[Don Smith]

My project was a 24” x 24” table top. Mixed the resin per instructions (50-50 mix), then poured it into 4 individual cups with color and mixed those into a single cup and did a dirty pour. Within 10 minutes of the pour the resin started to thicken up and reached a point that I could no longer work with it. After it cured there are multiple deep craters and paint that did not mix. Can I sand it and re-pour over it? The resin I used seemed to be quite thick to begin with & after mixing, is there a type (manufacture) of a resin that is thinner and flows better.

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Don,

I’m sorry to hear your project didn’t go as expected. It sounds like the resin heated up and cured too quickly. Yes, you can sand it and pour over it again.

Can I ask you a few questions to help you troubleshoot for next time? It will help me advise as to whether or not you can make this one work of if you need to switch resins.

What kind/brand did you use?
What is the expected pot time?
What did you use to color the resin?

[Don Smith]

What resin brand do you recommend?

The bottle label says “Cristal Clear” resin. Used mainly for bar tops.
Work time is 30 minutes
Resin was colored with Apple Barrel acrylic paint.

[Katherine Swift]

I haven’t used that resin, but I’m guessing it’s an epoxy. Using paints to color resin can be a little tricky since that isn’t the intended purpose of the paints. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.

I’m still guessing that your resin got too hot too quickly, which is what caused the cracking. In this case, it is either because the paint reacted poorly with the resin or you mixed too much resin at once. (Each resin has a minimum and maximum mixing amount.)

For bartops, I like to use the Resin Obsession artwork resin. You can buy it in several sizes in our store here: https://shop.resinobsession.com/collections/resin/resin-obsession-artwork-resin It also has its own line of colorants here: https://shop.resinobsession.com/collections/liquid-colorants/resin-obsession The work time for this resin is 20 to 40 minutes and you can mix up to 1 gallon at once.

[Katherine Swift]

Another thing on the craters —

Just in case the craters are not from resin overheating (it’s hard to know without seeing a picture), they can happen if your surface isn’t level and/or not clean. By sanding your surface and starting over, you shouldn’t have this problem a second time.

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