I was planning to make a nightlight for my daughter and I wanted to create a mold to cast it in epoxy resin. However, I realized that I didn't have enough MDF to make the mold, so I had to improvise.
Instead of pressing individual pieces together with glue, I decided to bunch them all up and then run hot glue across three spots to hold them together. This worked surprisingly well, and the piece held in place without any major issues.
However, as I was checking on the progress of the project, I realized that there was a small gap between the MDF pieces that were attached with tape. I decided to try running Tyvek tape down the gap to see if it would seal it off, but when I checked again later, I could still see light through the gap.
I initially considered using silicone to fill the gap, but I decided against it because I didn't want to go to that much work for this particular project. Instead, I thought that using some CA glue along the edges might be enough to hold everything together.
Fast forward 24 hours, and it was time to demold the piece. I carefully removed the mold from the epoxy, and to my surprise, it came off relatively easily. The only thing holding it together were some tape and super glue, so I wasn't too worried about it coming apart.
As I examined the finished product, I was pleased to see that it had turned out much better than I expected. The epoxy resin had taken on a nice sheen, and it seemed like it would function perfectly as a nightlight for my daughter.
However, one minor issue did come up - the epoxy when poured had a pink color to it. After some investigation, I realized that this was due to the lighting in the room, not anything inherent to the epoxy itself. Additionally, I had mixed the pigment too thickly, which made it opaque and less desirable.
Despite these minor setbacks, I'm overall happy with how the project turned out. It's a great proof of concept for future projects, and it shows that even when things don't go exactly as planned, they can still turn out well with a little creativity and improvisation.
If you're considering working with epoxy resin yourself, I would recommend checking out TotalBoat - I used them to order my supplies, and the quality was excellent. And if you do end up making a project like this, be sure to check out some of the tutorials and resources available online.
Finally, I want to thank my Patreon supporters for their continued support. Their contributions will allow me to purchase a lichenberg machine in the future - stay tuned for that! As always, thanks to Nick, Steven Mann, Easy M F, Eric Weiss, and The Greek for your support. If you like this video, be sure to hit that like button and subscribe to my channel for more content.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up guys i'm nick and this is build debt build a place where we always gangsta until my daughter asks for a nightlight and then we start figuring out how to mix pink epoxy that's right guys we are making another epoxy lamp today i hadn't planned on making another epoxy lamp quite yet but my daughter is a master manipulator she gets it from her mother and she's recently stopped wanting to sleep in her own bed claiming that she's scared of the dark now she has a nightlight so i say tabi you've got a nightlight and she says my nightlight's not bright enough so i say so do you need a brighter nightlight and she looked me dead in the eye and said yeah can you build me one the tiniest shop goddess has spoken and i must do her bidding i have an overall plan for this yet it is going to be made out of a 4x4 because i don't want it to be too much different than my sons because i don't want there to be some sort of weird fight i have an idea in my head my brain biscuits have been formulating an idea but i have not figured out exactly how to translate it into wood and an ant get out of here i've not solidified the idea yet basically i'm going to take a chunk out i'm going to leave the back in there so it looks like it's just kind of like a burned out husk and then i'm going to run lights up in to it and we'll see how many times i screw it up before i get it right if you don't know what i'm talking about watch my first lamp video right here where uh i just had all sorts of problems with the mold and all that good stuff final product turned out pretty well though it's got like a fifth element vibe is what i keep getting i don't have specific measurements for you so it's gonna kind of look like they're arbitrary but i do want this piece of 4x4 to be small enough to fit into my drill press and still have a bit above it so i can't drill for the cord uh prior to carving it out so that puts me at about probably about 17 18 inches tall okay let's get to work we still gangsta right all right to hog out that metal material i'm just going to be using my arbor tech turbo plane i also recommend using a pair of kevlar gloves when you're doing anything with the turbo plane or an angle grinder just to to keep all your digits intact learning spaceship let's go anybody got time for a quickie all right here we are it's uh 24 hours later and this is what we're looking at we do have a little bit of a i did have a little bit of puddling here that hardened uh but it's in the back so it should be no big deal now my thought is on my last attempt at this i tried to use like those fairy lights and they got too close to the surface of the epoxy and when i was sanding it i seen it through and ruined the lights and had to like come up with a different solution so my thought is since we have a back to this i think i'm gonna run the fairy lights through and then i'm thinking about just hot gluing them in here so they'll definitely be at the back i hope that i don't have so many fairy lights it's just going to completely cover this because it was kind of pointless to print that then but we won't know until yeah i don't know until we try kids that's the first order of business then i'm gonna take this downstairs i'm gonna build a mold for it i meant to pick up some mdf to make that mold i mean i have some but i don't know if i have enough to make a mold for this so um actually you know what i don't need it do i i just need one piece across this side right that's this is the only thing i need to seal off because i'll pour epoxy up to the top of this i might have enough if not i'll frankenstein something together we'll be fine don't you worry about me kids i'll be okay now let's do this so apparently i forgot to press record as i fed all these in here i was going to try to glue them individually around here uh but it just was not happening so i bunched them all together and then i just ran hot glue across in three spots and i came in just to check and see if it still works and it does so far so good so i thought i was gonna be able to get away with just uh running tyvek tape down here but can you see that gap let's try it this way can you see light through there i can see light through there i didn't really want to do silicone because it seemed like a lot of work to go to for such since we're literally just attaching that one piece to the side but i think i want to be safe and i'm gonna i'm gonna run uh i'm gonna run a bit of right down there and so if i'm gonna do that then i'm just gonna run these all these edges with silicone i just that gap worries me i like i feel like the tie back tape could fail right there and i think that'd be a big mess so we're doing it doing silicone the next day all right guys uh it's been about 24 hours since the last epoxy pour we're back down in the garage i'm getting ready to de-mold this unmold it de-mold it take the mold off i'm getting ready to take the mold off kids so the only thing is holding this together is some cac uh some tape and a little bit of super glue so this should pop off pretty easy i'm hoping uh let's check it out and you thought i wasn't gonna light it on fire so hey it is dark in here computer turn flex on so what do you think guys i uh i dig it and it went a lot easier than the last one getting that mold right the first time saved me so much time and headache i probably wasted like four or five days on the last project trying to get the mold to not leak so tie-back tape and silicone baby that's my recommendation right there so this is also my proof of concept while i won't probably use any of these modes for my daughter's nightlight i'll probably just turn it on and turn it off it proves to me that if i do a project in the future i can make it look kind of like it's burning which was kind of the goal of the first project before we had the debacle with all the leds now that being said it also brings me to the only issue with this project and that is that that epoxy when poured was pink so i think if you look at it kind of close up it still has a pretty pink color to it but that doesn't have anything to do with epoxy it has everything to do with the lights themselves and possibly the copper of the wiring it's pretty opaque so i'm not sure if that has anything to do with it anyway and the only other thing that i learned from this project is even though i used just a little bit of pigment i i guess i mixed it too thick and made it opaque again so there was really no reason to burn the inside of this although other than this detail that goes around the outside which i kind of like but you can't see that charred inner space which is kind of what i was going for this is gonna function perfectly for a night light for my daughter so that puts it in the wind category baby if you guys are considering working with uh epoxy and you've never ordered from totalboat before i will put a link down below uh to get you 15 off your first order okay guys and that kind of wraps it up i just want to thank my patreon supporters these guys right here uh again making the magic happen uh they are going to be the reason that i'm going to be purchasing a lickenberg machine soon so uh keep your eyes peeled for that if you don't know what a lickenberg machine is google that and as always special thanks goes out to nick the greek steven mann and easy m f and e eric weiss cheers guys all right guys if you like this video hit that like button if you haven't subscribed subscribe please subscribe it really helps me out and until next time thanks for playing now i got to get to workwhat's up guys i'm nick and this is build debt build a place where we always gangsta until my daughter asks for a nightlight and then we start figuring out how to mix pink epoxy that's right guys we are making another epoxy lamp today i hadn't planned on making another epoxy lamp quite yet but my daughter is a master manipulator she gets it from her mother and she's recently stopped wanting to sleep in her own bed claiming that she's scared of the dark now she has a nightlight so i say tabi you've got a nightlight and she says my nightlight's not bright enough so i say so do you need a brighter nightlight and she looked me dead in the eye and said yeah can you build me one the tiniest shop goddess has spoken and i must do her bidding i have an overall plan for this yet it is going to be made out of a 4x4 because i don't want it to be too much different than my sons because i don't want there to be some sort of weird fight i have an idea in my head my brain biscuits have been formulating an idea but i have not figured out exactly how to translate it into wood and an ant get out of here i've not solidified the idea yet basically i'm going to take a chunk out i'm going to leave the back in there so it looks like it's just kind of like a burned out husk and then i'm going to run lights up in to it and we'll see how many times i screw it up before i get it right if you don't know what i'm talking about watch my first lamp video right here where uh i just had all sorts of problems with the mold and all that good stuff final product turned out pretty well though it's got like a fifth element vibe is what i keep getting i don't have specific measurements for you so it's gonna kind of look like they're arbitrary but i do want this piece of 4x4 to be small enough to fit into my drill press and still have a bit above it so i can't drill for the cord uh prior to carving it out so that puts me at about probably about 17 18 inches tall okay let's get to work we still gangsta right all right to hog out that metal material i'm just going to be using my arbor tech turbo plane i also recommend using a pair of kevlar gloves when you're doing anything with the turbo plane or an angle grinder just to to keep all your digits intact learning spaceship let's go anybody got time for a quickie all right here we are it's uh 24 hours later and this is what we're looking at we do have a little bit of a i did have a little bit of puddling here that hardened uh but it's in the back so it should be no big deal now my thought is on my last attempt at this i tried to use like those fairy lights and they got too close to the surface of the epoxy and when i was sanding it i seen it through and ruined the lights and had to like come up with a different solution so my thought is since we have a back to this i think i'm gonna run the fairy lights through and then i'm thinking about just hot gluing them in here so they'll definitely be at the back i hope that i don't have so many fairy lights it's just going to completely cover this because it was kind of pointless to print that then but we won't know until yeah i don't know until we try kids that's the first order of business then i'm gonna take this downstairs i'm gonna build a mold for it i meant to pick up some mdf to make that mold i mean i have some but i don't know if i have enough to make a mold for this so um actually you know what i don't need it do i i just need one piece across this side right that's this is the only thing i need to seal off because i'll pour epoxy up to the top of this i might have enough if not i'll frankenstein something together we'll be fine don't you worry about me kids i'll be okay now let's do this so apparently i forgot to press record as i fed all these in here i was going to try to glue them individually around here uh but it just was not happening so i bunched them all together and then i just ran hot glue across in three spots and i came in just to check and see if it still works and it does so far so good so i thought i was gonna be able to get away with just uh running tyvek tape down here but can you see that gap let's try it this way can you see light through there i can see light through there i didn't really want to do silicone because it seemed like a lot of work to go to for such since we're literally just attaching that one piece to the side but i think i want to be safe and i'm gonna i'm gonna run uh i'm gonna run a bit of right down there and so if i'm gonna do that then i'm just gonna run these all these edges with silicone i just that gap worries me i like i feel like the tie back tape could fail right there and i think that'd be a big mess so we're doing it doing silicone the next day all right guys uh it's been about 24 hours since the last epoxy pour we're back down in the garage i'm getting ready to de-mold this unmold it de-mold it take the mold off i'm getting ready to take the mold off kids so the only thing is holding this together is some cac uh some tape and a little bit of super glue so this should pop off pretty easy i'm hoping uh let's check it out and you thought i wasn't gonna light it on fire so hey it is dark in here computer turn flex on so what do you think guys i uh i dig it and it went a lot easier than the last one getting that mold right the first time saved me so much time and headache i probably wasted like four or five days on the last project trying to get the mold to not leak so tie-back tape and silicone baby that's my recommendation right there so this is also my proof of concept while i won't probably use any of these modes for my daughter's nightlight i'll probably just turn it on and turn it off it proves to me that if i do a project in the future i can make it look kind of like it's burning which was kind of the goal of the first project before we had the debacle with all the leds now that being said it also brings me to the only issue with this project and that is that that epoxy when poured was pink so i think if you look at it kind of close up it still has a pretty pink color to it but that doesn't have anything to do with epoxy it has everything to do with the lights themselves and possibly the copper of the wiring it's pretty opaque so i'm not sure if that has anything to do with it anyway and the only other thing that i learned from this project is even though i used just a little bit of pigment i i guess i mixed it too thick and made it opaque again so there was really no reason to burn the inside of this although other than this detail that goes around the outside which i kind of like but you can't see that charred inner space which is kind of what i was going for this is gonna function perfectly for a night light for my daughter so that puts it in the wind category baby if you guys are considering working with uh epoxy and you've never ordered from totalboat before i will put a link down below uh to get you 15 off your first order okay guys and that kind of wraps it up i just want to thank my patreon supporters these guys right here uh again making the magic happen uh they are going to be the reason that i'm going to be purchasing a lickenberg machine soon so uh keep your eyes peeled for that if you don't know what a lickenberg machine is google that and as always special thanks goes out to nick the greek steven mann and easy m f and e eric weiss cheers guys all right guys if you like this video hit that like button if you haven't subscribed subscribe please subscribe it really helps me out and until next time thanks for playing now i got to get to work\n"
