In this video I create a resin blank out of resin, olive wood and a dead cockroach I found in my woodworking shop. I then turned it and polished it on the lathe.
First of all I used some 5 minute epoxy to glue the insect on the wood.
I then glued the wood in the mold using hot glue. This was actually a bad idea because the heat created from the resin’s reaction melted the hot glue. In the first blank I used a fast setting resin and it actually cooked the roach. It actually smells like shrimp.
I made a second blank using slower setting resin. This time I screwed the wood in the mold and added a drop of silicone to avoid any leaks. As a mold I used plastic yoghurt cups.
I then degassed the resin in my vacuum chamber. A few days later I demolded the blank. I glued the blank on a wood piece which was mounted on my chuck. I used 5 minute epoxy.
I did most of the turning with a round scrapper. I also used a flat chisel.
I dry sanded from 120 to 400 grit. I wet sanded from 500 to 1000grit. I set the lathe at its lowest speed. I applied polishing paste and used a paper towel to polish the piece. I used fine and super fine paste.
I used a knife parting tool to part the piece off. I then sanded the back on my belt sander.
Finally I used my buffing wheels to do the final polishing.
And I was done. It was a really fun project and I am happy with the final result. But that was it. See you soon with a new project video.
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