Making Thin Tile Countertops by Hand | Part 3 | Columbia MO
Making thin tile countertops by hand part three.
This part three video will show you how we polish our tile countertops to look like a solid piece of stone.
We start by mixing a batch of Tenax knife grade epoxy. For this particular countertop we will start with a white base. We also have a buff base or clear base depending on the tile color we’re using.
Mixing the color is done by eye and is a guessing game. We will mix up more color than we need so that our color stays consistent. The color is easy to mix and we only need a drop or two to really have an effect. The mix stays good until we add the hardener. We will get the color right first then we’ll move on to actually mixing the epoxy.
Adding the hardener is all about ratios. We will pull a bit of color base onto a clean work surface. Paper plates work well for this. Foam plates can dissolve, so we’ve learned to not use them. Once the color base is moved onto the plate we get a clean tongue depressor to mix the hardener in. Imagine the ball of colorant is an orange, now eyeball an amount of hardener that looks like a grape in size. We aren’t using the epoxy as a binding agent, just for fill. We still want the epoxy to be very hard, so we don’t want to use too little hardener either.
Once the hardener is added, you’ll have about 5-7 minutes to use it before it starts to become unworkable. Use the tongue depressor to fill the exposed corner, then shape the corner using two knife blades.
After the epoxy cures it’s ready to start shaping and polishing. We use an orbital sander with 220 grit paper to start. It’s easy to shape the corner and sand off extra epoxy. If any divots or other spots are found, simply mix another small batch of epoxy and fill them in.
EJ Flooring
(573) 289-1045
Certified Tile Installer #1329
https://www.ejflooring.com
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