Want an idea for how to get your kids into the workshop and away from the TV? Let them design something with epoxy resin. In our case, my daughter and I used ultraviolet (UV) resin to make a cool kid’s art project. Ultraviolet epoxy resin is a great medium to get kids into the workshop because, well…it’s fun!

Prepping our Art Work

We started our project by cutting out a circle. After that, we went to the drill press and used several forstner bits to drill different size holes. The drill press is a great gateway tool for kids. It’s easy to use and relatively safe compared to many other tools in the shop. My daughter decided on what size holes she wanted, how many, and where they will be located. I let her do all of the designing.

Epoxy Resin

Once we had our wood circle ready, we began working on the UV resin part of the project. I purchased a box of glow in the dark pigment powder that comes in various colors. What I like about this pigment is it still looks good when it’s not glowing. To make it glow, you shine a UV light on it. We mixed the pigment powder with Total Boat high performance epoxy resin. It’s really good epoxy.

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She decided on what colors she wanted in each circle and mixed the resin and powder into dixie cups. The more pigment you add, the more it will glow. We filled up the drill holes with our favorite colors and let it sit overnight.

Sanding & Finish

The next day, we spent a few minutes sanding the board to prepare it for finish. While we sanded the project to 220 grit sandpaper, I hand sanded the resin circles all the way up to 3,000 grit. It’s probably not necessary, but the higher you go up in grits the more the sanding marks disappear. I think that we dealing with finishing techniques and kids, go with something that’s easy, safe, and fast. Kids don’t have the attention span for a multi-day, complicated finishing process. We used some orange oil and bees wax, buffing the project with a rag until we got a nice sheen.

My daughter designed this whole art project and had a blast. If you are looking for an idea that will get kids into the shop to make a hands-on project, I recommend a glow in the dark resin project like this. It’s fun, safe, and will hopefully get your kids hooked on making things for themselves.

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