Fix
What you need
Router
Guide
Slamming and Learning
Before I continue talking about a fix to my epoxy failure, let me share how I think this all could’ve been prevented. By looking closely at the result, it became apparent that tiny air pockets seemed to have caused my mess. Like an upside down glass under water, the cracked property of my skate wood slices trapped small volumes of air, which were quickly surrounded by epoxy. These cavities would continuously release tiny streams of air, as my pour cured. People around the web discussed the use of vacuum chambers to counteract this. I don’t own this kind of equipment, but I think two other improvements would help prevent this next time.
Foremost, I shouldn’t have poured all at once. An initial pour, covering merely the bottom of the mold, would have probably sealed any air cavities. Second, it might’ve helped if I had carefully sanded the bottom side of all my deck slices. This would’ve eliminated most wood cracks, thereby reducing risk for air pockets. I actually thought about this prior to glueing the pieces into my mold, but it felt too tedious to do so.
Impatient action often leads to complications, it wouldn’t be the last time I realised that throughout my build.
A slam will force you to think about getting up and best case it’ll teach you how to roll away on your next attempt. Skateboarding is a good reminder for that kind of lifelession. To prove the point again, here is Chris Joslin battling another huge stair set.
Rolling Away
So as I contemplated the mishaps of my epoxy mess, I wasn’t quite ready to toss the entire thing out and do it all again. Mostly, because I really liked the wood pattern underneath those frozen bubbles. That is when my friend Michael’s words popped up in my head again. He pushed me to consider kicking most of the “epoxy nonesense” and focus more on the skate wood. As a result, I quite literally planned to roll away from the sketchy execution of my epoxy trick.
My plan was to remove as much surface epoxy as possible, until I’d uncover the wood slices it had buried. It seemed obvious that some bubbles would remain visible between adjacent pieces, but I had at least wanted to see if that looked okay. For later steps, I knew I was going to need a router to carve pockets on my guitar body. So I borrowed the device a little earlier from my friend Burgi. It came with a DIY guide, that lets you drag it across a surface at level distance. So I fixed the result of my pour to a workbench and started removing material line by line.
Be Mindful
Make sure to wear your protective gear. The dust created by routing epoxy will be very harmful to your lungs, much like the fumes released by uncured resin.
A white Christmas came early that day! Not only was I covered in piles of synthetic snow, but also I was looking at a great present for all my efforts. I dared to dig deep enough to scrape off some of the color on the mosaic slices. I actively decided to do so, as I thought it would resonate better with the psychedelic pattern on the other side of the blank. And I did like this result much more than the unprocessed mosaic. Additionally, having both sides of the body be mostly wood would make a finish for the guitar easier. After all, oil and wax doesn’t stick to epoxy.
Some residual bubbles can still be seen between mosaic slices on my finished guitar. But I’ll let them bear witness of my process and all it’s facettes.
Skateboarding is raw. Chips and cracks on a board make your effort real. I kept this as one of my core design guidelines to be reflected in this build.
Before
After
