Yellowheart & Makore Mug

[Brodie Brickey]

My cousin is a USC fanatic and this was intended to go to him, unfortunately the Makore isn't quite the right color so I'll have to do another one in Bloodwood to see if it works out better.

In the meantime, I have a new mug to carry to work with me.:D

For a finish I sanded to 1200,
2 coats of Danish Oil natural
2 coats of Mirror Coat epoxy
I then resanded at 1200 to dull the mirror coat down to a matte finish and buffed.
Since this mug will see regular use, I thought I'd like to avoid showing finger prints all the time.

Comments and thoughts are certainly appreciated.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Brodie that is a nice looking mug. Love the wood and finish. Nice job.

[Paul Engle]

Nice job Brodie, where'd you get the innards? USC huh, (CSLB 1978 -1982 )( LBCC 1977-1982 NAVY SHIP YARD APPRENTICE PROGRAM) lived on Morningside just north of Del Amo 2 blocks frm LBBlvd and Dooleys !!! shore miss Dooley's) I'm thinking of making a couple for our marketing/sales dept.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Really nice job Brodie! I like the wood color combination and the mat finish.

[Andy Livingston]

I ordered a couple mug innards from http://www.SmoothTurning.com
I think it's Brodie's site. They came in just 2 days (California to Georgia, pretty darned fast!) and had very nice instructions. I just have to get around to making some mugs now. Brodie, if that is your site and business, thanks for the fast shipping and good packaging! I'll do business with your site again.

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Looks like you could be producing Starbuck's next line of mugs, great work. I like the two colors.:)

[Lisa Gilbert]

But those are the perfect colors for the University of Wyoming, where I was in the marching band -- right up until my lips froze to my flute :eek: playing "Cowboy Joe" on a lovely Saturday afternoon when it was -20 in War Memorial Stadium (can you tell this is a vivid memory?) -- you know, just in case you felt inclined to pass it along....

[Gary DeWitt]

Very nice, I'll have to try one of those out myself!
Now, how about yellowheart and bloodwood? That yellowheart would be closer to the USC "gold".

[David Walser]

But those are the perfect colors for the University of Wyoming, where I was in the marching band -- right up until my lips froze to my flute :eek: playing "Cowboy Joe" on a lovely Saturday afternoon when it was -20 in War Memorial Stadium (can you tell this is a vivid memory?) -- you know, just in case you felt inclined to pass it along....

Lisa, your story reminded me of the time Lavell Edwards took his BYU Cougars up to Laramie to play football against the mighty Wyoming Cowboys. It was a bitterly cold day and the game was played in the midst of a blizzard. The Cowboys won. Asked to comment on the weather after the game, Coach Edwards said (IIRC), "I'd rather travel to Laramie and lose than live in Laramie and win."

[John Hart]

Nice looking coffee mug!!! Good plan too...I'll have to try that -- "I was making this for so and so...oops! Guess I'll have to keep it.":D

[Steve Hayes]

Great looking mug! Did you apply the epoxy 2 parts epoxy and 1 part hardener? Did you thin the epoxy before applying?

[Tom Jones III]

Thanks for the pictures and the link, I just ordered a few

[Bob Opsitos]

2 coats of Danish Oil natural
2 coats of Mirror Coat epoxy


Brodie I've order 3 of the mug innards from you, and was wondering about the epoxy finish your using. Can you share the recipe and application technique?

thanks
Bob

[Brodie Brickey]

For this mug I used the Mirror Coat 2 part epoxy I purchased from WoodCraft.

I mix 2 parts Epoxy(A) w/ 1 part hardner(B) as per directions. The stuff is really thick. I pour each of the types into a separate styrofoam cup, verify the quantities, and then pour the hardner (which flows better) into the epoxy.

I mix together with one of those cheap flux brushes thoroughly.

Here comes the hard part.
The mug is treated like a spindle piece and in my case I leave it on the faceplate and with the lathe off, apply the epoxy using the flux brush, rotating the mug around until I've got the whole thing covered.

I try to keep the coat relatively thin (don't forget to cover the lathe ways with paper) but the epoxy is really thick so you will have excess. I use my VS to keep the speed low (50-100 RPM) and use the brush to pull the excess off. The epoxy will fill any voids you have and air will bubble up when it fills a void. You have about 30 minutes before it starts to set. Most of the bubbles will pop, but if you see bubbles you can brush them out. The key and the difficulty is that with the exception of brushing out bubbles, the lathe needs to turn for about 3 hours before the epoxy really sets up good. After 3 hours it will still be tacky, leaving finger prints, but you can then remove it from the lathe and put it someplace warm to finish curing. After 8-12 hours drying you can lightly sand the mug to remove any blemishes and recoat if desired.

On this mug, I coated twice due to some bubbles that didn't pop and were basically large blemishes. The second coat still wasn't perfect, but I was already noticing that the liner was becoming a really snug fit so I just sanded with 600, 800, 1200 and then buffed with Hut. With the finer grits don't forget to go with the grain on your final pass.

Issues: The mirror coat takes longer to dry in cold weather.
Solution: Put an incandescent bulb in one of those desk lamps 8" from the top of the mug as it turns and call it a night. The bulb will keep everything warm allowing the epoxy to dry while the lathe is turning. In the morning, you can sand and recoat if desired.

To solve the drying time issue, I may consider going to fiberglass or to poly. I know that with fiberglass I can make it "hotter" to dry faster, but for now, I'm working through my supply of Mirror Coat. On my next mug, I'll try a poly finish to see how well it works.

Unfortunately, I don't have all the answers and this is still an evolving project. I hope in a couple months to produce a short video on turning the mugs once I've managed to address most of the questions that come up.

I'd like to thank all of you for the feedback and the questions, they really help me to create a better project.

[Tom Jones III]

FYI, when LOML turned handles for our bathroom faucets, she simply sanded then applied poly. It has only been a year or two but they seem to have held up well to wet hands and many wet/dry cycles. When I get the mugs that I just ordered completed I'll probably use poly on the first one.