In this blogpost you get an exclusive tutorial on epoxy resin wood lamps. I’ll show you step by step how you can make these unique pieces with resin and wood and which materials are best suited for this. You will get important insider information and I will tell you what you should pay attention to so that these noble artpieces also succeed.

How Did the Idea of making Epoxy Resin Wood Lamps appear?

Since childhood, my brother and I have dreamed of creating crafts. We tried to make different products: chandeliers from a wooden wheel, wooden handles, pictures, etc. The idea of making epoxy resin wood lamps appeared on Pinterest. Our first attempts were not satisfying but we didn’t stop. After some time, we found our style, but we are still improving on things. After visiting some conference about starting a business, I met a young man who made wooden toys. He showed me the website known as Etsy. All of these circumstances have inspired me to move in this direction and make my dream come true.

Supplies for Making an Epoxy Resin Wood Lamp

• Wood (Oak, Roots)
• Suitable Epoxy Resin
• RGB LED Light
• Module for RGB Light
• Varnish for Wood
• Plexiglas
• Hot-melt Glue
• Sandpaper
• Polishing Paste
• Wax for Wood
• Cable
• Silicone Glue
• Hardener

Step by Step Tutorial for Epoxy Resin Wood Lamp

Preparation

• Our work doesn’t start in the workplace. Let’s take a look at what happens before that. You have to go to the forest or any other place where you can gather old oak stumps. If this is not possible, you can buy wood in the shop or order online. Choose good quality stumps that are not rotten or destroyed.
• The next step is to bring them to your workplace and cut them into the pieces you need for your lamp. We use a band-saw to cut off the angles and to shape it. When you are done with that, put all of your wood in a place where it can dry for some time.

Preparation of the Wood Consists of Several Stages

1. Rough Cleaning: For this process, use a knife or metal brush to clean the mud and tree bark off of the wood. You’d better do it outside or find a suitable place for such dirty work.
2. Deep Cleaning: This stage follows exactly after rough cleaning. Using an airstream compressor, blow small pieces of mud and dust from the wood to make it completely clean.
3. Varnishing: At the last stage of preparation, you must cover the wooden pieces with varnish and leave them to dry for 24 hours.

Preparation of the Lamp Work-Piece

While our wood is drying, take some Plexiglas and cut it into pieces. The size of the pieces depends on the size of the lamp that you want to make.

Tip: Choose the size of the lamp according to the room where you or someone else wants to put it. If the room is big, try to make appropriate lamp so that it can lighten the room and create a special atmosphere.

You will then take the clean and varnished wood pieces and glue them to the Plexiglas bottom with hot-melt glue. In the end, the walls of the Plexiglas work-piece must be glued together in such a way that you get an empty box with a wooden bottom.

Pouring the Epoxy Resin

• At this stage, we will work specifically with epoxy resin. Here we use epoxy resin of Ukrainian production which has already tested to make sure that it is perfect. First, weigh the resin and hardener separately – the proportion is 100 to 27.
• Put the epoxy resin and hardener in one container and mix everything for 15-20 minutes. To clean the mixture, strain it through a filter that gathers all dust and pour into the ready-made work-piece.

• After that, put the work-piece with epoxy resin mixture in the degasser so as to take away bubbles (for approximately one hour if the room temperature is 20-24 degrees Celsius). After one hour of degassing, leave the product to solidify for two to three days in a place with a room temperature of 18 to 24 degrees Celsius.

Finishing the Work-Piece

• Finally, you are close to completing your epoxy resin wood lamp. After two to three days of drying, take off the Plexiglas from the solid work-piece. You now have your lamp but it is still unfinished.
• Then take some wood and cut out the bottom. Inside the bottom, insert an LED light that is the size of the lamp. For this, cut a small concavity in the wooden bottom with a manual milling machine. This concavity is for the LED light. Take your LED light and glue it to the bottom.

• In addition to that, make holes in this wooden bottom for a cable and a soldered cable for the LED light. You now have the light in your lamp. I buy my LED lights from a local shop with a voltage of 100-240 V. An RGB LED light can be controlled with a cell phone programmer using Bluetooth.
• The next step is to join the bottom of the epoxy resin work-piece. To do that, you can use silicone glue. When you are done with that, don’t forget to leave the lamp to dry for one day.
• After drying you will see that the surface of the lamp is rough and uneven. To take that away, grind all sides of the lamp using sandpaper and a grinder machine. You have to be patient and start from grit size 60 and grind for approximately 5 to 10 minutes. You have to change the grit of the sandpaper each time to achieve better results. So you would move from grit size 60 and increase it to size 120, 240, 320, 400, and 600 step-by-step.
• The sanding process doesn’t stop at this stage: as this is a handmade product, you will need to use your hands. Sand the lamp with your hands using sandpaper grit size 1000, followed by 1500 and 2000. When you grind or sand lamps with your hands, you should make the surface of the lamp a little bit wet.

Finishing the Lamp

One of the last steps is polishing the epoxy resin surface of the lamp with polishing paste for car headlights. Finally, chafe the lamp with some wax. Now you can hold your lamp in your hands and feel satisfaction from the result that you can see.

I hope that you can do your best following my tutorial. But don’t forget to express your ideas and your dreams in your creation! Don’t make a copy, make a masterpiece – it is priceless!