Clear acrylic epoxy vanity tops.

[Malsua 1,422]

We remodeled our house in 2012, doubling the floor space and tripling the volume.  I know...TL:DR

 

The LAST item was the vanity in the upstairs master suite.   We had a crappy little vanity from the old bathroom in there until a few weeks ago.

 

We ordered some decent Thomasville cabinets from Home Depot for one reason, they had a 25% off labor day special.  We were going to custom build them(I worked in a Cabinet shop 22 years ago, I can do it) but after all this time I'm ready to be done.   We had also contacted a local cabinet builder but he never got back to us...his loss, we'd have probably spent a fortune with him.

 

Anyway, my wife wanted to do a special counter top, instead of an off the shelf Corian or something.

 

Here's what we came up with.  Well, it was her idea, mostly.  I pick things up and put them down.

 

Clear Acrylic Epoxy over tiles.  like you see in Bars with pennies or whatnot in them.

 

Two layers of plywood, one layer of backerboard, mastic, tile, grout.   This took a solid weekend and it had to cure.

 

Next comes the Acrylic...and it's a pain in the ass, but now I know.

 

First you have to mix a "sealing" coat.  You then pain it on your substrate and let it cure to a tack.

 

Roughly four hours later you do a flood coat. 

 

Roughly four hours after that you do another flood coat.

 

The problem is...mixing the Epoxy is critical.  Our second flood coat never cured evenly, apparently I didn't mix it perfectly.   It had some tacky spots.

 

If you read some instructions on this epoxy NEVER MIX IT WITH A DRILL.    Then you read what people who do this for a living say "We mix it with a drill"

 

I didn't mix it with a drill and it was sticky.   We ordered more epoxy...and I MIXED IT WITH A DRILL!   It wasn't a paint mixer though, it was a low volume mixer blade for thick material, a paint mixer will not work properly.

 

This coat is rock hard!   We are going to trim up the edges with some solid maple.  I think it looks great.

 

 

 

 

[Zeke 5,504]

Well, " bartop " is an interesting app.

I don't think you need people, you got this.

[Zeke 5,504]

It may yellow over time.

[DeerSlayer 241]

My buddy did a bar top like that. He made it about 6' long and did it all in bottle caps. It came out pretty cool.

[Malsua 1,422]

The concept for the room is "beach, sand and water"  Hence the vanity looks like water over stones.  Shrug. 

 

If anyone ever wants to do this type of application, I have some definite "tips" for you.

 

1.  Mechanically mix the epoxy.   Use a low volume, high viscosity mixing blade on medium speed.  Do not lift it to the surface and introduce a bunch of air.

2.  Room, epoxy and substrate must be warm, 75+

3.  We used both Klear Kote and Kleer Kote.  Competing mfgs.   Klear Kote smells horrendous.  Kleer Kote has almost zero smell.

4.  Expect to trash your buckets, measuring cups and gloves.  Once it's on something, you aren't getting it off.  I was able to clean my mixer with denatured alcohol and a lot of work, the measuring cups were a loss.   Oh and use measuring cups..."eyeballing it" isn't good enough.

4a  Use two buckets to mix each batch.   Mix first in one bucket for 3 minutes, then pour contents into second buck, mix for 3 minutes.   Use stir stick to "roll it over, top to bottom a few times.

4b  toss buckets after each coat.  We used 8 buckets for this counter top.   We had 2 liners, but the store was out, so I just used the buckets themselves.

5.  Don't mix a batch of more than 1gallon at a time(2qt epoxy, 2qt hardener).  In fact, don't do more than 3qt at a time if you can  help it.

6.  Use a propane torch to pop bubbles 20 minutes after a pour.  You put it on low and lightly play it across the surface, the bubbles come up and pop. 

7.  Don't touch it to test...you leave fingerprints in it.  Should be reasonably hard by 8 hours, and mostly cured in 3 days.

[Zeke 5,504]

1-7 pretty much sop

[ECsandstar 28]

Looks good! I'd be happy with the turnout for sure

[Shane45 807]

Hmmm I have a bunch of non reloadable brass. Wonder how that would come out as the impregnated covering

 

 

 

 

 

Edited: Retyped as I have no idea how it turned into a quote of myself :/