I browsed the workshop to see what materials I had for making a Resin Shark Fin Lazy Susan.

First, I used Adobe Illustrator to manipulate a shark fin graphic I pulled off a coloring page.

Then, I cut a scrap piece of wenge down to size and used our Glowforge laser cutter to laser cut the fins.

Using the belt sander, I tapered the front end of each fin to give them some dimension.

Before the resin pour, I needed to get the wood I chose near perfect to minimize the amount of work I’d have to do on the drum sander.

To make the warped piece of wood easier to sand down, I cut a section from the end I did not want. It helped, but I still ended up pulling the wood off the drum sander because I was afraid it was going to lose some of its shape.

Next, I laid out my shark fins around my island and sketched where I wanted to make one last cut. To quickly remove a good amount of material, I used an angle grinder.

Then, I used a random orbital sander to smooth things off.

As a base for the circular mold for the resin, I used a piece of plywood covered in tyvek tape. I tied a sharpie onto a piece of twine and then cut it to the length of the radius I wanted for my finished circle and used it as a guide to draw a circle.

Next, I cut squares of chipboard down the middle to use as the edge of the mold. I used Shurtape to cover the straight edges of each long and narrow rectangle. A small amount of excess tape hung off the edges to fold over the sides. Then, I taped all of the rectangles into one long and skinny strip of chipboard covered in Shurtape.

To hold the chipboard in perfectly circular shape, I placed nails into the board every four inches around the perimeter.

I used Shurtape to tape off the end of the chipboard. To prevent leaks, I sealed the bottom seam with hot glue on both sides of the mold.

Next, to ensure my wood island wouldn’t float during the resin pour, I hot-glued it into place inside the mold.

Using Illustrator, I created a design to use as oval bases for each fin. To give the fins a more natural form, I cut and sanded them. These bases served two purposes: firstly, if the resin had any sort of transparency, it would look best if there was a shadow of a body below each fin, rather than a fin free-floating in nothing; and secondly, they help to hold the fins up during the resin pour.

Then, I hot glued the fins and bases into the mold.

The Lazy Susan is going to be outside on my deck, so I used Total Boat for the resin.  I figured that if it could withstand the harsh conditions that a boat is subjected to then it would more than suffice for an outdoor lazy susan.

I filled the mold using multiple, quarter-inch thick layers.

I wanted the finished piece to be opaque, so I heavily colored the first pour with a mix of blue pigments. Mixing more than one pigment in a similar color family is a simple step that builds a lot of dimension in the finished color.

Once I had the color the way I wanted it, I poured my resin into the mold and popped any bubbles with a torch.

The next day, I used a sanding sponge to sand the hardened surface and wiped everything down with an alcohol wipe to ensure the next layer of resin would adhere.

I progressively diluted the pigment of each layer of resin until it was almost clear, which created a great watery look.

I left the island poking above the resin because I liked the look of it.

The chipboard was easy to remove because it was very flexible. Next, I pulled off excess hot glue and nails.

Then, I used an old-fashioned crowbar to pry the resin off the plywood.

To round off the edges of the resin, I used a handheld belt sander outside of the workshop.

Before the final resin pour, I mixed up a small batch of resin to fill the cracks in my wood. This is a crucial step when using resin as a finish over wood because if skipped, bubbles can form and ruin the smooth finish.

Once the resin hardened, I used a card scraper to scrape off the resin.

After I sanded all of the surfaces with a random orbital sander, I wiped everything down with an alcohol wipe.

Next, I leveled the circle of resin as well as I could and then mixed up a small batch of resin. To avoid any potential bristles getting stuck in the resin, I used a foam brush to scoot the resin around. This resin self-levels so as long as it’s on a level surface, it does most of the work for you past this point.

Next, I needed to drill a hole in the center of my Lazy Susan because the dining table on my back porch has an umbrella pole.

To find the center, I traced the circle on a scrap piece of craft paper and then folded it in half a few times. The center is where the folds intersect.

First, the resin needed a pilot hole. Then, I picked out a Forstner bit that had a larger diameter than my umbrella pole. I added a second pilot hole with a smaller Forstner bit because the larger bit was bouncing around and was very dull. Then, I went back to larger bit again.

I cleaned off the sawdust with canned air.

Next, I cleaned up the bottom of my resin, removing major resin drips and sharp spots.

Using my hardware as a stencil, I put four pilot holes into the underside of the Lazy Susan. After my first hole to ensure I didn’t drill through the other three holes, I added a mark on my drill with painter’s tape to indicate a safe depth to drill.

Then, I screwed the hardware into place.

Next, I sectioned off each fin with painter’s tape and then dabbed on some Butcher Block Conditioner that contained beeswax to make my Lazy Susan durable for the outdoors.

Lastly, I put my umbrella through the hole and just like that I had a Resin Shark Fin Lazy Susan.

If you are interested in a Glowforge, which we highly recommend as a first laser, use this link to get $500 off of a Pro, $250 off of a Plus, or $100 off of a Basic. We also get a credit in return to help out with materials on future projects: