Glow Wood

by elichem

14K35218

Intro: Glow Wood

Making glow-in-the-dark wood.

So we've had a lot of artists, woodworkers and furniture makers ask us how to transform pieces of wood into glow-in-the-dark wonders.

We usually tell them its quite easy, then we thought it would be good idea to do a case-study of our own to prove just how straight forward it is...( we hope ! ).

Step 1.

Preparation of the wood to be given a Photo-Luminescent make-over. The trick is finding a suitable piece of wood. It needs to have a lot of surface imperfections ( knots, holes, splits and cracks ).

Once you clean out all loose bits, its time for a sanding down.

Step 2.

Once the wood was prepared, we sealed off the edges with tape and got to work mixing clear resin and Eli-Glow photo-luminescent pigment powder. The resin is self-levelling and free-flowing so it is able to penetrate the voids and gaps relatively easily.

Once poured and spread into the cracks and voids we left the resin to cure. The glow effect is visible in partial light right from the beginning, even before the resin sets hard.

Step 3.

Allow the resin to cure ( 8-12hrs ). Then remove the sealing tape and sand down any excess resin spills.

Your glow wood is now ready to go !.

18 Comments

madmurdo 7 years ago

Final sanding, can you help i have studied video got components the only thing is once the resin has cured i see the surplus is squeeged off but can this be sanded to just leave voids filled with pigment or would sanding leave scratch marks

amikac 8 years ago

In Croatia i don't know where to buy this glow :(

elichem 8 years ago

No problem, for Croatia you can order directly from our website :

www.elichem.co.uk

We use DHL Express to deliver to our customers in Croatia.

kiwicooldaddy 8 years ago

Can this be used on wood for outside purposes?, i.e in different weather conditions?

elichem 8 years ago

Hi there,

Thanks for the enquiry.

Yes it can be used outdoors as the resin is weatherproof once cured.

digitalsprawl 9 years ago

thank you for the instructable! you mention australian stockists for the pigment in one of your other comments, are you able to provide some details on them?

elichem 9 years ago

Hi Digitalsprawl,

Thanks for the enquiry.

Currently we don’t have Eli-Glow stockists in Australia but we have more and more customers buying it there.

Currently we send the Eli-Glow from the U.K by postal service ( up to 500g in shipping weight ) or by DHL courier ( more than 500g ).

If you let me know how much you are looking for I will provide a price incl. delivery.

Regards,

Aram ( aram@elichem.co.uk )

zclark 9 years ago

thank you, where do you get the pigment & resin?

Somethingtotallyrandom 9 years ago

Hey, thanks for making this instructable! I turn pens when I'm able and have wanted something different than my usual wooden or acrylic pen blank. I'm going to dig through my scrap box for wood with defects to fill. I'd normally toss them on the fire since it's more bother than it's worth to just epoxy the defect and turn. But to make a glow-in-the-dark blank, well, that's worthwhile!

elichem 9 years ago

Great idea Ringai...hopefully you will decide to give it a try sometime and send us pics once finished..

dmwatkins 9 years ago

There was a similar post by mikeasaurus on 12/08/14. Both are awesome! Very nice effect.

Any idea of the long-term quality of the phosphorescent? Does it degrade over time?

elichem 9 years ago

Our grade of photo-luminescent pigment shows no signs of degradation or loss of intensity over time. We only supply Super-Grade Strontium Aluminate pigments, unlike the older and cheaper Zinc Sulphide materials, our product will last indefinitely.

The ability to recharge for months and years on end is not diminished. Through accelerated time trials in our labs we can extrapolate forward 12 years to ascertain this data.

elichem 9 years ago

No problem Seamster, thanks for the comment.

seamster 9 years ago

This is such a neat effect. Thanks for sharing your process!

elichem 9 years ago

Video here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAa-qZZnCAM