What adhesive to use under countertop resin? (1 Viewer)

Okay.. I'm finally getting around to planning on working on the rec/HT room again.

I'm planning on having a countertop/bar made out of stained wood, strewn with assorted beer bottle labels that I've been saving, and then covered with that pour-on resin stuff. I need to know what to use to hold the labels in place as I pour the resin.

My neighbor covered his bar with the stuff over ungrouted tiles and it looks really cool. The resin is expensive, so I want to make sure I get it right. I believe the stuff is pretty inert, but my biggest fear is the adhesive will somehow react with the resin and bubble or discolor the labels or affect the wood stain surrounding the label.

Anybody work with this stuff?

Well the only suggestion that I have comes from my wife scrapbooking. The only way that I know about it is my wife makes me change the roll out on the dispenser. Anyway, I believe that they are called tape tabs. The tape tabs are non acidic, which might help and they are double sided and very thin so they labels will be flat and not like something is underneath them holding them down. Unlike a lot of other double sided tape. If you have a Wal-Mart near by this tape would be in the scrapbooking section of the craft section. I believe that the tape tapes do not cost much either.

This is just a thought, you could do a sample piece that is just big enough to do a label. If everything works out great then you are a go for the big project. If not then you know that you need to think of something else.

Hope this helps!

JJ

Are you using Envirotex-lite as you resin? This stuff works great and I have used it around/over latex paint, white glue and various other materials with no adverse affects.

David

I wouldn't worry about the resin reacting with the adhesive, but the adhesive reacting with the labels. Where I work, long-term conservation is a difficult issue, and the best plan is no adhesives.

That doesn't always work well, though, so you might try hitting up an art/printing supply store and looking for (paste-up) bee's wax. It's a refined form of wax, not like the roll-your-own candles, that, in your sort of situation, you could probably rub a little wax on the surface, gently rub the label onto the wax, and then pour the resin over it.

A word of advice - there are references for "safe" materials handlings. I've known people who've gotten cheerful responses - provided you approach them in a polite way - from people at, for example, the Smithsonian's Materials Conservation Institute, or, more specific and perhaps harder to get in touch with the right people, the paper conservators at the National Museum of American History. I'm sure other major museums also have conservation people.

A word of advice there, though - they'll probably freak at the idea of pouring plastic resins over it.

Leo Kerr

I would think that you could paint a thin layer of the resin onto the countertop, stick the labels onto that while still wet, and then pour the rest of the resin over the whole thing.