Calculating Epoxy Volume--How to Epoxy Woodworking
How to calculate how much epoxy you are going to need is one of my most common questions people ask me. In this video I'll go over in detail how and where to measure, how many measurements to take, and areas you didnt even know you needed to account for. I decided to demonstrate in my largest epoxy pour to date. $3000 of epoxy went into this one table. I can't even guess how much it weighed in the end... Ok, I could guess, but I don't actually know.
Want to build your own epoxy table? Check out my epoxy table virtual workshop: workshops.blacktailstudio.com/
I hope you find this video helpful, and if you prefer a written tutorial, feel free to click here for my step by step guide.
www.blacktailstudio.com/blog/...
How to make an epoxy table:
www.blacktailstudio.com/blog/...
How to finish a table like this (in a dusty shop):
www.blacktailstudio.com/blog/...
Volume calculator: www.omnicalculator.com/math/v...
Links to purchase:
My current epoxy: amzn.to/3wqVT3N
Plastic syringe: amzn.to/2P9Kanh
Epoxy dye kit: amzn.to/348EUEE
Black dye only: amzn.to/2P9yxNf
Epoxy mixing paddle: amzn.to/2E2IBRI
Dewalt drill/impact combo: amzn.to/2SSrk5Z
Wood finish for this table: amzn.to/2SRW1bl
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After about three years of wanting to make a river table I finally got my hands on a slab and I’m gonna go for it. Thanks for all of your tutorials
I'm trying to just make a SMALL coffee and not a whole new dining table and it's hard. All of the beautiful 6 foot slabs are calling me!! 😍
Results???
The dark is beautiful but so is the light I would pick the dark. Your work is fanominal
After watching the video advert i was still skeptical. But when i finally downloaded the plans kzhead.infoUgkxZF0EMnrujZvqHhGkxiz559uIABJWR9TG i was very impressed. The whole plan was just as you said in the video. Thank you very much. I now have a large and valuable collection for my woodworks. This is great!
If you can weigh the pieces, you can get a more accurate measure of epoxy volume using this method: Weight an offcut cube of the wood on kitchen weighing scales and measure its dimensions so you can work out the wood density. Weight all the pieces you are using on a bigger scale, take the total weight and divide by the density. This gives you the total volume of wood. Work out the volume of your mould, take off the volume of wood you calculated and what's left is the volume of epoxy needed. Also, this is an incredibly beautiful table and I am very jealous!
Came here to write this comment. 👍😂
Exactly what I thought he's going to tell, this is a much more precise and less time-consuming method. But I guess math is not for everyone.
Also was going to suggest this.
How much effort would that be. His method of approximating is good enough. If epoxy was worth the equivalent of gold then perhaps it would be worth getting a closer approximation. Even in topographical surveying they use similar approximating techniques which have worked well enough for the vast majority of cases. Also if you want a better approximating you could utilise tech using a ceiling mounted camera and some cheap software or even open source to calculate the area of the empty sections
@@sulimanahmed8588 that'd be way less effort and time consuming than the method he presented in the video
This table is GORGEOUS. It must be so amazing to be able to create something like this! I can't imagine the feeling of pride when you have the finished product
I to, would love to have a table like this
Beautiful table! I love that black. It really seems to draw your eye to the beautiful wood, instead of away from the wood. I love it.
God I’m in love with this. I want one just like this for a desk. Im currently trying to get into medical school and have several years ahead of me before I’ll even be close to getting one, but man am I determined to own one of your pieces.
Thanks so much for this! Been doing resin projects for fun for under a year and been guessing with how much I needed which usually means 2 pours at least. Tried your way today and was the perfect amount!
Hi Cam, have you ever thought about using silicone on the underneath of the slabs to stop the epoxy running underneath, similar what you do to make the dams, and then when you take it to the shop to plane it, just plane both sides until you get rid of the silicone underneath. Love your work, the tables look fantastic! Paul, Liverpool
Hey Paul, where in Liverpool?
+
I just got your solution to do it way easier. Take a picture from the top, put in GIMP (or photoshop), crop the image to the borders of the table. Select by color the part of the table that will be epoxy (the white background) then go to the color histogram it will tell you how much pixels your selection takes up. You can easily calculate the percentage by dividing the selected pixel count by the total amount of pixels of the table and multiply by 100. (example: Cropped picture is 1920x1080. White selection is 400.000 pixels. Calc (400.000/(1920x1080)*100) = 19,2% You know the size of your table, just apply that percentage to your total table volume (height x length x width). Add the perimeter stuff you require, and you got the volume of epoxy you need. I just tried it on the best "on top" screenshot I could make, and got pretty close to your calculations in literally a few minutes.
great idea. just a nit: this will almost always underestimate the amount required because tapered edges cannot be taken into account with this method.
This, or, if the parts don't mind getting wet: Drill a small hole in a corner, plug hole, fill with water, unplug hole and measure water volume once fully drained
I actually thought, he would use calculus.
@@RevHardt If you use a good camera you can by using the color select to select just the tapered parts. Or a 3D photogrammetry program. There are also cheap lidar modules for the Arduino. You can use those to generate a 3d model and get an exact measure.
I hope your planing on makeing more of your videos there awsome .I love wood working never tried the epoxy yet but you have given me some great ideas on some of my own projects. Thanks a bunch.
I am a wood working hobbyist in Vancouver, WA. Really enjoyed this video. I have some Myrtle wood that I bought in Girabaldi and want to build a dining room table out of it. Your tips are helping me learn alot. Thanks.
Every project I watch of yours keeps getting better and better bro you've really found your talent in life well done and keep these videos coming 😉👍
Your quality on your work is just second to none. Amazing job
Wow, thanks Nathan!
The finish is very beautiful! Seen from above, it looked like a river on the ground! Thank you for making a great video.
Cheers!
First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to share your work. I'm a big fan of the speed and level of detail you show, focusing on the project. I've done half a dozen smaller projects over the last few years, learning something new with each one. I made the leap recently and decided to try a bigger project and make myself a 6'x2.5'x2.25" maple desk. I used a single piece of maple that has a lot of natural voids and poured straight epoxy with no color added. I poured it last night and used 8 gallons of liquid glass epoxy. I knew this was a lot so I started with a few fans on it and it was in my house with A/C set to 73F. Unfortunately, it still got too hot too fast (165F about 6 hours after pour). I added 4 more fans, but it still cracked a few times in the center. The learning continues. One of the cracks came clear through and left about 1/8" gap over about 6" span. Should i fill the crack before or after i remove it from the melamine slab?
You are really amazing at what you do. I just like how you go into detail in showing how to do and not what to do. I tell you what you should get into is making knife scales out of epoxy and make some from wood too. And I could just buy from you. Thanks for the videos Gary Watkins
Amazing!!! I want to make a kitchen table for my home so I am trying to do as much research as I can about this. I would rather have a table that I made with my hands then by something everyone has. It will mean so much more! So, thank you so much for helping people like me learn.
That’s the right attitude jean!
Did you ever get to making your own kitchen table?
Did you get how he did it?
I love the video....and the value of the the table is in the years of learning your craft.. much like a $3,000 purse is not in the cost to make it, it's in the value of what the customer is willing to pay for a one of a kind table. Thank you again for the videos.
Thanks Dennis! Well said
Just finished my first epoxy project... thanks for sharing your know how, I am learning a lot from you.
Better. Amazing video. Your videos are the only ones I will watch for more than five minutes without skipping ahead. Great job.
I been wanting to get into working with epoxy especially after watching this!!!! Wow awesome job my friend!!!!!
Awesome!
Same here bro!!!
Thanks for the detailed measurements and the explanation of everything that has been done...
Thanks Tim! Happy to help
@@BlacktailStudio the sarcasm
Beautiful work! Great video, really appreciate the content. Been watching them a few times and that 1-1 consult is not to be overlooked. Talk to you soon
I have actually asked how you guys estimate the amount of epoxy so accurately with such odd shapes and now I know, learned something new from you once again, thanks cam, keep up the good work bud
Love it as always, I'd love to see a table like this with gold rivulets through the resin.
Here is how I would do it: I would take a photo from above the layout so that there is minimal perspective distortion. After some image manipulation and coloring in gimp (or photoshop), I would make all the river pixels to black and everything else white. Then a histogram analysis (Colors -> Info -> Histogram in gimp) tells you how many black (river) pixels are there. After that, I would do the same with the timber pixels. Assuming that the river wall is more or less vertical everywhere, the ratio of the river pixels over the timber pixels tells you how you should divide the whole volume of the brick between epoxy and timber. For example, if you get 8% river pixels vs 92% timber pixels and the whole layout size is 200 cm x 100 cm x 10 cm then the whole volume is 200 liters. 8% of this volume will be resin so you will need 16 liters. I would add some extra, so 17-18 liters would be fine. This technique works even the weirdest river shape, as long as the walls are vertical. If they are not then you should adjust the boundaries manually.
It was 105 litres. You'd be short almost 90 litres or 800% with your estimate.
@Csongor Halmai Aaah, I see. I thought you had used your photoshop technique and arrived at a calulation for the pour which was out by about 800%. What you're saying is, your rounding up to 17-18litres was for an imaginary pour on a table with about 800% less volume than the one in the video recording? Now all becomes clear. Thanky senhor Halmai for the esplanation. I like your approach. It is digital age technique. Very cool
Man. Found your Channel on saturday and I've been munching these episodes like a kid filling his guts with cereals that never ends. Absolutely fantastic job. Wish i could afford one day to build a nice epoxy table myself also. These are so frickin good looking 😍
Beautiful table - great to see you making such wonderful pieces on these videos
Wow, that’s one beautiful table ❤️👍🏽
Have to laugh you do measurements in inches but end with litres, thought you guys use gallons ?? 👍 Great looking table
The calculator juist converts it to liters
we use feet, ounces, gallons, liters, grams you name it. us americans do it all
We honestly use metric and imperial interchangeably lol
Use both Metric and English.
@@adamjohnson5307 Sometimes it’s a serious problem because one engineer could use thousandths and another engineer could see that and think it’s millimeters.
Just spend the last 1 hour watching you videos with my dad and sister. Dude you are a beast of a worker. No corners cut with you!
Thanks bud!
I am not sure which table is more gorgeous. I think I want all the tables you made! amazing skills and craftsmanship.
Beautifully done.
Thanks Mary!
A master piece. Pure masterpiece.
Whoa, thanks!
Just did a pour last week, and used this method to calculate. Had about 2L excess at the very end on a 34L pour! Thanks for sharing.
Nice!
Cam, Thank you so much for this calculator. My wife and I have struggled with this for some time. You made it so easy! Thanks again.
Thanks tony!
Sorry if someone said this already, but maybe do an estimation contest some say. You would take hi res photos of the layout and post them. All the finite element analysis folks would get to take their best shot against the final pour count. 👍😝
Uma mesa espetacular. Além do alto custo financeiro do projeto, tenho certeza que também foram muitas horas de trabalho. Parabéns pelo projeto. 🇧🇷
Algo que não está ao alcance de todas as carteiras
I just had to come give a big thank you!. I just finished my first ever deep pour epoxy table and used your method for calculating the epoxy and it was extremely accurate. It was a smaller table and came to 2.9 gallons. I just used 3 cause I had 1.5 gallon kits and there was very little left over. I imagine had I measured out to 2.9 I would have been exact. Always better to have a hair more though and now the client gets some cool coasters. Anyways thank you again. This worked amazing and I will be using it on the two larger ones I have coming up!
Wow, that’s awesome!
Your videos are truly a blessing and you are very inspirational!!
If you had 35 measurements with each 6" apart, that means you have 36 sections. 6 X 36 = 216". That's the length of the river in an easy way. 😊
Absolutely gorgeous.
That picture from above reminds me of when I flew over the Snake River Canyon in Idaho, staring at the river below!! Gorgeous piece of work! Great Job.
Absolutely gorgeous table! I believe that your style of teaching plays an important role in your success and very much appreciate it. Keep up the great work! I couldn’t make it through all 2.4K comments to insure that the following suggestion was not already made so please accept my apology in advance if it was. My suggestion is to use the same silicon caulk used for sealing the mold & making the dams to seal the bottom live edges of the slabs to the bottom of the mold. In other words, run a bead about an ⅛” from the actual live edge all along the live edges where the epoxy resin will be. Combined with enough weight to insure holding down the slabs wouldn’t this prevent the epoxy from running out and creating an ⅛” of epoxy all over the entire bottom of the mold. It seems like the wasted, expensive epoxy exceeds the actual amount poured to create the river, unless it can be prevented from running under the slabs. If this works then maybe each edge of the slabs that meets the side of the mold could be sealed with a bead of caulking and prevent the waste that occurs from leaking out the sides. I expect the first resistance would be the additional effort required to remove the cured piece from the mold. With the money saved in epoxy I think that once the sides of the mold were removed you could easily have a custom, long, thin blade “draw” knife made to cut the relatively soft silicone from the bottom of the mold and slabs. Alternatively, maybe the release spray all over the mold would prevent the silicone from actually bonding to the bottom of the mold. If that was the case then enough weight on the slabs would be even more important to success of this method of avoiding so much wasted epoxy. I look forward to hearing your response comments about this potential technique!
After the first layer I would fill the middle part with black glass stones to save material. It will be possible to save a third of the quantity.
That is amazing! Would love to build something like this one day
did you do it yet
@@polymerized8183 nope
Yea, this guys a beast!
You do such absolutely gorgeous work! What a beautiful table!
I fell in love with the picture of this table quite a while back. I had no idea it was from your studio, until I saw this video! Awesome work!!
That's an amazing table!!!!
Thanks Lloyd!
your wife's got a great sense of humour 😂😂😂😂
I just feel really confident about my project learning from your videos and how you explain the process of working with epoxy resin. Thanks Cam
Thanks Nicole!
I love this table, it’s beautiful! Keep up the good work.
its mine😍😍😍
Wish I could get a job like this. Also imo a better way to calculate the volume would be to count the volume of the pieces separately, add those up then the volume of the pour box to the pour height, and subtract.
Never thought of that!
@@BlacktailStudio How to do that would be put each piece into a plastic bag to keep dry, make a box bigger than your biggest piece which has rim and a funnel - fill it to below the rim with water, when you put each piece in the displaced water can be funnelled into a container and measured and thats your exact volume.
@Nadie nice idea, I was thinking water but I like your fine sand idea better.
Materials information for whatever type of wood you are using is available online. There you will find the average density. You are probably purchasing the wood by weight. Take the density and divide out mass. This volume calculation is the easiest method to find average volume. Subtract the calculated volume from the vessel's volume.
Density of black walnut is 660kg/m^3 how much do your pieces weigh?
Its amazing so many people getting worked up over the cost of a table, if a lot of you knew the actual markup on 99% of the products you buy, you wouldnt be saying this table is overpriced...
I’ve been to the Chinese furniture markets. You’re definitely not wrong.
It’s not overpriced... That’s poor people thinking. People saying it’s overpriced can’t afford it..
Blacktail Studio every thing is overpriced when you can’t afford it 🤣
@@BlacktailStudio I believe the problem is that people have got a custom of buying their furniture from outlet stores or Walmart. These same people have lost the value of things made by hand. Glad to see that some people can still make a living with woodworking and that these cheap Chinese goods have not run people out of business. I loved the table, I hated that the client wanted it in black but hey the person who pays get what they want.
I going to have a go at a small kitchen island 48x30. Greeting from the UK🇬🇧 Your work is stunning. Thanks for the tips and sharing your knowledge.
This is incredible work!!! Very impressive. Really enjoyed it.
На речку смахивает классный стол я бы сказал очень много сил было на него затрачено)
Is there a reason not to add thinner "filler" wood through the river to reduce the volume of epoxy required? Or is the black just opaque enough that it would be noticeable?
The "filler" wood would float. Sometimes you have to clamp smaller pieces, but these were large enough to be held down by their own weight
@@colincamus2098 so put somthing that wont float
There is a reputation risk for doing that. Buyers do not expect it. If discovered then it looks bad for the company and future business could suffer.
I always learn something new with each video of yours. Thanks. Great work. Kudos.
Great work! My favorite tool was then industrial planer. I swore it was a drum sander but you cleared that up on the last video I watched.
I found that the most impressive part of the video was the poster's politeness in the face of rude and/or inane comments.
Oh, I don’t yell at dogs that bark at me as I drive by either. Seems about the same.
Take a picture and import it to a cad software, rescale it then redraw the contour and it will give you the area :)
Photoshpp has some measurement features, same thing, lol!
Killer idea.
Amazing and beautiful work!!Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
I love these woodworking videos they remind me how much I love to working with wood I got into it in high school and woodshop is where I got my love for creating something with my own hands I wish I could do what you do but these complex projects or something too big for me you can't teach an old dog new tricks and at 55 I'm too old to start now but I love watching you do it I'll tackle something smaller
Wow! I had no idea epoxy would be so much.
Epoxy certainly does have a very wide cost spectrum. I use a very good quality epoxy that costs $115 per gallon. And I'm happy to pay for that. Now, get into aerospace certified epoxy, and some of their stuff is about $200 a quart, or $800 per gallon. And there are cheaper epoxies. At this price point on this table, I'd assume hes using quality stuff, averaging about $110 per gallon himself.
There are a very simple method for this: calculate the volume without wood, and find the weight of all pièces of wood, and find the approximate volume with the volume weight of the type of wood u use
You would need to know the density of the wood used for this type of calculation using weight/volume ratio. Not really the best method
@@moonraker8794pretty sure we can find a result so close to the reality
Epic build. So much detailed information too! I'm in the UK and you've inspired me to get into woodworking. It's a novel trade. If it was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me. Thanks again, ❤
That answered some real gems! Great video, very informative. Stunning table. Well done.
Thanks bud!
Couldn't you also wheigh the wood, calculate it's volume with the density and subtract that from the total volume of the table?
Brilliant!
This is how I would have done it. Knowing the density of the wood and the volume of the table and assuming it’s uniform thicknesses you could easily calculate the volume difference.
@@hydrohobbyist the problem is, that theres no constant density, this is no homogeneous structure
It's homogeneous enough, for sure it's faster and more precise than measuring such curvy path.
This was my initial thought as well.
I'm always saddened when a such beautiful live edge is lost because the color chosen is so dark. you don't get to appreciate the beauty of the live edge. The table is beautiful but it could have been so much more.
Now you tell me.
dizneymn different kinds of beauty.
It would’ve been cool to see in light and dark though.
Wow, all your work is a masterpiece.
Stunning end result, just looks amazing!
Wow... this is the RIEMANN SUM!!! So cool to see math applied in life!
A Reimann sum is the heart of a fermi problem.
Hey, just a crazy idea; if the table/mold is watertight, couldn't you just fill it with water, pump it back out and measure the water? Even if the mass of water vs epoxy is different, if you know the ratio between water vs epoxy you could do a simple calculation. Might be I'm just an idiot for suggesting it, but what the hell right? edit; see, I am an idiot, I just realized you can measure the water before pouring it in.
The wood will be wet then, and need to be dried out properly.
I was thinking the same but with jello
Beautifully done!
Of your videos I’ve watched so far I think this is my favorite table.
Do you hear something about Arhimed of Syracuse and his "Eureka!" )))) Back to school man :(
thinking the same thing .. Kinda a retarded approach to take all those measurements ... Could have immersed and whatever the run over difference is the volume ..perfectly .. Reminds me of a high falutin moron that acted like what he was doing was science .. They were going to calculate the radius of a big hot tub .So they could make custom bullnose tile .. Came out with felt paper and traced a segment and then traced another segment .. No orientation lines .. I suggested .. Measure across at different diameters .. ..add all those numbers together and divide by how many times you measured ..then decrease the diameter by a 1/2 " for thickset ..
@@IVORY123100 Actually, if he could just get a good known density of the walnut from a weighed square piece, then all he would need to do is weigh all the walnut to find out how much volume he is short. Wouldn't even have to immerse it!
Knowing how lazy I am I'd mix up more than enough, pour it, and then use the left overs on something completely random
Can I know the recipe of this glue?
It’s always fun watching your builds.
I am buying a slab from creative woodworking in Denver next week , I can’t wait to work with these guys Lukus is my man thanks
Awesome!
@@BlacktailStudio are you guys in denver? If so ide love to see you shop. Awsome video btw. It’s going to be a huge help...
Such a beautiful table top. The legs are certainly disappointing though.
And using an opaque black resin
Stunning! Hey if Americans used metric measurements one day it would be so much easier. No cheaper unfortunately.
I just started watching your videos. This is gorgeous work!
Thanks pat!
Great video! Perfect amount of talking and beautiful finished product. Well done!
Imagine being rich enough to spend over 10k on a table
Would be nice!
M R pretty sure the wood alone is not far from 10k
@@weg5856 would be alot cheaper to build a mill and cut your own slabs. Just need somewhere for them to properly dry for 2 years. I see big old trees all the time you would be surprised how often people will let you take them just to get rid of them. Then build yourself a sawhorse and a cherry picker, cut the logs to your desired length, set up your makeshift mill, cherry pick your logs onto your sawhorse and get to work.
I can't even imagine spending 3k on the epoxy :P
sometimes you have to bite the bullet and take into consideration how much it would cost for three inexpensive sets that would last 5-8 years versus buying something you love and you'll look at every day for thirty years! It's a tricky balancing act. But you have to ask yourself "what brings joy to my life"
I forgot everything I learned in calculus.
Same, I wouldn't know where to start now
i already knew this of course and can do the various calculations in my head. i just added this video to my bookmarks tool bar for others who are definitely not me to use as a future reference.
Excellent!
While this is great work, I can't help but to feel like you ruined those amazing pieces of wood. The texture and depth would have made for a great transparent pour. The black just buried it all. You could have done that table just one inch thick and gotten the same result. Sorry, I don't mean to be critical but I have to on this one....missed opportunity 😞
Reef Keepers I just don’t understand what the point is making a live edge table if you’re going to pour black resin into it 😕
Probably what the customer wanted! I agree, though, it would have been cool to see more of the interior.
Extremely sad, I thought clear would be the only option with these pieces of wood, if I was the customer it’s exactly what I’d want.. especially when this guy thinks this table is worth over $10k .. this was just a waste
It may not show but the black is somewhat transparent. You can see all the way trough. Though black is not my top choice. Something like turkious blue would have made it really pop.
TBH, I think the opaque black will appeal to a much broader clientele. It's a much more classic look, will never appear dated, and will require less maintenance over time.
Why not just pour water and measure how much it takes to fill? The wood is sealed no?
that is the fastest way to do it,
Great idea. Drying it would take some time though I think. ( Well - not where I live. )
@@chookvalve put plastic
or just do the volume of the cuboid and minus the volume of the wood
The problem is if anything goes wrong and the wood gets wet you would have to dry it again
I´ve seen some other guys doing this kind of work and let me tell you, I like your videos and your art a lot more, thank you for talking and not using some music that only the gusy who used it like it, best regards
Please keep sharing love your work and getting ready to make my own outdoor furniture
7+9= 16 ÷ squirrel = thumb times tree is roughly 195 total length
$3K for the finished table or $3K for the epoxy?
Table costs over 10K so probably in epoxy.
Just the epoxy 😬
Casey Mills yeah, only $3K for a table like that... What are you on drugs? ;)
@@Smalltime Sorry, I have no idea what something like this costs. I would need a much larger house. LOL
Casey Mills sure, it’s hard to estimate :) I’m only joking. my guess would be around $15K to $20K - But what do I know!? ;)
What a magnificent table, yes, interesting calculation but does not mean to much to this disabled character, but the table, that is SO BEAUTIFUL. There will be MANY people, like me, who wish they could build something about 1/10th of the size but just as beautiful. There needs to be a series of 'higher buttons' than just the simple 'like' button for your work. You are a true Artist & a true Craftsman wrapped up in one fantastic package. Don from South Aust.
Your videos are very educational. Thank you so much!!!!
or you could just cover the woods with plastic and pour measured vol of water to know the vol
What I would have done
Or packing peanuts
fill the epoxy areas with uncooked rice then measure the rice after in 5 gallon buckets. accurate, easy, cheap and re-useable.
I do like rice. Having 100 liters of it handy would have fringe benefits.
I was thinking fine sand, the volume estimate would be closer and the cost cheaper, it wouldn't spoil, etc. That would save so much time on measurements. Try it with a smaller poir to see how closely it estimates the actual liquid volume required.
Pretty damn good idea. Assuming water would penetrate the wood too much.
Very nice tabl I learn more from you tomch thank you
Great table, love the look.
Thanks for this video. If I ever decide to do a table like this, I'll definitely be coming back to watch this video
Nice!!