Chucky's project - Canadian flag set

@Karver_One I’m using Art and Craft Epoxy Resin from Magic Resin up here in Canada. But I’m sure it’s a generic resin available from a lot of suppliers. It takes about 24 hours to cure hard enough to machine. So it’s a long time between carves. It’s supposed to be self-degassing and the result are good for the most part. The trick is to pour quickly, take a toothpick to force the epoxy in narrow areas, and then not touching it until cured.

Since you can’t move the work piece until done, a project with lots of carves will use up valuable real estate on your mill. It was off to the side so I was still able to do other things. The gSender workspaces are your friend here. Notice the current workspace and coordinates written down just in case. I triple check everything before running a job. Last thing you want is the wrong workspace screwing up a week’s worth of work.

I start with a pocket 3mm deep un 12mm Baltic birch plywood. Fill that with the background colour and surface the next day. I’m left with about 2mm of epoxy. Then it’s just a question of doing subsequent carves for each colour. I start with all the pocket cuts and finish the finer details with a vcarve. Always overfill with epoxy and resurface a bit higher than the first surface. The final surface is about 0.02 to 0.05mm mm lower than the first. You’ll be surprised at how much 0.02mm removes. You think you need to use a bigger value but you really want to use small increments to preserve the detail of the v-carves.

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I recently learned about GSender workspaces and your epoxy project use is a useful thing for me to think about. I am not yet trying epoxy carves yet but as a Canadian am interested to know more about your source for epoxy.

After realizing the one post was part of a series (I am a newbie) I have re-read your posts and see that you reference ā€˜Magic Resin’ as your epoxy source.
I seem to remember that you mentioned your daughter’s colour expertise and your limited choice of colours that (and your mention of red with black) got me wondering if the stains can be mixed to adjust colour (blue+yellow=green sort of thing).

One final thought, your ā€œ_ottā€ moniker, and the licence plate story, got me thinking you are a fellow Ottawan, and that is an exciting idea for me. (I am an old-fashioned nationalist and part of my attraction to Sienci Labs is that the company is Canadian.)

I keep adding to this post because a note tells me that despite my ā€œenthusiasmā€ I am only allowed one post.

I live within walking distance of Lee Valley her in Ottawa so I will check out that source first.

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@ArtPetch Welcome to the forum. My current supplier is Magic Resin (https://magicresin.ca/). Everything has been free shipping so far . There are other Canadian retailers you can buy from, depending on the types of businesses you prefer. Lee Valley and KJP Select Hardwood come to mind. KJP is in Ottawa but ship nationally. Lee Valley has stores throughout Canada.