Newspapers and most papers can be covered and sealed in with the resin. However, you may need to seal the paper itself first. The reason is because some lower grade and thinner papers will go translucent when saturated with a liquid, including resin. I would recommend doing a small test piece to check. If you need to seal the paper, then the best method is to brush a thin coat of PVA wood glue over the paper and allow to dry. The PVA glue will cure clear and seal the paper from the resin meaning you can coat the project and get the desired effect.

Regarding general suitability of the resin for a dining table, GlassCast 3 is a hard wearing surface and so not unsuitable for this purpose but do bear in mind that hot objects (such as hot plates) would mark the surface and so you would need to use mats to protect the resin from anything hot.

GlassCast has very good clarity in castings up to around 25mm thick. When doing multiple pours to achieve this thickness, in most cases there is no noticeable line or impact on clarity from the join between the pours.

To ensure any impact on clarity is minimised, we recommend doing the second pour when the first pour is part cured and is firm but still tacky to the touch. At this stage the GlassCast will fully cross link and bond with the layer beneath, meaning there will unlikely be any impact on clarity at the join line.

If you need to leave it longer before doing the second pour, allow the resin to fully cure, then key the surface with 240 grit sandpaper followed by a thorough de-grease and clean. The surface is then ready for the second pour of resin, The rough key will ensure the second pour bonds as best it can to the first layer.

Yes... and no! GlassCast is capable of being used on a worktop in a kitchen no problem. With proper preparation, the repair should look good, however it's important to consider the limitations of a resin coated work surface.

Generally kitchen work tops are subject to high levels of wear and tear which will in time may scratch and dull the surface finish of the GlassCast surface but this sort of wear and tear can usually be polished out to restore the finish.

The main consideration for a resin coated kitchen worktop is temperature, especially hot pans/plates etc. which would certainly mark the surface if they're placed directly onto it. As a result, you will need to use pot stands/trivets to prevent excess heat being conducted into the resin.

For very large floor areas we would recommend limiting the maximum amount mixed in one go to 5kg batches. That way you can sensibly weigh each part accurately and the volume is not too large to be able to mix by hand thoroughly. Mix each batch thoroughly then pour it into a second larger bucket before mixing again and pouring on the floor. You need to work quickly and pour from the second bucket as soon as possible to avoid the resin exotherming in the bucket.

When using this method on larger floors, the long pot-life means you should have enough time to mix up the resin into the large bucket and pour it with plenty of time left. As you are mixing several batches and pouring in one session, there will be no issues of joins between resin batches.

Yes... and no. GlassCast is capable of resurfacing a worktop in a kitchen no problem. With proper preparation, the end result should look amazing however it's important to consider the limitations of a resin coated work surface.

Generally kitchen work tops are subject to high levels of wear and tear which will in time may scratch and dull the surface finish of the GlassCast surface but this sort of wear and tear can usually be polished out to restore the finish.

The main consideration for a resin coated kitchen worktop is temperature, especially hot pans/plates etc. which would certainly mark the surface if they're placed directly onto it. As a result, you will need to use pot stands/trivets to prevent excess heat being conducted into the resin.

This rather depends on the type and condition of the varnish that's been used. If the varnish feels soft or greasy at all then it might not make a suitable substrate for the resin, in which case you would need to scrape or sand it away. If the varnish feels dry and hard then it's likely to be fine but it would certainly need 'keying' with coarse abrasive paper to provide a suitable surface for the GlassCast to bond to. If in doubt, it might be worth conducting a small test to check how well the GlassCast bonds to the keyed varnish.

If your water-based epoxy floor coating has fully cured and is fully dried then there should be no problem at all using that as a substrate onto which you lay your pennies. Most customers subsequently grout between the coins which means that the clear resin top layer (the GlassCast 3) is not actually in direct contact with the substrate anyway. However, even if it was then a fully cured and dried water-based epoxy would be fine to pour GlassCast over.

GlassCast 3 can be poured over GlassCast 10 and 50 once it has achieved the B stage cure and is firm but still tacky. No surface preparation is needed at this point and the mixed GlassCast 3 can be simply poured straight over the project.

Both parts of the material (the resin and the hardener) are in bottles which are much bigger than they really need to be but that is because we have to use special UN approved bottles and packaging for resins and other Dangerous Goods and there are only so many sizes of these available. The weight on the bottle applies to the weight of the contents and the combined weight of the resin (Part A) and the hardener (Part B) equal the total kit weight.

Yes, GlassCast can be machined and cut using a variety of powertools and equipment - including a router - no problem. We would recommend an initial cure period of 48 hours to allow sufficient hardening prior to any machining work.

The pigment should not really affect the cure time for the GlassCast resin. What's more important is the ambient temperature where the resin is curing. In an ambient temperature of 20C (providing that the wall or substrate where the resin has been applied is the same temperature) you will find that the GlassCast feels pretty well cured after about 24hrs. This would be the minimum amount of time to leave the resin before sanding but if you leave it 48hrs then this will ensure it's more properly cured.

The scratches left from keying the surface of the resin will be filled in with the fresh layer of resin and, as long as the surface was properly cleaned, will be invisible once the new layer of resin cures.

The best kind of materials to go for are generally inert plastics such as polypropylene sheet , polyethylene and PTFE. This is because epoxy resin does not naturally stick to these plastics and as such no release agent is needed.

One of the good features of GlassCast 3 is its naturally smooth and glossy finish on curing. This means you can, in nearly all cases, leave the GlassCast in its natural cured finish for a very nice overall finish. However, if required for any reason (such as a repair) it will sand and polish very well using abrasive papers and polishing compound.

Yes, that would be fine. We would suggest leaving the edges that will be bonded with quite a coarse 'keyed' finish (i.e. scratched with around a 120grit paper) which will help the resin to bond much better to these faces. Once the resin wets these edges they will still become virtually invisible, even though they had a coarse keyed finish. You will still want to ensure sensible temperatures even when you assemble and bond the panels together in position (outside).

GlassCast, although very tough for a resin, is not really suitable for high traffic areas without accepting the fact that it will become scratched and need regular maintenance to keep the initial high gloss smooth finish. As such it is more suitable for use in a domestic environment where the traffic flow and wear is likely to be at a much lower level. Alcohol being spilled on the cured resin would not be a problem (providing it is incidental and periodically cleaned off).

Although GlassCast has very good UV resistance, it is still affected by UV light to some extent and as such is not recommended for outdoor use due to continuous high levels of UV exposure and also continuous exposure to moisture and adverse weather conditions. 

Instead we would suggest a specialist 'driveway' resin designed for outdoor although we don't stock this type of resin ourselves.

Yes, as long as the surface has been given a good key with sandpaper and a thorough clean then there should be no problem applying GlassCast over a varnished surface.

Although epoxies in general are inert once fully cured, GlassCast has not been tested or certified as food safe and as such we cannot recommend its use in situations where a food safe resin is needed.

If food-safe certification is critical to what you're doing then it might be worth considering a product like ArtResin.

I want to use GlassCast on a bathroom floor with a slight slope so any excess water would flow to the drain in the corner. How would that work - would I be able to apply even coat on the surface or would GlassCast flow to the lowest area?

GlassCast is self levelling which means it will try and flow to the lowest point of the room and level out, this means that it's very difficult to use the product on a sloped floor such as a shower or wet-room. You may be able to build up thin brush-applied coats but - because it won't be flowing and self-levelling as it normally would - you would need to flat and polish the brushed finish in order to achieve the normal perfectly flat gloss finish.

As long as you reseal the bottles promptly after use and store them in accordance with the datasheet, then we would expect you to still achieve the full 12 months shelf life.

...would i be able to sand and use a satin lacquer as a final coat or will it fail?

Lacquers and clear coats are quite soft compared to the GlassCast epoxy and so it would be a shame to use such a relatively soft finish as the bartop surface. However, it's actually perfectly achievable to lightly sand the GlassCast 3 finish using a fine abrasive paper (such as an 800 or 1000 grit) to give the resin a satin finish. The finer the paper, the smoother and less matte the finish will become; you can choose how far you go according to how satin/glossy the customer wants. If you take a look at the video we did for the GlassCast 50 river table video, you can see the appearance of 1200 abrasive paper before we switch to polishing compound - this should give you a good idea of what you could achieve on the GlassCast 3.

If you need to overcoat some existing GlassCast, you can do so fairly easily. As the resin has cured, you will need to key the surface with sand paper to ensure the fresh resin can achieve a good bond. Once sanded, ensure the surface is fully cleaned and de-greased before pouring the next layer of resin.

Yes, cured GlassCast ® can be drilled and machined. Allow a minimum of 48 hours cure time before beginning. We recommend starting with a small drill bit then carefully opening out the hole size to the desired diameter, taking care not to apply too much pressure or build up too much heat.

Yes, you can make a floor from GlassCast in a kitchen or bathroom. As both environments can be quite humid (and also subject to spillages in use), it's essential to ensure the room is fully dried out before applying the resin and, most importantly, allow the resin to *fully* cure before using it again, especially if it's likely to get wet. Even in a warm environment, you should leave the floor for at least several days before use

Yes, GlassCast® can be used to create a resin edge on a table like this but it's worth considering that if you simply allow the resin to run down at the edges then it will only be a thin and relatively inconsistent coating on the edges. Also, if you're intending to create a smooth, flat coating over bottletops then you probably need to be thinking about shuttering the edges of the table with some sort of barrier or upstands to contain a deeper coating of resin on the top of the table, allowing the bottletops to be completely covered. In doing so, you will actually prevent the resin from running off the edges of the table and glossing the edges.

To tackle both of these things at the same time you could use strips of plastic that resin won't stick to (like polypropylene for example) to create a barrier all the way round the edge of the tabletop but leaving a gap between the edge of the tabletop and the barrier (of, for example, 3mm). You would then flood-coat the surface and allow the resin to drain off and fill the gap between the table edge and the barrier. Once cured, you could then remove the barrier and you'll be left with a thick glossy edge, as well as top to the table. You would likely need to do some finishing work on the edge of the table (abrasive paper and polishing compound) to really finesse it but this is quickly and easily done.

Yes our GlassCast will work with glitter type materials. Without bonding it down, the glitter could potentially move around and float in the resin. A simple solution would be to use a thin layer of PVA wood glue as an adhesive or even a thin layer of the GlassCast itself. Paint on the glue (or resin), sprinkle on the glitter and allow to dry/cure. You would then shake or lightly brush off the loose glitter before doing the main pour of GlassCast.

The best kind of materials to go for are generally inert plastics such as polypropylene, polyethylene, nylon and PTFE. This is because they do not naturally stick to epoxy resin and as such no release agent is needed

GlassCast is a great product to fill cracks and knots in wood as well as filling gaps between 'waney edge' reclaimed timbers, including colouring the resins with pigments.

In theory you do not need to bond down the pennies because the resin will flow under the pennies and bond them down at the same time. The coins are heavy enough to stay in place and will not float as long as you are careful pouring the resin. However in practice a lot of people like to bond them down to create patterns, ensure alignment and so they don't move while they work their way around the floor.

Bottle tops are best bonded into place, as being lighter, they are more prone to floating and moving around. A technique that can work quite well with bottle tops is to pour a very thin layer of mixed resin onto the surface, then manually place the bottle tops into the resin. The working time will be around 30-40 minutes to place the bottle tops onto the surface, so this method is more suited for smaller projects or you could mix and spread small batches at a time, ensuring you're staying within the gel time of each resin application.

Alternatively many DIY adhesives are likely to be suitable and may be easier to work with. In rare circumstance you may encounter an incompatibility so we would always suggest making up a test tile using the exact floor, pennies (etc.) and adhesive and then pouring the GlassCast on the sample. You can then check every part of the process before starting the main project - this is very important to ensure there are no unforseen problems with compatibility or your process.

GlassCast will bond fine to ceramic and porcelain tiles. The surface will need to be thoroughly cleaned, degreased and be free of loose debris and dirt to achieve the best bond.

Where tiled floors are not perfectly even, as long as the lips and tile edges are not too high, the resin will flow over the edge and the whole surface. Use a spreader to help initially spread the resin over the floor, then leave it to settle down and self-level.

GlassCast® is highly self degassing which means in most cases there will be few, if any, bubbles to remove. However, if you do have some stubborn bubbles, gently waft a heat gun or hair dryer over the area (taking care not to excessively heat one spot) and the bubbles will rise and pop on the surface solving the problem.

Yes you can do that. GlassCast® is easily sanded and highly polishable so you will be easily able to sand it level and polish it back up to a high gloss afterwards.

GlassCast is designed to withstand permanent exposure to temperatures of up to 45deg C, so as long as the floor does not get hotter than that it will be fine. GlassCast does respond very well to gentle warmth when curing, if you set the temperature to reach 25 - 30 degrees it will speed up the cure allowing you to use the floor sooner. If you do decide to use the heat during the cure I would advise preheating the floor and leaving it on during the entire cure process, rather than exposing it to temperature fluctuations. 

Other than the practicality of reduced access during the application, there is no reason why in theory you could not use GlassCast on a staircase. Depending on the shape of the stair edge, you would need to build barriers to keep the resin contained during the pour. Once cured, the edge can be sanded and shaped as desired.

Be aware that GlassCast (and all polished smooth surfaces) can be very slippy, especially in socks or when wet which could be quite hazardous on a flight of stairs. Finally, staircases can be particularly high-traffic areas because they concentrate all footfall into a small area and therefore the accumulation of scratches and general wear on the surface could occur faster on stair treads.

Yes, certainly! GlassCast is a superb product for encapsulating bottle tops, pennies and other artistic objects for floors, table tops, coasters and other similar projects.

GlassCast® would be a great table top resin, especially if you wish to encapsulate details on the table surface. It is highly glossy fairly hard wearing and scratch resistant. Should you get any scratches, you can polish them out in most cases.

GlassCast® offers just about the best UV stability of any epoxy on the market however, that said, it is really intended for indoor use and the testing and confidence we have in it is in relation to a typical indoor environment. If the outdoor application you have in mind is very sensitive to colour and will be exposing the cured resin to direct sunlight in the long term or permanently then there is a possibility of some discolouration. For less critical or sensitive applications or where the UV exposure will be more occasional than permanent then the resin should be fine.

Acetone should NOT be used as a thinner for GlassCast but when used as intended, there should be no reason or need to 'thin' out the resin.

GlassCast resin has been very carefully developed to achieve an excellent surface finish when poured and left to cure, which most epoxies do not do. Addition of any additives or solvents to GlassCast is likely to upset this careful balance.

GlassCast could be marked by hot objects such as very hot drinks (think fresh black coffee, no saucer) and would certainly be marked by a hot saucepans (as any resin surface would). To improve the heat resistance of your GlassCast surface, an elevated temperature post-cure should be undertaken.

Even with the post-cure we would recommend being careful about placing down hot cups and items, ideally allowing them to cool first or use a saucer or place-mat just to be on the safe side.

As you have suggested, the only realistic method to produce a splashback or wall hanging display of this type is to produce it on a flat surface then mount it once dry. Good quality marine grade ply or similar should be suitable to lay the bottle tops/coins on. You can build a temporary dam around the outside edge for resin pouring them remove it to shape and finish the final product.

In general, once fully cured, water splashes should not cause any problems with the resin. The biggest concern is heat when being used as a kitchen splash back. GlassCast does not have a very high heat resistance with it being designed to operate permanently at up to 45 °C which means high levels of direct heat could damage the surface. There is a risk that hot oil or food splatter may leave a slight surface mark, however this should be able to be polished out.

Yes you can pour GlassCast over a print. However to prevent the paper soaking up the resin and appearing translucent, you need to first seal the paper images. This can be done with a thin layer of PVA glue. Take care to seal both sides and the edges. Once the PVA is dry, you can overcoat the paper prints in GlassCast and the results should look great.

Due to the practicalities of mixing large quantities of the resin and the absolute essential need for very thoroughly combining the resin and hardener to ensure a proper cure, we would not recommend mixing such large batch sizes in one go. We would suggest breaking it down into manageable 5kg batch sizes then thoroughly mixing each batch before moving onto the next. Mixed batches can be transferred into a larger container and then mixed again, allowing you to pour from one single container but we would not suggest attempting to weigh and mix batches larger than about 5kg in one go.

Grouting between penny's and other embedded items is not necessary and doing so is usually down to personal preference. In terms of which type and brand of grout, any grout is fine although semi-flexible grouts might be preferable if there is any movement in the floor at all.

In all cases, you must ensure that the grout is fully dried before you apply the resin as excess moisture can cause resins to go cloudy and in extreme cases may effect the cure.

The amount of resin needed is slightly different depending on if the bottle tops/pennies have been grouted level or not. For Penny Floors we always recommend grouting the floor as it seals the pennies in and helps provide a smoother overall finish to the floor. For other objects such as bottle tops, it may not always be practical to use grout.

If the floor has been grouted, you will need 2kg of resin per square meter coverage. This will give a layer approximately 2mm thick over the bottle tops/pennies.

For un-grouted floors, you will need 3kg of resin per square meter to be covered. Again, this will give a layer approximately 2mm thick over the bottle tops. The extra kilo of resin is to fill all the gaps surrounding the bottle tops.

If the material you will be pouring GlassCast 3 over is porous such as wood, chipboard or MDF then it is highly recommended to apply a sealing coat before the main pour. Doing so will improve the flatness of the final surface and help to eliminate warping of the substrate after cure.

Mix around 500g of GlassCast per square metre of surface you need to seal. Don’t worry if most of the resin seems to be absorbed by the substrate; this is normal for the sealing coat. Allow this sealing coat to cure before proceeding to the main pour. Depending on the ambient temperature, this is likely to take around 24 - 48hrs. For very porous substrates (like MDF) you might need to lightly flat the resin coated MDF to remove any 'high spots' where MDF fibres have swollen and created a coarse surface.

Uncured or tacky patches of GlassCast are normally as a result of only a handful of occurrences, before suggesting a solution, it is important to identify the cause.

• Epoxy resin needs to remain at around 20°C + for the entire curing time. If the temperature is much below 20°C, it will stall the cure and could give rise to potential problems so keep the room nice and warm before and during pouring the resin. Worktops tend to be much colder than you imagine so I would recommend warming up the cabin before you pour the resin to make sure the worktop is up to temperature and also keep your resins in doors before use so they're at room temperature before mixing. 20°C is 68°F.
• The resin has a very specific mix ratio of 2:1 by weight. This means that you need to be accurate with your mix, and in essence for every 200g of resin, you need to mix in 100g of hardener – this does need to be weighed and not worked out by volume. If you're pouring the full contents of the containers out and mixing them together, that won’t be an issue as we weigh the two parts very accurately here; however, if you are only mixing some of the contents of the containers, you need to measure out the resin and hardener by weight.
• Make sure you thoroughly mix the resin, spend a good few minutes mixing, ensuring that you scrape the sides, bottom and corners of your mixing bucket. Any unmixed resin simply won't cure so you need to be through and spend time ensuring it is fully mixed. We often suggest that you don't try and scrape the last dregs out of the mixing bucket because this tends to be where any unmixed resin is and if unmixed resin ends up on the floor, it won’t cure.
• Finally and slightly related to the first point, if the floor you're working on is cold or damp in some patches or there is a high moisture content in the substrate (i.e. a stone floor which isn't thoroughly dried), the moisture and cooler temperatures can cause curing issues.

With all of these points covered, you shouldn't have any problems at all.

Almost certainly the problem you've had will be down to one of the above; if this is the case, there is very little that can be done to cure the resin now and I wouldn't recommend pouring new resin over the top of it whilst it is tacky. Instead, you need to remove any tacky patches back to hard, fully cured resin. If it is still very liquid, you could wipe up or scrape out everything that you're able to before cleaning the remnants with acetone. Once you're back to fully cured resin; you can abrade the surface with a 120-240grit abrasive sand paper.

Once sanded, remove any dust from sanding and when filled with new resin, it will cure seamlessly, filling all of the scratches left by the sandpaper to give a perfect finish between the old and new with no noticeable join line.

I don't know how deep the areas with problems are but you may need to flood coat the whole surface with a very thin layer to ensure a perfect, level surface finish.

Due to its low viscosity (runny) nature, it would be impractical to cast GlassCast onto vertical surfaces such as walls, so we would not recommend its use in such circumstances.

However, a solution would be to make flat panels on a flat surface using GlassCast and once cured, the finished panels can be mounted on a vertical surface.

Generally we tend to say as a rule of thumb, 1kg of resin over an area of 1 sqm will be 1mm thick. Typical coverage over 3D objects is 2-3mm which equates to 2-3kg per sqm.

The best product would definitely be this one, the GlassCast 3. This resin will provide a really smooth, shiny, hard-wearing finish to the tiles. One important thing you need to be aware of would be the heat stability of any epoxy, including this one, would not really make it suitable for HOT drinks as they could leave a small mark in the resin.

This is however true of all resin coatings, even those which claim to be high temperature suitable; they will - unfortunately - all still mark to some extent.

We would not envisage any problems with GlassCast ® being used on a typical Conservatory floor as the temperature is unlikely to get above the HDT of 45 °C. If the floor surface temperature did reach in excess of 45-50°C it is possible it may soften and therefore potentially be damaged - although realistically the floor would be too hot to walk on at this point.

One point to note during pouring of GlassCast is to pay special attention to ensuring that the temperature of the floor is as close to, or above, 20°C as possible throughout the cure. Some conservatory's are not insulated to the same standard as the main house and can be considerably cooler than expected.