Easy Epoxy Calc

How much epoxy for a penny bar top?

Short answer

You need about 2.4 gallons of tabletop epoxy for an 8 ft × 20 in penny bar top: 1.16 gallons for a 3/16 inch fill pour that buries the coins, 1.12 gallons for the final 1/8 inch flood coat and 14.9 fl oz that drips off the edges, with 5% for the bucket.

How to work it out

  1. Top: 8 ft × 20 in = 13.3 sq ft; coated edges: 11.3 ft, 1.5 in tall
  2. Fill (3/16 in (yours)): 13.3 sq ft × (3/16 in − 90.7% × 0.0598 in for the pennies) = 1.11 gal + 5% waste = 1.16 gal
  3. Flood coat: 13.3 sq ft × 1/8 in × 1 = 1.04 gal + edge film 11.3 ft × 1.5 in × 1/32 in × 1 = 3.53 fl oz → + 5% waste = 1.12 gal
  4. Edge drips: 11.3 ft at 1.25 fl oz per foot of edge per 1/8 in coat × 1 = 14.2 fl oz → + 5% waste = 14.9 fl oz
  5. Total: 1.16 gal + 1.12 gal + 14.9 fl oz = 2.4 gal → 3 × 1 gal kits
  6. Mix ratio 1 : 1 by volume, SG A 1.15 / B 0.95 (typical, not published by the maker — type your data sheet’s SGs for exact weights) → Part A 1.2 gal (11.5 lb) + Part B 1.2 gal (9.51 lb)

Pennies are only about 1/16 in thick, so a 3/16 in fill covers them with about 1/8 in to spare and can often go on in one or two layers. The fill pour, not the flood coat, is where most of the resin goes on a penny top — though the coins themselves take up more than a quarter of that fill.

Adjust for your project

ft
in
Measure the top surface, including any overhang.
The edges the resin runs over. Each one gets a thin coat and drips for a while, so both are counted.
in
How tall the edge is — usually the thickness of the top.
Items buried in a clear fill pour. Solid items take up room, so they reduce the resin a little.
in
Leave blank for your tallest item plus 1/8 in of cover: 3/16 in over pennies, 3/8 in over bottle caps. Or type your own.
sq ft
Leave blank if the items cover the whole bar. If they sit in one panel or band, enter its area — the fill is dammed to that area and the flood coat still covers the whole top.
Most embedded bar tops pour the fill inside a dam or rail and only let the final flood coat run over the edges. If your fill layers run over too, their drips are added.
1 is normal. Add one after a fill pour for a single, even surface.
A thin first coat brushed or scraped into bare wood, so air in the grain doesn’t bubble up into the clear coat.
gal
Total of both bottles together. Most “1 gallon kits” are ½ gal resin + ½ gal hardener — enter 1. If the listing says 1 gal of EACH, enter 2.
More options: waste · ratio · SG A …
%
What stays in the bucket and on the spreader. Edge drips are counted separately.
Only changes the Part A / Part B split — it’s printed on the kit. Tabletop and art resins are usually 1:1; deep pour often 2:1.
From the TDS, in g/ml. Leave blank for 1.15 (typical, not published by the maker).
From the TDS, in g/ml. Leave blank for 0.95 on 1:1 kits or 0.97 on other ratios (typical, not published by the maker).
gal
Resin + hardener mixed in one bucket. Big batches heat up and thicken sooner, so pros mix the next one while the last is being poured.
$
Optional — your kit price, for a cost estimate
Tabletop epoxy to buy2.4 gal9.6 qt · 9.08 L
Kits to buy
3 kits
Fill depth used
3/16 in (yours)
Fill pour (buries the items), incl. waste
1.16 gal (4.65 qt · 4.4 L)
Fill layers at 1/8–1/4 in (3–6 mm) each
1–2
Flood coat(s) + film on the edges, incl. waste
1.12 gal (4.48 qt · 4.24 L)
Edge drips (runs off and is lost), incl. waste
14.9 fl oz (0.46 qt · 0.44 L)
Bar top area
13.3 sq ft
Batches to mix
3 batches
Per batch (volume, then weight)
A 1.6 qt (3.84 lb) + B 1.6 qt (3.17 lb)
When mixing — Part A (resin)
1.2 gal (4.8 qt · 4.54 L)
When mixing — Part B (hardener)
1.2 gal (4.8 qt · 4.54 L)
Part A by weight
11.5 lb (184 oz · 5.22 kg)
Part B by weight
9.51 lb (152 oz · 4.31 kg)
Left over from the last kit
0.6 gal (2.4 qt · 2.27 L)
  • What to buy: 3 × 1 gal tabletop epoxy kits. Each kit has both bottles (resin + hardener) — you don’t buy them separately. Looking at a different kit size? Change Kit size above.
  • A fill that deep is 1–2 layers of tabletop epoxy poured 1/4–1/8 in at a time, each inside the recoat window — or fewer with a product rated for thicker pours.
  • The fill is poured inside a dam or raised rail, so it doesn’t run over the edges — no drips are counted for it. Only the final flood coat runs over the coated edges.
  • Glue coins and caps down first — loose items shift as you spread. Seal paper items (photos, labels) with a thin coat first so the resin doesn’t soak in and darken them.
  • Pouring onto bare wood? Choose a seal coat above — it stops air in the grain bubbling up into the clear coat.

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Tabletop / bar top epoxy kitYou need 2.4 gal; 3 × 1 gal kits leaves 0.6 gal over, so topping up with a smaller kit may be cheaper — compare kit sizes. Bar-top epoxy is a self-leveling coating resin — buy it all at once so every batch matches.
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Epoxy for an 8 ft penny bar top, by fill depth

Epoxy for an 8 ft penny bar top, by fill depth
Fill depthFill pour (buries the items), incl. wasteTabletop epoxy to buyKits to buy
1/8 in0.62 gal1.85 gal2 kits
3/16 in1.16 gal2.4 gal3 kits
1/4 in1.71 gal2.94 gal3 kits
5/16 in2.25 gal3.49 gal4 kits

What to know about a penny bar top

Count the coins before you count the resin. A penny is 3/4 in across, so the 1,920 sq in of this bar holds roughly 3,400 of them laid in straight rows, or closer to 3,900 if each row is nested into the gaps of the last. At about 2.5 g each for modern pennies, that is somewhere around 20 lb of coins — lay them out on the bare top before you mix anything.

Nested pennies cover about 91% of the top, and each is 0.0598 in thick, so they fill about 0.054 in of the 3/16 in depth. That is why the fill here is 1.16 gallons rather than the 1.63 gallons the same depth takes over bare wood. Lay them in straight rows instead and they cover about 79%, which adds a little resin back.

Pennies are heavy enough not to float, but they do slide when you push resin across them, and air trapped under a slightly cupped coin rises as a stream of bubbles. Brush a thin seal coat over the bare wood, press the coins into it, and let it firm up before the fill. That coat also glues down the ones you knock with the spreader.

The fill needs a wall to hold it. A 3/16 in fill plus a 1/8 in flood coat puts the surface about 5/16 in above the wood, so run tape well above that around the edge, or fit a permanent raised rail first. Pour the fill in two layers of just under 0.6 gallons each rather than one, within the recoat window, so bubbles from the coins have a short way to escape.

In kits, 2.4 gallons is three 1-gallon kits with about 0.6 gallons spare — enough for the seal coat that locks the coins down. A deeper fill for thicker items is the bottle cap bar top case; with no fill at all, the same bar is how much epoxy for an 8 ft bar top.

Different size? Use the full Bar Top Epoxy Calculator.

What you’ll need

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Frequently asked questions

How many 2-gallon kits for a penny bar top?

2 kits of 2 gallons for the 2.4 gallons an 8 ft × 20 in penny bar needs, with 1.6 gal to spare.

How much epoxy for a penny bar top with a 1/4 inch fill?

About 2.94 gallons on an 8 ft × 20 in bar — 1.71 gal for the fill and 1.12 gal for the flood coat, plus 14.9 fl oz of edge drips.

How much epoxy for a 6 ft penny bar top?

About 1.81 gallons for a 6 ft × 20 in bar with a 3/16 in fill and a 1/8 in flood coat, drips and 5% waste included.

How much epoxy for an 8 ft × 24 in penny bar top with a 15% allowance?

About 3.13 gallons in all; the 3/16 in fill over the pennies alone is 1.53 gallons with 15% added. With the calculator’s usual 5% it is about 1.4 gallons.

Other common sizes

Sources