Round Secret Wood Ring

I've always wanted to make those cool secret wood rings however all the tutorials i looked at were rings shaped with a big bulky head. I prefer a smaller round ring. If you're the same, check out this instructable.

Materials:

• Wood - any old wood will do as long as its thin enough to break in half
• Epoxy resin - i used the syringes of epoxy adhesive from my local hardware store. Should only be about $4 each
• Food colouring
• Acrylic/plastic sheet or something to make a mould from
• Hot glue
• Sand paper - a range of grits up to about 1200 is best
• Optional: Glow powder, polish

Tools:

• A drill - drill press would be best but a hand held drill will do
• Hole saw attachments for your drill - make sure the smaller hole saw is the diameter of your finger as this will be the ring size. The large hole saw is the outside diameter of the ring which depends on how thick you want the ring to be.
• Hand saw - i used a band saw but any thin hand saw will work
• Small paint brush
• Clamps and a hammer - or some way of breaking your wood
• Hot glue gun
• Optional: chisel, something to mix epoxy in

For the iconic secret wood ring effect you first need to break your wood in half. I first used a chisel to make some breaking guides. I then clamped the wood to a bench and hit the end with a hammer which broke it in half. Warning - if your wood is too thick it might be too hard to break and may damage your clamps.

You need to make a mould around the wood to keep the resin in. I used a thin plastic sheet. Just cut it to size on each side of the wood and hot glue in place. Once dried go around and hot glue the seams and any gaps. Make sure you leave the top open so we can pour the resin in the next step.

For an added effect you can sprinkle some glow powder on top of the broken wood. This won't be that noticeable in the final result so if you would like a better glowing effect you could try mixing some glow powder with the epoxy resin in the next step.

Clamp the mould in an upright position and mix some clear resin (be sure to save just a little for the next step). Pour the the resin into the mould over the broken wood. Don't worry about bubbles, i think they add a cool effect. Tip: Make sure you mix the resin thoroughly as it will not cure otherwise.

Mix some food colouring with a little bit of epoxy resin. Then pour a little bit on top of the clear resin in the mould. Use a small stick to swirl into the rest of the clear resin. Let cure for a few hours until hard.

Once fully cured, you can de-mould the wood and resin blocks. An optional step could be to sand the flat surfaces to get rid of any bumps or hot glue.

Use the smaller hole saw to drill out the inside hole for your ring. This hole should fit around your finger. You may be able to fit a number of rings from the one piece of wood.

An optional step here is to cut the block into separate pieces for each ring - refer to images.

Then use the larger hole saw to drill out the outside diameter of the ring.

The end result will be your ring shape. The final steps are to sand and finish.

As the wood i initially used was too thick (about 16mm) i decided to use the band saw to cut the rings down the middle. This resulted in a more reasonable size ring and i ended up with double the amount of rings.

Sanding is the most important finishing step. I used a range of sand paper grits from about 240 up to 1200. Be sure to sand each surface of the ring including the inside with every grit.

Painting a clear epoxy resin coat on your ring will result in a clear surface allowing you to see clearly through the ring. This step is easy by not necessary as you can achieve this result by sanding up to a very high grit and using some polishing compound to buff the ring.

Once it dries you are done.

Enjoy your cool secret wood ring and give some to family and friends :)