Stop the bleeding!

[Quickstep192]

OK, it’s not about a wound or excessive spending of money.

I’m working on a project where I want to do some infill using colored epoxy. When I tried this once before, the colored epoxy wicked into the nearby endgrain above and below the routed recess and looked awful. I want to give it another go, so I’m interested in ideas to prevent the bleeding. Any ideas?

[mirwa]

I like shellac for most sealing operations, but, if you have used it before and its still problematic, then clear epoxy the area first.

Once the fresh inlay is done you can sand any surface epoxy off

Steve

[charles Tauber]

You might try a shorter setting epoxy, giving less time for bleeding.

[emmsone]

I haven't done any fills with epoxy but from my experiences doing similar with CA glue and having had terrible bleed issues, I did discover the thicker the CA glue the less wicking it did. I did some testing recently before using blue and tinted CA, and i discovered that by using accelerator i could significantly reduce the wicking. However I don't know if there's such a think as epoxy accelerator. Charles' idea of an epoxy with a shorter setting time might achieve the same thing.

Do you have any scrap of the same wood you can test different methods on?

[Frank Ford]

I think I'd try "sizing" with chlear hot hide glue first. I'd mix up the epoxy to peanut butter consistency with colloidal silica thickener, then add the color and do the fill. Important to avoid bubbles when mixing. I'd heat the epoxy at the last minute to allow to flow a bit.



To avoid whipping in a lot of air bubbles, use a bent palette knife when you mix up a small batch of epoxy. You can stir up down and around thoroughly without letting the bent section break the surface, so you'll be able to get a nice clear bubble-free mix:

[Bruce Sexauer]

Like Frank, I use hhg.

[Quickstep192]

I'm not set up so much for HHG; do you guys think shellac would work as well?