Cutting board - Need help with epoxy inlay

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I made two cutting board for a friend who’s a fan of zombies and b-series movies

We generated a few titles and images with lechat and copilot AI with puns on Roger Forman movies and went with it

The first one is just laser cut, as I started it at 2pm for the same day at 7pm

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Easy (but long) 4 hours engraving

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Quick wipe with mineral oil and there we go…

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The second one, I promised I’ll deliver later so I have a bit more time, so I wanted to fill the laser etched image with epoxy…

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And here is where problems start…

Etching went well… 8 hours mind you

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I poured some epoxy and waited…

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Sanded flat, and… digged too much -_-

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In insight, the board wasn’t flat, it bowed in the middle, so I did what I should’ve done right from the start and surfaced it

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Engraving again…

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And epoxy…

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No sanding mistake this time, we’re surfacing 0.75mm from the top…

Aaaaand… it failed -_-

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This is where I start asking for help :slight_smile:

I see two problems here:

  1. Insufiscient depth of the engraving on detailled zones, I think this is due to the horizontal scanning, an offset fill should guarantee better consistency
  2. Bleeding of the epoxy , this one I really need advice on… How do I keep the epoxy from sinking into the wood around the inlay? Do you have some tips?
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“paint” a very thin layer of clear epoxy around the edges and let dry before you pour your colored epoxy. This will seal the edges and stop the color from running

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I’ve heard primer would do as well? Anyone?

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Thin epoxy or clear varnish seals the grain for stopping the epoxy bleeding.

You can reduce the horizontal scanning interval as well, I usually use .08 for better depth and resolution.

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Trying with two coats of varnish right now

Surface, varnish, dry, laser etch, epoxy, dry, surface…

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As I say - I only read about those things, but shouldn’t you put varnish/epoxy on the sides on etched things only?

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Theorically yes

The idea is that the side of your etching becomes “end grain” and will soak up the epoxy so you need to seal it

On my board though wood soaked epoxy even in un-etched areas

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Quick question : Is there a way to clean the brush I use to “paint” the epoxy or is it just garbage afterwards

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It’s best to use disposable brushes, but you can prolong the life between coats if you must, but popping the brush/roller in a plastic bag and into the fridge - I’ve even frozen them for a week or so when it was a big laminating job using large expensive roller covers.

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Ethanol can also thin it pretty well. Might be able to make it thin enough to wash it away.

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I’ve heard several places Vinegar can be used to clean up epoxy. It may have been a specific epoxy though. If you try it let us know what works. (edit) Let me specify that is uncured epoxy.