SOMETHING NEW...for me

[Glenn Hodges]

These wine bottle stoppers were made from mesquite, walnut, and honey locust. They have different items imbedded under epoxy to make them interesting, and they are finished with spray lacquer.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Glenn I must say those are awesome. Just beautiful. Great work.

[Corey Hallagan]

Those are really nice Glen. Neat idea with the different items added. Do these stoppers work pretty good on wine bottles? I hate to make one cause then I don't have a excuse for finishing the whole bottle :)

Corey

[Chris Barton]

Glenn! Ohhh, those are so nice. I especially like the first one with the fly inside. How did you do that?

An old fly fisherman and tyer...

[Raymond Overman]

Those are great Glenn. I really like the embedded cabachon and a great job on the stoppers too.

[Curt Fuller]

Wow, those are neat. I like the one with the fly in it too.

[Pat Salter]

So, the one with the fly goes in the bottle with the worm in it, right??:rolleyes:

Nice idea, very nice.

could you do a post on your epoxy method? I for one would love to see how that's done.

[Don Baer]

I like the first one but I am a fly fisher so I am predaduce (sp?)

[Barry Stratton]

GREAT! I like that inlay/epoxy/cabechon, very creative.

And Corey - they work on whiskey bottles too.........:eek:

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Glenn...........Beautiful stoppers! I,too, would like a thread on how you do that! Photos would be appreciated! I tie and fish my own flies.

[Michael Stafford]

Glenn, I think that is a great idea and have a lot of potential. Should open up a whole new market at craft shows.:D

[Karl Laustrup]

Glenn, those are wonderful. Beautiful design and finish. :cool: :)

I only see one flaw. The one with the G is the wrong color. :eek:


YELLOW & GREEN. YELLOW & GREEN. ;) :D


Karl

[Glenn Hodges]

I drill the desired hole in the top of the bottle stopper, I use an epoxy with an opaque coloring in it to cover the bottom of the hole to give me a background so the item I will place inside later will be able to be seen better. I have used black, white, and crushed rock in the epoxy as a background. After this is semi dry to dry I add the item I wish to imbed, then pore in clear casting epoxy to which a hardner has been added. Set it aside and let it dry overnight. When the epoxy does not feel tacky sand it to about 600 grit. I remove from the lathe and buff, then spray with lacquer.
Others buff and put it back on the lathe and use Rennasonace Wax. I think with all the hand use the stopper will get the lacquer might be a better finish.
I will be glad to answer any questions you have with this project, glad to help, and thanks for the nice comments.
PS...I sprayed the fly with a couple of coats of lacquer before I put it in the stopper and pored lacquer on it.

[John Hart]

Pretty cool Glenn. Hey...if I sent you a handful of ancient Roman coins, how do you think they'd look on the end of a bottle stopper?

[Glenn Hodges]

John, I would imagine they would look great, but something as rare as a Roman coin would raise the price of the bottle stoppers beyond the average buyer's range. Do you think it would be alright to imbed a rare coin in epoxy? I am only thinking outloud, please give me some feed back.

[John Hart]

I wouldn't raise the price all that much Glenn. The fact is, if you know where to get them, it's not that bad....Plus, I would think that they would sell quickly because of their uniqueness.

As far as the embedding...I don't know...You're the one with the experience. The coins are bronze and are 2000 years old so they have a patina and little bits of corrosion sometimes. I would select the ones with the least amount of decay for something like this. Maybe your method of spray lacquer first would work best.

I have about 500 right now. I'd be happy to part with 20 or so if you'd like to give it a try.

[Mark Pruitt]

Glenn, Excellent work! I like all of them! Have a question: I love the idea of using epoxy like you did, but one of the issues with epoxy is the tendency for bubbles to get trapped while drying, and then of course there's no way to get them out. On a flat surface, this can be dealt with by using a propane torch to "raise" the bubbles to the surface where they pop. It looks like you either avoided this problem altogether or had a technique for eliminating the bubbles. Would you clarify this for me?
TIA,
Mark

[Glenn Hodges]

Great John, just let me know how much you want for them. We might even work out a trade for some of my mesquite wood.

Mark, I have found that if I don't stir the epoxy and the hardner to vigorusly the epoxy is clearer with fewer tinny bubbles (might be a song here). I have used a dental pick to move a bubble to the top when the epoxy is in a real liquid state. I also use a paint stripper heat gun when I see a few bubbles, and this will move them to the surface. Make sure you leave enough epoxy thickness between the embedded item and the surface so when you start sanding you will not sand down into the embedded item (DAMHIKT). You would think any fool would know that wouldn't you, oh well I had to learn. After sanding with 600 grit the epoxy will still be cloudy, but when you buff with the tripole buff it will really get clear.

You all will notice a lot of the items will appeal to men. Most of these bottle stoppers are bought by women at the shows I attend, and they are looking for gifts for the man in their life, and that is why I used these items.

[John Hart]

Nope...no payment necessary Glenn. Just PM me your address and I'll send them out. I'm excited to see how they look!!!

[Keith Burns]

Those are absolutely great Glenn:) :) Look forward to seeing more.

[George Conklin]

Very creative, Glenn. Great idea and nice work to boot!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Glenn........could you be more specific as to the types and brands of epoxy you use....casting epoxy........opaque epoxy? Possibly a source for same? Thanks!

[Paul Douglass]

Boy I love this forum! Glenn, those are great!

I have one question, reading your little how to post, I got the impression that you don't mix hardener in the epoxy that you mix with the crushed rock or whatever and pour in first, is that correct? Than you lay the item to be inlayed on that than cover with epoxy mixed with a hardener. Have I got that correct? Ok I made it two questions.

Thanks! Great stoppers!

[Rich Stewart]

Those are really cool. I had been thinking about a way to imbed some item like that under plexiglass. Maybe using a hole saw to cut out a piece and and then placing it over an item (flies or coins) and then pressing it into a hole in the top of a bottle stopper or such. I think your way will work much better. I, too, am waiting for ingredient lists.

Thanks for the great post!

Rich

[Ron Ainge]

Glen

I am trying to use the same type of material to make bottle stoppers out of Indian corn. I made one last weekend and ruined it just as I was doing the final sanding. I will make another one this weekend if everything goes right. I did make some with the new state quarters in them and they sell well. Yours look nice and should do you very well. Have you tried CA as a finish???

[Glenn Hodges]

Paul I guess you could use CA glue to hold the crushed rock, but I use epoxy and yep I do mix a hardner in it because you want it to cure to keep it from getting any gooy epoxy on the item you are putting on it. After this layer cures then comes the next layer which also has hardner and I also put in some Surface Curing Agent that I get from Easy Cast. This is where I get my casting Epoxy.

http://www.creative-wholesale.com/casting%20resin.html

this place also has some good info

http://www.arizonasilhouette.com/

I have never used CA as a finish. Let me know if I might be able to help you more. I did not invent this, I only used what others have done to make it work for me.

[Ernie Nyvall]

Those are really noce Glenn. I've been thinking of this with some Texas quarters in mesquite. Thanks for posting the " How I do it".:)

Ernie

[Mike Ramsey]

Glen, very nice!! If you're ever down in Texas and you run across
some copies of those.....It wasn't me! ;) .

[Jim Stoppleworth]

Paul I guess you could use CA glue to hold the crushed rock, but I use epoxy and yep I do mix a hardner in it because you want it to cure to keep it from getting any gooy epoxy on the item you are putting on it. After this layer cures then comes the next layer which also has hardner and I also put in some Surface Curing Agent that I get from Easy Cast. This is where I get my casting Epoxy.


I'm guessing here that the resin and hardener are exactly the same thing I used to plug and redrill bowling balls for 30 years. You do need to thoroughly mix the resin and hardener but if you stir slowly and steadily you can avoid almost all bubbles. Loved the bottle stoppers, am gonna do some for LOML with the herbs that she makes vinegars with.

Jim

[Blake McCully]

Glenn,
I've used polyester resin to cast pen blanks and blanks for some stoppers (gotta get some pics up or IT DIDN"T HAPPEN:eek: ). What is the difference, if any, between polyester resin the the clear casting resin? Just wonderin'.

[Glenn Hodges]

Blake, I really can't help you because I don't know the difference, sorry.

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

Good Lookin' Glen.

Don't try ALL the wines...................so that you can show them off.

Bruce