Filling holes with clear epoxy resin

[Wolfs]

I am making a coffee table with jarrah which has a large number of splits and holes made by gum veins (or whatever these natural holes are called). They will be a feature of the surface and I want to fill them with clear epoxy resin so that one can see into the "holes". I can fill the holes easily enough but am unceratain how to sand them when I am finishing the table. I have heard that if you sand the surface of the epoxy as part of the final sanding of the wood it becomes opaque and needs to be sanded down to 2000 grit before the surface is clear. But I don't want to sand the wood that far. Is there a set proceedure for this? Thanks for any suggestions.

[Eli]

depends on your final finish substance? We recently used casting resin and tung oil. Can't recall how fine we sanded though.

[Wongo]

I don’t think so. Epoxy takes vanish very well. I normally just sand it down to 120 grit with a ROS, 2- 3 coats of wipe on poly late it will look fantastic. If you want to play save then sand it down to 320 grit. It should work.

[BobL]

I don’t think so. Epoxy takes vanish very well. I normally just sand it down to 120 grit with a ROS, 2- 3 coats of wipe on poly late it will look fantastic. If you want to play save then sand it down to 320 grit. It should work.

Correct, you only need to sand the epoxy with very high grit numbers if you DO NOT plan to varnish over the top. I use 240 grit on my ROS and then apply 3 coats of poly.

[Wolfs]

Thanks for the advice. If you sand to say 320 and add poly can you get the effect of seeing down into the hole?

[pal]

Yes you certainly can. some of the lads on the forum bed insects or carve things and bed that in the epoxy as a feature