: Hello yourself

: ah, now that's what I was hoping for - I thought you had put something
: together but wasn't completely sure. Stick a panel out in the sun for a
: while and then give it a yank - but it might not be quite warm enough
: there at the moment. (?)

Nope... Only in the low 40's 'F'. It'll be 3 or 4 months before I can do that sort of thing... But, I did go out and pull on the glass where it hung off the edges and it's just as solid as the regular glass directly on the ply... So, part of my tests worked out... The glass/resin mix WILL stick to the plywood with the Shellac sealer in it. Just won't know for sure how the heat affects it..
However... by only using it as a sealer, diluted with alcohol, the Shallac is soaked deep into the wood and by sanding the surface before glassing, that gave the resin some bare wood to get a bite on. But, as you mentioned.. the hi temps may be a consideration/problem.

Another part of the experiment was to test the Oak ply to see if the epoxy would even stick in the first place. There has been much talk in the past that the acids in Oak would react to the resin... and cause adhesion problems. That, at least for the 3mm oak ply ( door skins ) doesn't seem to be a problem.

I would still like to do the solid oak ( strips ) test to see if that would bring about different results..

: hehe, now whatever could you mean by that? I was thinking of under the epoxy
: where it would be sealed from moisture. I can't see over the epoxy working
: very well over the epoxy unless it was *really* well varnished to seal,
: and then, I can't see that it would do much over the epoxy anyway.

I d'know.. just thought I'd ask..

: I just replied to Roger with a little on what I'm up to - basically a pine
: feature on the deck with a few coats of blonde shellac for the colour. I
: sort of plan on fitting some pieces, then removing them and applying the
: shellac, then put them back in place and do the epoxy seal coat etc....

Hmmmm!! Well then, You'd have a different issue there with solid shellac on the surface to deal with... that's a whole new ball of wax there... I would try it and see how that worked before committing it to a deck..

: Since you used it to seal the timber, it sounds like you must have put it
: under the epoxy but maybe just a very thin coat?

Yeh, when it's thinned like that ( either 7 to 1 or 4 to 1 with alcohol ) it soaks down into the loose/soft grain to seal the color against darkening when any finish is applied.. The alcohol evaporates leaving the shellac down in the wood grain... but, like I mentioned earlier... the wood is sanded and that opens up the surface and allows epoxy to stick...

: Because shellac can get quite soft in the heat, I'm a little concerned that
: it might weaken the timber-epoxy bond - especially since I'm thinking of a
: few coats.

Yes, that would definitely be a concern... I'd test it first.....

: You too - it's been a while.

: haha, Peter, way down under.

O.K. Peter... you have a great day..
time for me to get busy and tray some cookies and get them ready for delivery tomorrow..

Take care.... And let me know if you try that out...

Rehd