plastic epoxy resin to make bookshelves

Hi everybody, Im new here. I have a question regarding the epoxy resin typically used for bartops. Looking forward to what you peeps have to say. Im wanting to make a bookshelf where the shelves are clear and I was thinking of using epoxy resin. The reason being I want to suspend little objects within the shelf. I first thought of using acrylic sheets and heating them up and then inserting the objects once the acrylic is soft enough but Im not sure if that would look great. I then read up on getting enough resthe epoxy used on bartops and after doing some calculations I realized that it would be extremely costly getting enough resin to make shelves that were 50 inches long, 15 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. I was wondering if anybody had any cheaper alternatives to the resin or perhaps a better way of doing this? Thanks.

 

I can't imagine anything that would be cost effective. I've helped do a few bar tops and tables and it has a max thickness it can be put on or it will cause tons of bubbles and a bad surface. And as you said...the stuff isn't cheap.

Sorry, not much help I know.

 

Unfortunately I can only think of ways every method would fail and can't come up with a inexpensive and non-technical way of making shelves like you describe. The clear casting resin you mention is probably the best and least expensive way I can think of. You can look for more "industrial" suppliers for the resin instead of buying it in retail quart sized containers. I am still concerned about it's strength for use as a shelf as it's just a resin, not really designed for structural applications.

 

I think glass might end up being the cheapest and easiest way to do this, sheets of acrylic are pretty spendy in thinner sizes so I can't imagine with the thickness you would need to hold weight.