Trying wood pots, coated with epoxy.

penumbra

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Awesome pot, hope it holds up well for you.
 

Krone

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Can epoxy be harmful for plants / soil?
 

RKatzin

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Very nice! What woods are you using? I've been contemplating making some pots using yew wood. I just found two standing dead trees of a good size for 8-10" pots. Bigger if you cut lengthwise, but I like the look of rounds with the white sapwood on the outer edges and the red heartwood inside. You can make really cool designs by carving through the sapwood and exposing the red heart.
 

ABCarve

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I have done this in years gone by. It does work. The problem is that the epoxy will haze over from UV light. Gets pretty ugly. You can solve that with a few coats of exterior spar varnish as a UV filter. However the varnish needs freshened every year or two to keep it looking good. Just like a wooden boat
 

Forsoothe!

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Gorgeous. But I think teak oil would be more durable. Coatings have a tendency to flake off un-evenly over time and eventually you have parts that have the adhered, parts with none left, and parts with it in the process of flaking off. At that point it takes lots of hand work to renew the surface. Tung oil soaks in, and while it does polymerize it doesn't do so in sheets on the surface as "paints" do. You can cleanse the surface with a brass wire brush at repottings and re-coat for renewal. It does darken the wood.
 

ABCarve

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I’ve been using marine epoxy on deadwood for 8 years now, to no ill-effect. It does haze over but you can’t tell because it’s the same color as the deadwood. Haven’t had any flaking whatsoever.
 

Oleg

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You should look @ every thing marine, fiberglass resin maybe.
 

penumbra

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Gorgeous. But I think teak oil would be more durable. Coatings have a tendency to flake off un-evenly over time and eventually you have parts that have the adhered, parts with none left, and parts with it in the process of flaking off. At that point it takes lots of hand work to renew the surface. Tung oil soaks in, and while it does polymerize it doesn't do so in sheets on the surface as "paints" do. You can cleanse the surface with a brass wire brush at repottings and re-coat for renewal. It does darken the wood.
I more or less agree with this but do you mean teak or tung oil? Or is tung oil an ingredient in teak oil.
 

SouthernMaple

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Sorry to hijack your thread but I was hiking yesterday and found this laying in the middle of the path, so I grabbed it and took it home, do you think epoxy or wood hardener will let me use it as a small bonsai pot?
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penumbra

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I would use it in a heartbeat. You can plant it as is and use in until it disintegrates. Or you could let it dry well and then treat it with a wood hardener. There are ways you can plasticize wood by forcing the resin into the pores under a vacuum. It is not a terribly complicated process but you need a lot of equipment. I came really close to getting a pump and vacuum chamber for fixing wood for knife handles. I don;'t see how I would ever find the time so I put the brakes on it.
Further comment: I would be inclined to use it as is with moss growing until it falls apart. Or I might put it in a bonsai pot, as is, in a cluster of conifers with a companion plant growing out of it. Any fixative is going to change its looks.
 

SouthernMaple

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I would use it in a heartbeat. You can plant it as is and use in until it disintegrates. Or you could let it dry well and then treat it with a wood hardener. There are ways you can plasticize wood by forcing the resin into the pores under a vacuum. It is not a terribly complicated process but you need a lot of equipment. I came really close to getting a pump and vacuum chamber for fixing wood for knife handles. I don;'t see how I would ever find the time so I put the brakes on it.
Further comment: I would be inclined to use it as is with moss growing until it falls apart. Or I might put it in a bonsai pot, as is, in a cluster of conifers with a companion plant growing out of it. Any fixative is going to change its looks.
I just went after it with a toothbrush to get off the majority of the rotten pieces and put it in the sun to dry. My original idea was to put a lining of sorts either wood hardener or epoxy on the inside or some other medium and leave the outside alone until the moss died, in June after the NC expo we will be having a club workshop with Young Cho and this would make a great pot for an accent plant.
 

Forsoothe!

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I more or less agree with this but do you mean teak or tung oil? Or is tung oil an ingredient in teak oil.
Tung is the expensive portion ingredient in teak oil. Most tung is cut, too, but there is more tung if it's called tung. It all works.
 

penumbra

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Tung is the expensive portion ingredient in teak oil. Most tung is cut, too, but there is more tung if it's called tung. It all works.
Thank you. I truly didn't know. I know it is used by bowyers quite extensively.
 
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