Bottle Cap Table with Poured Resin Surface

Step 4: Begin gluing.

You might be thinking that you can just lay caps down and pour resin over them, but don't skip this step.

Since we were covering our table with clear resin, we weren't too concerned with the type of glue used. I started out with contact cement, moved on to furniture glue, then Liquid Nails for small projects, and even tried siliconized caulk. I ended up using plain old super glue. This was the best option and the one I suggest for you. Since the caps are going to get covered with resin, they just need to stick to the table, so a couple of dots are all you need. Don't go crazy, because messy excess glue will show through the resin when you're done.

Extra information regarding this step:
Although I suggest super glue for this project, the contact cement was truly the strongest adhesive. However, it took some time to use and was less forgiving. The silicone-based glues (Liquid Nails and caulk) seemed to shift or expand as it dried, which ultimately threw our design off. Super glue was the least elegant choice, but it dries relatively quickly and was rigid enough for this project. One note of caution: I discovered that Super Glue reacts with the hexane/toluene base of contact cement. They discolor and create a crystalline growth that resembles a fuzzy, white mold that must be removed with acetone. So pick one glue and go with it to avoid this kind of situation.

Comments

[MaryLenehan]

 I was thinking about doing a project like this, and considering hot glue to secure the caps. Did you reject this approach for some reason? Mess?

[debbieorah]

I tried edging a mirror in bottlecaps, and when doing that i tried hot glue and superglue. THe hot glue popped right off pretty much right after adhering to the mirror for a minute. (not sure if there would be a different result if it wasn't sticking to glass). Can't wait to try this in table form and use the resin... im hoping for a funky and cool piece like that!!! A+ job americangypsi!!!!!

[DMBillies]

 Cool table.  In college I made a 5' x 7' beer pong table covered with caps.  Needless to say I was working on a much bigger surface.  Had a friend that could do the covering of the caps with fiberglass resin for free (which was great), but we used polyurethane to do the initial gluing down of the caps (aside from the sliding issue, caps will try to float... so let me reiterate what the poster said... don't skip this!).  

The benefit to polyurethane is that it's cheap, you can just spread some on in a not too thin layer with a brush and move the caps as necessary, it dries in a reasonable amount of time, and you don't have to worry as much about mess.  Polyurethane is the same thing gorilla glue is made out of, so it will definitely hold.  If you're worried about the slightly yellow color (e.g., if your background color is white or light wood), use polycrylic instead, just make sure that it is all covered and can't get any moisture on it (it discolors). 

[americangypsy]

I originally thought of grouting the table, so I bought glue with that in mind.  When I decided to use the polymer resin, I just didn't really rethink the glue.  Since I hadn't used this resin before, my main concerns were (obviously) to keep the caps in place and not have a lot of glue show around the edges of the bottle caps.

If you can keep the hot glue "strings" under control and minimize the amount of excess around the caps, I think hot glue would work just fine for this project.  Thanks for the suggestion.