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Step 13Epoxy the inside of the didge
In this step, you will epoxy the inside of the didge. This seals the leather and gives a hard surface for the sound to bounce off of on the inside, and it holds the seam together.
First, you'll want to lay down the drop cloth, to keep the epoxy off the floor. Ideally, you'll want to work someplace that has good ventilation, so you don't breath in too much epoxy fumes.
Mix the epoxy, per the manufacturer's instruction. You'll need to mix up around 8-10 oz of epoxy. The two types of epoxy I mentioned in the "materials" step use a 1:1 ratio, so just pour out 4-5 oz of each component into a plastic mixing cup, and stir thoroughly with a mixing stick. You want to make sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the container, so you don't leave any unmixed epoxy (or as little as possible at least).
Don a pair of latex gloves (just in case), and pour the epoxy into the wide end of the didge.
Pick up the didge and place the far end (the mouthpiece end) on something, to help hold it up - otherwise your arms will quickly get tired from trying to hold it up.
Hold the open end of the didge lower than the sealed end, in order to let the epoxy run back towards the open end. You'll want to look inside the bore and watch for when the epoxy starts getting close to the open end, and then raise the open end back up a bit so it doesn't run out the open end.
Slowly rotate the didge, letting the epoxy coat the bore as you rotate. You'll probably want to raise the open end back up and let the epoxy run pool in the sealed end, and then lower it again and run back towards the open end (several times), while occasionally rotating.
Note that you don't need to worry about coating the leather at the very edge of the open end - it should get coated nicely when you let the epoxy drain out of the open end.
Once you are comfortable that the entire bore has been coated, you can stand the didge back up and let the epoxy drain out onto the plastic drop cloth. The epoxy doesn't stick to the plastic, so once it has cured, you can peel it off the drop cloth and reuse the drop cloth.
At this point, you can take off the tape, plastic and silly putty on the mouthpiece end.
If you built the PVC frame, you take take some string and wrap it around the 2 horizontal bars on the top, and then take the end of the string and wrap it around the top of the didge, down far enough to hold the didge up off the ground.
Otherwise, you can try and find something else to hang the didge off of. Put a hook in the ceiling.. Use an existing light fixture (with the light turned off!)... etc.
Or you can just lean the didge against a wall or something. The only downside is that the epoxy will be thicker on the side of the bore that is facing downward.
Now just let the epoxy drain and cure. It will be dry to the touch in 4-5 hours, and it will be fairly hard in about a day. It takes a week or two to reach full hardness, but it's "good enough" after a day.
The attached sound file is what it sounded like the next day, after the epoxy had cured.
Tips:
Try not to get any epoxy on you. If you do, just wash as best as you can with soap and water.
If you get epoxy on something that you don't want it on, you can clean it up before it cures with some mineral spirits, denatured alcohol, or something similar.
First, you'll want to lay down the drop cloth, to keep the epoxy off the floor. Ideally, you'll want to work someplace that has good ventilation, so you don't breath in too much epoxy fumes.
Mix the epoxy, per the manufacturer's instruction. You'll need to mix up around 8-10 oz of epoxy. The two types of epoxy I mentioned in the "materials" step use a 1:1 ratio, so just pour out 4-5 oz of each component into a plastic mixing cup, and stir thoroughly with a mixing stick. You want to make sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the container, so you don't leave any unmixed epoxy (or as little as possible at least).
Don a pair of latex gloves (just in case), and pour the epoxy into the wide end of the didge.
Pick up the didge and place the far end (the mouthpiece end) on something, to help hold it up - otherwise your arms will quickly get tired from trying to hold it up.
Hold the open end of the didge lower than the sealed end, in order to let the epoxy run back towards the open end. You'll want to look inside the bore and watch for when the epoxy starts getting close to the open end, and then raise the open end back up a bit so it doesn't run out the open end.
Slowly rotate the didge, letting the epoxy coat the bore as you rotate. You'll probably want to raise the open end back up and let the epoxy run pool in the sealed end, and then lower it again and run back towards the open end (several times), while occasionally rotating.
Note that you don't need to worry about coating the leather at the very edge of the open end - it should get coated nicely when you let the epoxy drain out of the open end.
Once you are comfortable that the entire bore has been coated, you can stand the didge back up and let the epoxy drain out onto the plastic drop cloth. The epoxy doesn't stick to the plastic, so once it has cured, you can peel it off the drop cloth and reuse the drop cloth.
At this point, you can take off the tape, plastic and silly putty on the mouthpiece end.
If you built the PVC frame, you take take some string and wrap it around the 2 horizontal bars on the top, and then take the end of the string and wrap it around the top of the didge, down far enough to hold the didge up off the ground.
Otherwise, you can try and find something else to hang the didge off of. Put a hook in the ceiling.. Use an existing light fixture (with the light turned off!)... etc.
Or you can just lean the didge against a wall or something. The only downside is that the epoxy will be thicker on the side of the bore that is facing downward.
Now just let the epoxy drain and cure. It will be dry to the touch in 4-5 hours, and it will be fairly hard in about a day. It takes a week or two to reach full hardness, but it's "good enough" after a day.
The attached sound file is what it sounded like the next day, after the epoxy had cured.
Tips:
Try not to get any epoxy on you. If you do, just wash as best as you can with soap and water.
If you get epoxy on something that you don't want it on, you can clean it up before it cures with some mineral spirits, denatured alcohol, or something similar.
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