Glow Wood Tree, Wall Decor

I was inspired to build a table like the glow table mikeasaurus did on here. My lumber place didn't have any cracked lumber or anything with holes so my wife drew this image. I routered it and gave the glow resin thing a try. I am hooked on that stuff now!

Step 1: Material

I ended up with 2 1/2 inch thick piece of sycamore, 18 by 48, with live edges. I removed the bark and had my wife draw a tree on it, she is much better with a pencil than me.

Step 2: Routering

I used a small carving bit and routered the image out, starting about a 1/16 deep. I then went over it again with a large carving bit, going down to 3/16. Routering took around an hour and a half.

Step 3: Prepping for Resin

I placed a thin layer of glue within the carving to reduce resin from absorbing. Then I painted a thin layer of white. I heard the lighter the background the brighter the resin will be.

Step 4: Pouring

I used a simple one to one ratio resin, order from Walmart, cheapest I could find and a glow powder off eBay. Duct tape was used to tape off the end grove, it worked great. First pour my wife helped, it was very smooth with little over pours. I didn't use enough powder and it was translucent, you could see the white paint. I did another pour to top off the carving, it got sloppy with a lot of over pours. Overall I used 13 oz resin and about 50 grams powder.

I chose a powder that remains the same color in light and darkness, we wanted to enjoy the color regardless of lighting.

Step 5: Finishing Sanding

Let the resin sit for 2 days. Took the orbital sander to it. I just eye balled the leveling. Started with 100 grit and worked down to 320. Wet sanded with 320. A planner or belt sander would have been nice!

Step 6: Stain

Brought the piece back inside and applied minimax natural. Wiped on maybe 4 coats, lot of extra coats on the end grain since it soaks up a bunch.

Step 7: Polyurethane

Used minwax oil based poly, wiped on with a 7$poly brush. Did 2 coats, wet saved with 2000 grit in between.

Step 8: Hanging

Drilled a 1.5 hole in the back. Used a router bit too put a lip in the hole. Put a 3/8 bolt 5 inches long in a stud and slapped it on the wall.

Step 9: Ending

Overall very pleased with the project,. Don't be afraid to mess with this stuff, pretty hard to mess up. Take your time and if you mess up just sand the heck out of it.

Sorry for the side ways pics, won't let me load them vertical. Pics don't do the glow justice, it glows super bright!

Comments

[AuroraW5]

Overall how much did it all cost?

[Danger is my middle name]

Wow, gorgeous!

[Hough_Creations]

Thanks for showing interest

[we3reeds]

This is an awesome idea. i look forward to making it eventually

Thanks for sharing

[LeafyG100]

My brother creates acoustic guitars with beautiful wood inlays. Would the resin interfere with sound quality? This would enable him to achieve another appearance, but he's really concerned about the sound (rightly so!)...Advice appreciated; he doesn't "internet". Thanks

[jtdiggy]

i dont see it messing with the sound if its in the fret board, there are plenty of guitars out there that use resin inlays, and the sound in actually generated because the string rests on the frets and not the board itself. I'd say go for it!

[Hough_Creations]

I am not a 100% sure on that, it is a really good idea. He should give it a try. Maybe router in a 1/8 inch, I wouldn't think that would hurt the sound quality. Great idea!

[Red_Crushed_Chili_Peppers]

This is so cool! Thanks for sharing!

[AnnabellaMarie]

I want this!

[Hough_Creations]

Give it a try, very few tools needed, relatively cheap. If you have any questions fill free to ask.

Thanks for showing interest.

[Yonatan24]

Looks really cool! It would look even better if it had EL wire inside of that resin thingimajig!
Or if the whole thing was a HUGE EL pad
and for the "vertical pictures" you can try rotating them in the "PiXLR Editor" that is in Instructables

[Hough_Creations]

thanks for the heads up

[talecriv]

How cool!! I run a Halloween home haunt and our logo is a scary tree that has the letters SH in the top branches and I made a huge backlit LED sign last year for our haunt out of pink foam, but this resin stuff would look awesome and we'd display it all year round in our house. I'll post pictures in your comments when we finish it, a husband and wife project as she designed the tree.

[Hough_Creations]

Sounds awesome!

[Tangski]

Very interesting project. I think the tree would have been better on a wall, however, hey, neat idea!! Sometimes resin can conflict with the paint. Did you use acrylic or oil based paint? Not sure what kind you used.:) Water based should not conflict with resin.? Just wondering. I think that just using an undercoat paint instead of the glue might be all one really needs to use. That would also seal and not then prevent the soak up of resin as you indicated. Also, just using a very thinned layer of resin, colored white might be also all that is needed before top coats? I am just running ideas:)

Cheers and thanks for sharing!!:)

[Hough_Creations]

We did end up hanging it on a wall in our hallway, looks great. We used acrylic paint, now that you said something a couple places it looked like it flaked within the resin.

THANKS FOR SHOWING INTEREST.

[Yonatan24]

Looks really cool! It would look even better if it had EL wire inside of that resin thingimajig!
Or if the whole thing was a HUGE EL pad
and for the "vertical pictures" you can try rotating them in the "PiXLR Editor" that is in Instructables

[Mikeyj68]

Nice job. I ordered some glow pigment and it came in a quarter ounce & one was An ounce. What exactly did you use and how much did it take. What was the ratio you used on it.

[Hough_Creations]

I used clear cast, got it from Walmart. It is a simple 1 to 1 ratio resin. I got the powder from ehcglow, on eBay. I got 100 grams for 20 dollars. Ended up using about 13 ounces of resin and 50 grams glow powder. The tree is 36 x 18 x 3/16. Hope that info helps you.

Thanks for showing interest

[Mikeyj68]

That helps a lot. What a deal on the glow pigment. Thank you so much.