in air with a tacky surface. This means you will need to sand it away and polish back to a gloss the top surface that is open to air during curing.  Alternatively you can use Solution MW Wax Gelcoat Additive to seal the open surface from air allowing it to cure tack free or use a closed mould to achieve the same thing.

Another thing that can help is to coat or dip the wood into resin before casting to soak the outer surface so there is less trapped air that may cause issues later on.


Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant