Epoxy River Mold Build
Why build a mold
In my evolving work with epoxy, my next creation is molds. These are going to be used create some live edge river charcuterie boards and matching coasters. Time is never on my side. Ideally these would have been finished and my boards poured during my 2 weeks home from work. My flight home was weathered for 2 days and I ran short of time. I managed to get a few molds together, but not yet the ones for the matching coasters and no epoxy was poured this week. There is also a short youtube video.
How and what to cut
I used to think melamine was a dirty word. It makes me think of cheap furniture, flower print men’s shirts and station wagons with woodgrain panels. Like everything else, it has its place though. An inexpensive melamine board cut down is the perfect thing to create my epoxy molds.
I used a piece of 12×48 melamine shelf that I purchased at Home Depot. My first cut was 12 x 24 inches as a bottom. The finished charcuterie boards will be 24 inches long but not 12 inches wide. This means I will need to find a way to seal off one side of the wood so that my epoxy stays between the boards. The plan is to seal the outside edges of the live edged wood to the melamine prior to pouring the epoxy. I am hoping that the extra space means I can get the boards out without removing the sides when I am done.
I used my carpenters square to get a straight cut. I could have clamped it down if I was more concerned with perfection. Then I wouldn’t have required the death grip I seem to have on that square.
Put it togethor
Spaces to drill pilot holes need to be marked out. The fastest way to mark where to drill was to flip them and mark the outside against the bottom board. I know that makes no sense, hopefully the video helps. Once you know where you can drill the pilot holes, drill a few for each side. There need to be 2-3 to attach each side to the bottom and then 1-2 to attach them to each other.
Before you actually screw all the sides together a layer of tuck tape helps. Everything I have read or seen says that the epoxy will not stick to the melamine. An extra layer of protection never hurts though. I wish I had known that when I was younger, before I had kids.
Once everything is covered in tuck tape you can screw it together LIGHTLY. The melamine strips if you try to attach it tightly. I did check the sides and corners for square. They needed to be trimmed with a table saw after I took them out so I do not know if this was useful.
All ready to use
All inside corners get covered with a bead of 100% silicone caulking, which for some reason I did not think to get a video or photo of. As soon as I get home from work I can get onto actually pouring some of that beautiful epoxy!!!