Epoxy River Table Style Bar Top! – DIY Kitchen Cabinets Ep 11
Direct Link: Epoxy River Table Bar Top
This epoxy resin bar top is really the icing on the cake for my DIY kitchen remodel! Two years ago when I started planning the kitchen I had some rough idea of doing something like this, and I could not be happier with how it turned out.
The video above goes through a lot of the details on making it, but I left out a few things. Check out Wood Epoxy River Placemats for more details on me doing epoxy work. Eventually I’ll dedicate a video on just doing epoxy pours and covering what is essential to getting it right.
Materials Used (affiliate links)
- Main deep pour epoxy (2″ deep)
- Alternative for up to 1″ pours
- Quick Coat Epoxy for sealing the edges
- Tape used (Canada/US)
- Alternative tape (US, available at Home Depot)
- Caulking (also check Home Depot)
- Mica Pigment
- Finish – Conversion Varnish (don’t forget the hardener; sometimes you can find package deals online)
- Bolts: (1″ to 2.5″, depending on the location, stainless is not necessary, but nice — available at Ace or Amazon).
- 3/4″ melamine from Home Depot
- 1 1/4″ screws (drywall or basic wood) from Home Depot
Some Tools Used
- Track saw (I recently ordered a ripping blade)
- HVLP for spraying (mine is the older model, but it has always worked awesome)
- Alaskan mill
- Table saw
- Planer – Using the big slab jig is sufficient if you don’t have a wide planer like this one.
Big Slab Jig Plans
- Free Plans & Details: Slab Leveling Router Jig / Planing Sled
- Build video: Big Slab Router Jig Video
Check out all the videos in my DIY Kitchen Cabinet Series.
Check out the kitchen model for you to dissect and use to make your own kitchen and all my related Kitchen Remodel Blog Posts.
Build Details
The mold needs to be just a bit taller than the epoxy pour. It almost doesn’t need sides on the long path, but I did fill in some parts with epoxy that had rot. It is good to seal the mold seams with silicon caulking— I prefer black to more easily have it stand out. Even with that, I knocked my edge a little loose and broke the seal before my pour, so it leaked out one side. I tried to mitigate this by sealing it back up with more silicon and hot glue, but that didn’t work. Instead, what did work was to just put a plastic container under it an catch the leaking epoxy. I could then pour it back in the top.
I used the 2” deep pour epoxy from Stone Coat Countertops. My thickness was a bit over one inch, about 1 1/8”. I think I could have gotten away with their regular casting epoxy that is good for up to 1” pours, but I was worried that it would heat up too much. I think the cold weather would have prevented that from happening, and I went the safer route.
PS: The metal cube is a “tuner’s cube” that I machined out from a chunk of aluminum on my Tormach PCNC 1100.
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