A Project Gone Awry: Lessons Learned from a DIY Adventure

As I embarked on my latest DIY project, I had envisioned a smooth and effortless experience. However, things didn't quite go as planned. The first issue that arose was with the clamping mechanism. I had intended to clamp down one side of this thing, which wasn't really the game plan in the first place. Instead, I found myself stuck trying to figure out how to secure it properly. I would see it just think out you're clamping scenario a little better than I did just my bad and if you're gonna use wood spacers which I highly suggest when you're clamping make sure you put a little tie back tape around those wood pieces they'll come off a lot easier.

I learned the hard way that a user error was not to stand in the miter. I thought it was gonna be a breeze, but unfortunately, I got stuck. I guess honestly I thought it was gonna see it through the grits with everything else but it's still just a thicker chunk of epoxy right there so it's always gonna look different. I would say that minor was so spot-on to begin with that I don't know other than maybe doing like a quick hand sand and knock off any if there's any burrs or anything.

Despite the setbacks, I persevered and eventually filled the gap with epoxy. To my surprise, it worked out in the end. However, it took a lot more time and effort than anticipated. The reaction of the epoxy actually formed like almost crystals in here, which gave it an air-pockety look that was quite unique. While it wasn't exactly what I had envisioned – a crystal clear effect – it ended up looking pretty cool with an L-shaped piece of wood providing support.

The process required me to have some patience and creativity. What I did end up creating was something like geode, which I thought looked pretty awesome. As I worked on this piece, I realized that sometimes things don't go as planned, but it's how we respond that matters. The final result has sparked my interest in experimenting with epoxy, and I'm excited to see what other projects I can tackle.

I'd like to give a shout-out to Total Boat for having a solid product, even when I screwed it up. They have been a great resource for me, and their products have helped me achieve the results I wanted. If you're new to working with epoxy, I highly recommend giving them a try. And as an added bonus, if you use my promo code, you'll receive 15% off your first order.

Another shout-out is due to Arbortech, whose Turbo Plane has been instrumental in helping me create this piece. Their products are top-notch, and I appreciate the quality they bring to the table. If you're interested in checking out their gear, I've included some coupon codes below for our valued patrons.

I'd also like to extend a special thank you to all my patrons who have supported me on this journey. Your encouragement means the world to me, and I'm grateful for each of your contributions. As always, if you enjoyed this video, please hit that like button, subscribe to my channel, and enable notifications so you can stay up-to-date with all my latest projects.

Before we wrap up, I'd be remiss not to mention a few other shout-outs. A big thank you to Steven Mann and Nick the Greek for being part of our community. And finally, a special welcome to Nelly Adams, who has just joined our ranks as one of our newest patrons. We're thrilled to have you on board! As always, clinkies are in order – let's keep this momentum going!

Finally, I've got some work waiting for me – couch table projects that require some TLC and creativity. But I'm excited to tackle these challenges head-on and bring my own unique touch to the table (pun intended).

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up guys I'm Nick and this is Build Dad Build a place wherewe've always wondered if a woodchuck could chuck wood would they be going  for volume or distance all right guys the wife aka my shop goddess has been  after me for a while to build her up one of those little couch tables just  look kind of kind of as an L that comes up and goes over the couch so she hassome place to set her cocktail but my thought was what I want to try to do  is make a live edge looking table out of 2X material so what I'm gonna do isI'm gonna take so you guys may remember this from my viking chair build I will  link that right here if you haven't seen it but this is the chair that  didn't make it this is the one that I and this part was totally fine it  was the tail piece that just kind of didn't fit but I figure I'll still  make use of this piece of wood I'm just gonna cut this piece off right here and  I'm gonna use this part for the the side or the leg of the table and the  tabletop so what I'm planning on doing is I'm gonna cut this in half and then  I'm gonna carve kind of a live edge side into each side of it we'll pour it fullof epoxy and then we'll make a table out and hopefully it will look like  it's a really expensive table that was really only about 8 bucks plus epoxyand my time and all the other stuff but the wood the wood was only eight bucksalright guys so we have a bit of an issue anyway so I poured theepoxy I thought everything was good and then this happened can you see all  those bubbles those are all hard and I thing that sucks is it's 100% my fault I'mpretty sure it was just too hot in the garage I thought I have my temperature  regulated but I think it was hotter than I thought it was in here and thathappens when the epoxy cures too fast so definitely pay attention to your labels  and see like optimal temperatures to to pour epoxy and unfortunately  I noticed that what's happening at the same time I had to go pick up the kids  so I couldn't even really mitigate it all that much I just had to like let  it happen I also wasn't really expecting the whole thing to float as much I mean  I put a couple of clamps on there but I guess just the density of the epoxy  versus the wood I ended up having to add more pieces and more wood I'm gonna have  to knock all those pieces off because they're all pretty much epoxied to thetop of it anyway but even with all that I don't think all is lost I think it can  still run through the planer and take it down to a manageable surface it's  just not going to be like it's crystal clear as it wasn't that initial pourbecause it's like I always say if you're gonna fail fail forwardthe game plan was to sand theseis up thru the grits and thenglue the corner piece in today but I've got a bunch of these little  pockmarks that are in the epoxy and I don't think I can do anything I  can't if I want to do anything with those I have to do that first I'm  just gonna mix up some epoxy and pour it in there but I think I'm  gonna use CA glue because there are little tiny deals I think that once  we get sanded down you're not gonna notice this could be a horrible ideaalright guys so we're in the process of gluing this joint up I have anissue though so this mitre was like perfect it was like spot-on but whenI was sanding the edges I didn't take into consideration that the epoxy would  sand faster and even though I didn't sand very much I have this gap herenow and this is a horrible idea but this is the only way I can think to  fix it right now I've come too far now to scrap this project learn from my  mistakes kids apparently don't sand it at all I thought I would need tosand the epoxy at least a little bit so it wasn't so opaque maybe that was abad idea probably it was a bad idea so what I'm gonna do so I'm gonna mix up  a very small batch of epoxy and pour it in here and hopefully if things go well  I'll be with you tonight now again hopefully hopefully hopefully I can  color match this well enough that you won't notice what's up guys it is the  next day again and we've got a glue up going on here so what I'm going to do  is I'm not going to put just some small L brackets in here those should be kind  of hidden and then the next step is I tried to fill that void yesterday  and I just put some epoxy in there let it kind of sink in put some more  in there and I thought I'd fill it all the way to the top but I come out today  and there's still a little bit of a void in there so what I'm going to do  is on a chamfer this edge all the other edges are chamfered anyway sothat hopefully will mitigate that I'm hoping it's I'm hoping this is filled  enough to where if I chamfer it it's not gonna be a nightmare and then I'mgoing to build the base for this which is basically just going to be kind of a  u-shape that comes out it comes out here and we're gonna take the torch  to it and hopefully get some finish on it today I would like to have this like  ninety percent if not a hundred percent done today we'll see we'll see if Idon't run into roadblocks this should be pretty easy to get done but this  thing's been nothing but roadblocks so we will see wish me luck well youcan wish me luck but if you're seeing this on video it's already happened so  there's that but in the immortal words of Big Daddy Kane let's get to work did  he say that I don't know if you said that I know he had I work I get the  job don't work but I know the reason it looks good to work just let's say he didI don't know about you guys but this thing's been giving  me enough problems that I wouldn't be real upset if it just burnt to  the ground that being said let's light this on fire shall wenow this is the time on sprockets where we dance and this is atime on Build Dad Build where we varnish don't forget to glove uphey what's happening guys well it was a pain in the butt but I kind  of love it so much of this did not work out the way I wanted it to but inthe end it all came together and it's a really cool-looking piece so let's talk  about some issues first biggest issue being of course the epoxy not curing  right or kicking too fast and that's a hundred percent my fault I thought I  had the area where this is being poured cooled down after the reaction I got I'm  assuming that it wasn't I didn't have a fan blowing underneath it I was kind of  hoping that that was gonna reduce some of the heat in the end it didn't again  follow the directions is 100% my fault the product is fantastic I mean look at  it that's amazing the second issue I faced was not clamping the piece downwell enough and honestly that was just kind of like a judgment error on my part  I put two clamps on it one on one and one on the other thinking that I just  needed to have a little bit of pressure on there not taking into consideration  the viscosity of the epoxy and even with those two clamps on there the  other ends of the boards were raising up in an attempt to hurriedly remedy  that I ended up throwing a couple more pieces of wood in there not being really  careful with where the epoxy went and ran into two issues because of that one  I actually epoxy two pieces of wood to the face of this and had to knock those  off and then actually plane off the rest of it the other issue I had which  it wasn't as apparent at the time until I took it out of the mold of course was  one of these floated away from the wall of the mold so I had like a quarter inch  of epoxy just all the way down one side of this thing which wasn't really the  game plan in the first place I would see it just think out you're clamping  scenario a little better than I did just just my bad and if you're gonna use wood  spacers which I highly suggest when you're clamping make sure you put a  little tie back tape around those wood pieces they'll come off a lot easier  and then the third issue again a user error was don't stand in the miter I  guess honestly I thought it was gonna I thought I had to in there because  I thought I had to seen it through the grits with everything else but  it's still I mean it's just it's just a thicker chunk of epoxy right there so  it's always gonna look different I would say that minor was so spot-on to begin  with that I don't know other than maybe doing like a quick hand sand and knock  off any if there's any burrs or anything I don't think I would sand it in at allI did end up coming back and fill it with epoxy and it ended up working out  in the end but it took a lot more time and result is awesome I was planning on  more of a clear like you know crystal clear effect on this but the reaction  the epoxy had actually kind of like form like almost crystals in here and I think  it's just air pockets but it looks kind of crystalline in nature you're welcome  and because it's cut this kind of cool like geode effect and you still like  coming through it and I think like I have a light underneath your right now  to kind of illuminate it because I think it looks cool and it diffuses the light  throughout the piece and it actually makes it look a lot better so shout out  to Total Boat for having a solid product even when I screw it up and you guyshave been thinking about doing anything with epoxy I'll leave a link below and  in a promo code it's your first time ordering through total boat you get 15%  off your first order we all know epoxy is not cheap so 15% off will definitely  hook you up and speaking of shoutouts I was gonna shout Arbortech I use their  turbo plane to do the carving the things amazing I really the only thing I need  to do is come back with a flap disc and kind of clean it up you could really do  that with an orbital sander you could probably do it the turbo plane I'm justnot that good with it I'll leave some coupon codes down below if you want to  check out any of our Arbortech products so while we're on the topic of shout outs I'd like toshout out all of my patrons I love you guys you guys areawesome thank you so much for all your support I really appreciate it all these  guys are in the higher tiers and I'd like to say hello to our newest patron  Nelly Adams welcome to the fray so as always a special shout out to Steven Mannand Nick the Greek you know what you did and as always clinkies alrightguys if you like this video hit that like button if you haven't subscribed  subscribe man it's a button it's right there you click it once you're done you  click the bell and then you get notified every time I put up a new video and  until next time thanks for playing but now I got to get back to workcouch table things that just kind of comes up off the ground and has like  an L shape that goes over the couch so she can set her wine  on it and whatnot my neighbor is trying to attack something with  a broom interesting now is the time on sprockets when we dance and now now on\n"