One of the biggest pains in the butt for me in doing DCG is capping a plate and using either UV glue or resin, once it dries having to take a razor blade and hack away at the excess. I don't want to leave it on when I am grinding the pieces since it will muck up the disk so I hack away and swear a lot . It is not a zen like experience to be sure
I have tryed taping around the glass which helps but it is time consuming. I was going to try vasoline around the perimeter and see if that works. With resin I sometimes wait an hour when the stuff is still gooey but can't always get there in time.
Do any of you have any tricks that you use to get that stuff off?
Hi Tony. It is kind of a pain in the butt. If you're sanding or grinding the edges, that's good, because that will make short work of the edges. When I seal DCG, the first thing I do is place some kind adhesive tape across the face of the bottom plate. (In other words, between the table and the bottom plate.) Then I apply the UV ahesive, sandwich the top plate down and squeeze the excess out the edges. Of course, the top surface of the top plate stays clean, but the adhesive oozes out the edges, and falls town on the table, and then goes underneath the bottom plate. But the tape on the underside will hopefully prevent most of the adhesive from seeping onto the back face of the bottom plate. At that point, I clean the excess with a gloved finger, paper towel, etc., and carefully remove the tape as well. Some adhesive usually does creep through the tape, so I need to clean that off before it cures, with solvent if necessary. Then UV cure.
At this point only the edges should be a problem. If your sander or grinder is wet like it should be, and the UV resin is cured, then it should not gunk up your sanding disk. It should come off almost instantly against the sander, but the sander must be very wet. I use a belt sander with 120 grit silicon carbide, sprayed with copius amounts of water at all times. But this coarse grit must be very wet at all times, otherwise not only will the plastic melt and gunk up the sander, but the glass is likely to crack also.
That's an interesting thought about the vaseline. It might be worth trying some kind of barrier substance, other than tape, for the broad face of the bottom piece.
By the way, Tony, your hologram just arrived, as I was writing this. I will be taking a look shortly.
I will try this out.
Since my swap top is diamond I think it may be worth using a standard belt sander and get some of the junk out. I don't have a 120 grit disk for the swap top.
As to the hologram I sent you. I sent one to John, Dave and Danny so I would be interested in their feedback as well.
Hi guys i always make my cover plate one inch larger and place it down first, then epoxy and hologram are placed on top, now over spill can be managed better . As soon as its 3/4 cured (thermal cure epoxy), i then cut off the 1/2" extra glass using a glass cutter and a rasor on the back side ............. I cant wait to see your hologram Tony! thankyou thankyou!
I applied some vasoline on the edges of the cap plate applies some of Dave's suggested resin and allowed the resin to dry. The beads glue popped off nice the next day. I think is it approuching zen like status.
. It is not a zen like experience to be sure 
