How to make a sink from epoxy resin

It is not always necessary to buy a designer sink for the house. There are a lot of interesting materials today. They can be used to make beautiful and practical furniture with their own hands.

The epoxy resin sink will decorate the bathroom, kitchen or become the highlight of your home. Epoxy acts as the main component of the sink or binds wood, stone chips, liquid stone. By adding dyes and water, you can get interesting decorative effects. This will cause rave reviews.

Subtleties of use

For the manufacture of an epoxy resin sink, a liquid two-component composition is suitable. Matte and transparent resin types are suitable, depending on the goal. Combinations of several types of resin with the addition of dyes look spectacular. To make the product look evenly colored, it is necessary to mix the mixture thoroughly.

Mixing of the epoxy composition when adding a hardener or dyes should be done carefully. You need to do this with a screwdriver and a mixer for mixing paints. Insufficient mixing can lead to the appearance of waves and stripes of different hardness on the surface of the product after curing.

The mixing time with a mixer of a volume of resin weighing 1-3 kg is about 2-3 minutes, followed by the release of bubbles.

The scope of application of epoxy materials is quite wide. They are used for waterproofing, obtaining chemically resistant coatings, increasing the strength of wooden materials. For design purposes, epoxy products are molded, ground and cut.

Advantages of using epoxy:

• great strength;
• small shrinkage;
• low moisture absorption;
• resistance to wear.

The epoxy goes well with polyester resin. Polyester has excellent dielectric properties, is resistant to wear and does not emit harmful substances during operation. Both types of resins harden at room temperature and do not need expensive processing plants.

Since polyester resins are two times cheaper than epoxy resins, their combination is justified. When applying one type of resin to another, it is necessary to monitor the process. They should not come into contact in an uncured form. Epoxy resin adheres better to polyester.

The disadvantages of polyesters include high flammability. Some brands still use toxic styrene as a solvent. Before buying, you will need to familiarize yourself with the composition.

Important! Work with polyester resins is allowed only in rooms with a good ventilation system and with the use of additional safety measures (glasses, carbon respirator). During the curing process, polyester emits a large amount of volatile and harmful substances. It is strongly not recommended to produce anything from polyester resins in domestic premises.

Safety rules

The manufacture of epoxy resin products should be carried out only in compliance with safety regulations:

1. You need to work with epoxy resin in protective clothing. Be sure to protect the respiratory organs with a respirator, and the eyes with glasses.
2. The place of work should be well ventilated.
3. If the epoxy gets on the skin, it should be washed off quickly with soap.
4. Do not pour resin into food dishes.

For work with epoxy resin, it is better to use disposable cups. It’s convenient.

Manufacture of products

To make an epoxy resin adhesive, you need to add a hardener to it in a ratio of about 10:1. An increase in the amount of hardener leads to the boiling of the resin and the inability to use it. The hardener is poured in very slowly. All components must be thoroughly mixed. For large volumes of the mixture, a construction mixer is perfect.

The proportions of the ratio of resin and hardener can be very different. It is mandatory to comply with the instructions of the manufacturer, the resin supplier at this stage.

When purchasing a material, it is better to additionally consult the seller about its features. Powdered dyes are used to color the product, and the addition of a small amount of water can lead to beautiful marble stains.

When making a sink, you can use pouring or casting of products. In the first case, the workpiece of the product is covered with glue from above. The procedure should be performed several times. Each time waiting for the final drying of the previous layer.

Pouring into molds will require significant material consumption, but will allow you to make interesting compositions-diaramas using various fillers: marble chips, beautiful pieces of wood, wood chips, sea shells. The process of complete polymerization takes more than a week. But it can be accelerated by placing the product in the frying hour for 5-6 hours. For greater durability, the product is additionally treated with a liquid gelcoat stone. You can buy it in hardware stores.

Varieties

Epoxy resin surfaces look like ice or artificial stone. You will need wood, beautiful stones or other fillers, shape depending on the chosen model.

• The sink is made of wood. For manufacturing, you will need a blank made of wood. To make it, use wooden remnants from other works, connecting them with glue. At the initial stage, check with the desired size of the sink. But first, do not strive to create an even layout. After the initial adhesive assembly of the model, it needs to be processed. Polish and cover with epoxy.
• The shell is out of shape. To make a mold matrix for the sink, drywall or other material is suitable. The pieces are adjusted to size, processed with a jigsaw and putty. After drying the layout, it must be thoroughly sanded and covered with paint for perfect smoothness. Liquid stone or polyester resin is applied on top in several layers. After drying, the molds are removed, the sink undergoes final processing.
• Kitchen sink made of polyester resin. Such a sink is made together with the countertop in two stages. First, a countertop is made, a beautiful filler is placed inside it. Then the countertop is supplemented with a sink, it can be made according to the previous description. To avoid scratches and scuffs on the surface when using, the sink is covered with liquid stone.

Important points

The sink (sink) made of epoxy resin is already the highest design class, because of its 3D shape, volume. The techniques that sculptors use in casting three-dimensional objects are completely unsuitable here. It’s all about such a property of epoxy resin as exceptional adhesion. This is the ability to penetrate into the structure of the materials with which it comes into contact during solidification.

To isolate the matrix from the formed product, a special molding-insulating wax is used.

Unlike making flat surfaces like countertops or chair seats, you will need at least 2 times more tools. These can be milling cutters, a grinder with replaceable discs, and grinding wheels.

Reliable pressure and exhaust ventilation is needed in the room. Gases and volatile substances released during the polymerization of the epoxy are very harmful to health. Do not forget about the abrasive treatment of molding materials, frozen epoxy resin: there will be no extraction, everything will be covered with a thick layer of dust.

We need sufficient illumination, a workbench table with clamps and clamps. For the molding of such products, it is necessary to have an insulated, sufficiently comfortable electrified room or a ventilated and sufficiently spacious basement, but not a living room in an apartment or house.

A product for a tree

Let’s focus on a simpler shell shape – thin-walled, simple geometric shape: oval, circle, rectangle with rounded corners.

To make a sink, you will need the following materials:

• Foam with a thickness.
• Leveler for walls or building plaster.
• Fine pine chips after a carpenter’s cutter.
• Transparent epoxy resin.
• Hardener for epoxy resin.
• Scotch tape.
• Disposable tableware.
• Insulating wax.

The standard dimensions of the countertops of the bedside table under the sink are usually 800×600 mm. We put together a flat wooden box with a side height of 2-3 cm with a well-sanded skin on the inner surface of the bottom.

Wood chips are used after milling. It is a thin long spiral with a clear structure of wood. This material will disperse well in the mass of the epoxy resin.

Necessary tools:

• Multi-speed grinding machine with rotating working part. It is important that it should not be vibrational.
• Grinding wheels – abrasive and felt, with polishing paste.
• Sandpaper sandpaper of varying degrees of granularity.
• Disposable plastic spatulas.
• Paint brushes.
• Thermal knife .
• Hair dryer construction.

Manufacturing process

We choose the shape of the future shell. For the first experiment, you can limit yourself to a simple shape – an oval in cross section. Or a circle with a segment cut off.

• A flat box is installed using a level strictly horizontally. So there will be no more runoff of epoxy on one of the sides. The placement location in the future countertop of the sink is selected. Under this place, a piece of plywood is cut out with an electric jigsaw with a size slightly smaller than the outer size of the sink, it is not removed, it remains in place. This is done to facilitate the process of removing foam with frozen putty at the final stage of work.
• We cut out the blanks from the foam with a thermal knife according to the size of the future sink of different sizes: large, corresponding to the open edge, and then smaller and smaller. So that in an inverted form, after superimposing the blanks one on top of the other, a rough step-by-step layout of the sink turned out. The foam layers are bonded to each other with a mixture diluted as for wall putty.
• Diluted to the consistency of thick sour cream with a putty mixture, we smear the cocoon of the back of the shell until the stepped structure is hidden. The remains of the putty are removed from the surface of the mold box.
• After 12-15 hours of exposure, the surface of the cocoon matrix is cleaned to a smooth state with a skin of varying degrees of granularity. Special care requires cleaning the transition zone of the sink into the countertop. After that, the dust from the surface is carefully removed with a slightly damp rag. The surface is dried with a construction hair dryer, blown with compressed air, you can use a tightly inflated car camera.
• The wax melts to a liquid state and is quickly applied with a brush to all surfaces: the inner sides of the box-shapes, cocoon, the plane of the bottom of the box — the future countertop. Then the wax is leveled with spatulas to remove traces of bristles from the brush, and with a piece of cloth or any coarse woolen fabric, the frozen wax is polished to a glossy state. Try not to miss a single millimeter of the surface during the wax treatment.
• Epoxy resin with a hardener without chipboard filler is diluted to form the first, outer transparent layer. Such a layer is needed so that later, during the polishing process, the chip particles adjacent to the surface do not open up with air or water access to them, which will cause rotting of the wood inside the decorative layer. Resin, like paint, covers the cocoon of the shell matrix and the surface of the box – form for the countertop. The entire surface of the epoxy, superimposed on the matrix, warms up with a hairdryer, this will expel the air bubbles formed during the mixing process. Just don’t get carried away, don’t heat above 60°C/140°F degrees, it can make the layer boil.
• The epoxy layer is given 24 hours to completely solidify, after which the operation is repeated.

The diluted resin with a hardener has sufficient density. It rests on the sloping walls of the shell matrix. Part of it will drain down, but to prevent this, you can apply less epoxy to the vertical and sloping parts of the matrix and additionally level it with brushes and spatulas. Make sure that the bristles do not climb out of the brushes, and immediately remove these fallen bristles.

• The first batch of resin with milling pine chips is being bred. With a spatula, the resulting mass is superimposed on surfaces previously coated with a transparent epoxy compound. While solidification is in progress, it is also possible to adjust the surface of the shell matrix with a spatula, preventing too much epoxy with chips from draining.
• After complete solidification, the final batch of chip and resin residues is diluted in a day, and all surfaces are also covered.
• After solidification of the last layer, it is better to wait 48 hours. All the time of manipulations with epoxy, starting with the first protective layers, it is desirable to cover the structure with polyethylene on the frame, a kind of dome, in order to avoid insects, dust, and specks on the product.
• We make technological holes: for the drain, side for the safety pipe, if it is provided by the design of the drain gander-siphon, and for the installation of the mixer. For the central drain at the highest point of the dome-matrix (after removal from the mold, this point will be the lowest), a hole is drilled (cut out) for the outlet pipe and the grid-washer.
• Taking out the finished countertop with a sink begins with disassembling the sides of the box-shape. Then the bottom of the box is separated, exposing the countertop, then through a pre-sawn section in plywood, the selection of foam layers with frozen putty begins.

Cylindrical spiral chips from the milling cutter, randomly located in the thickness of the epoxy, have a smooth cut structure of the side surfaces, and play very effectively in reflected light. The texture of natural wood from the array will not work.

Here, the aesthetic criterion is not the similarity of the resulting product to natural, but its originality, and pine milling chips after impregnation with epoxy acquires a honey saturated color. The multilayer arrangement of this chip in the thickness of the epoxy array provides an indescribable play of light.

Possible irregularities are polished with felt circles with a special polishing paste. The polished surface must be wetted with water. The fastener of the resulting sink-sink to the top of the bedside table is provided by an aluminum corner on galvanized screws or on silicone adhesive sealant.

The resulting wood-epoxy composite almost does not differ in weight from the same steel or enameled, and is lighter than ceramic, and even more so stone.