After reviewing the Inlace liquid inlay product I received a few email suggesting I try making my own. I have done this before with limited success but it has been a while so I thought I would experiment a little. The key chain above is my attempt at creating a mixture that simulates granite inlay.
I purchased a a tube of Loctite gel two part 6 minute epoxy and a small bag of ornamental sand. The sand is brown with white mixed in.I cut and glued together the dolphin key chain from the book I posted the other day.
I also have a small cup and wooden stir to mix the inlay.
I put several drops of the two part epoxy in the cup. This gel is very thick.
I mixed in the sand and stirred the mixture well. The gel was too thick to pour into the dolphin cut out so I just packed it in as tight as I could.
I waited 1/2 hour to let the epoxy set. I should have waited much longer. The epoxy was set up hard on the surface but as I sanded the inside was sill a little tacky and made a mess on my sander. I was able to sand it flush.
This picture shows the sanded but unfinished key chain.Conclusion:
I would say that this technique works but with issues. The Gel Epoxy was too thick. I will try the thin epoxy next and see if that helps. The brown and white sand looks a little muddy. Not the granite effect I was looking for but close. It ended up looking more like sand stone. That makes sense I guess.
Sanding the hardened epoxy was much more difficult than the Inlace material. It stuck to the belt and made a mess. Maybe if I had let it cure over night it would have worked better.
After this experiment I would still spend the money for the Inlace product. Inlace sands better and looks much better.
More experiments to come.
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