Friends of mine asked me to make a stove top cover for them. Basically a shallow, open-bottom box that they can place over their stove top and I need a little advice… Here’s a couple of pictures of it:
The letters are carved out 0.10-inches deep and since they plan to put food/dishes on top of it when they have a party (the don’t have a lot of counter space in their kitchen) I want to fill the letters with something otherwise it will be a royal pain getting shredded cheese out of it on Taco Tuesdays. Do you think a white wood putty would work as a filler, such as:
I think I would stain the entire piece first (they want it dark gray) and then work the putty into the letters and finally apply a several coats of poly.
it will work, but if the wood flexes form heavy pans, being placed on top of it, the wood filler will crack out. Just tell them not to put heavy stuff on and it will be fine.
If it was me I would go with a commercial heat resistant epoxy. You can add dyes made for epoxy to make some really interesting contrasts. It is important with epoxy to minimize the air bubbles in the mixing process.
Agreed. The epoxy will be less brittle than grout, and probably wood filler as well. Plus with epoxy, you can use pigments to make the letters whatever color you like.
For air bubbles on a small project just use a hair dryer on high heat about 3 to 4 inches above the liquid epoxy about 2 to 3 minutes after pouring. Wait about 4 or 5 minutes more and run the hair dryer over it again. You will see the air bubbles just pop and the surface be as smooth as glass.
