Been doing epoxy(5 different brands with multiple reformulations of those brands) for over 25 years and have never seen stuff like that has been posted in the past few weeks. Quit globbing your final coat on, The only way you are getting huge pukas like that is because it is too thick of a final coat of epoxy. The final coat on epoxy glassed boards should be warmed to make the viscosity like water.
1st pic lamnination
2nd pic filler coat
3rd pic final coat sanded to 1000 grit foam pad
I always wash the board after the filler coat is sanded to perfection with soap and water(water is a solvent). Don’t be afraid to touch the board with clean hands to assess for contaminants. You will know when it is clean. Any small fish eyes are caused by a spec of dust or other contaminant that changes the surface tension in that spot for it to occur. Just take your time and and fill any fish eyes in with epoxy and additive F prior to final sanding.
bb30, Gotta say I'm with you here. I put my hot coats on with a squeegee, then tip out. No building up the crap on the board. The end result is suppored to be light...right? And the only good cleaner is no cleaner. Maybe just straight water...maybe. Best surface is a fresh sanded surface. Sanding dust is like fine powder..it turns clear and mixes in. You will never see it.
were you doing anything else in your garage, like spraying WD40 on a rusty pair of sizzors, or maybe spraying something on the wifes car, etc. Any airborne crap will do that to a board. Did you have the board sanded then wait a few days before hot coating. Was you kid running around the garage spraying bug dope? Tons of stuff in the garage with oil, silicone, wax, etc etc. also check your sand paper..do you keep it in a box, or is it just laying out where all the stuff mentioned above can land on it. Also the RR epoxy, how old was it? was it a full jug, or was there a bunch of space in it where it could get a sweatty and make moisture?
My bet is the DNA. DNA sucks and it should only be used to clean tools. Also what are you doing wiping down a lam coat? was it that f'd up that you needed to wipe it down? What could you be wiping down that would need a DNA bath? Next time just grind the laps (baste with fresh epoxy if needed, then grind again....then just hotcoat the mo fo. Problem solved.
I have never been burned in a botched glass job by washing off my boards with soap and water prior to the final epoxy coat. A touch of a clean hand to my board tells me everything. Small bugers still there or baby bottom smooth?? None of this crap is intuitive, I learned the hard way like everyone else. But even learning the hard way I have never seen that before.
What I have gained from washing a board with soap and water is an extra quality control step though. I do 99.9999999999% fully skinned veneered boards and have found tiny sand throughs on the rails/wings/bumps, vent plug ect. Also with a water bath you see how the final product will look when it pops out of the sanding dust. More than once I have found a colorful something under the glass job that sticks out like a sore thumb and has to be resolved before the final coat.
I still think the epoxy resin doesn’t liked to be called a “hot coat” and gets offended and reacts that way!!!
Also, when S-face calls his problem at the"hot coat" which in the epoxy world is the “filler coat” with epoxy resin, you only use enough to fill the weave. The pics looks like a filling of the weave and 1/8" thickness of resin too. A 6’4" short board would need about 6-8 ounces of epoxy to fill the weave on one side. Then the same amount for the final coat.
To avould any confusion. I put the filler coat on when the lamination is just past sticky. The board hasn’t moved from the rack since the initial lamination occured.
Hey buddy did you accidently use a can of oil instead of a can of AddF. Im being serious here. I dont think anything like dirty surface, dust or contaminated Cleaning agents could disperse your resin in to that big of a crater. Only thing that could separate the Hot coat from your Lam like that would be wax, oil or water. Also Water would make the Epoxy go milky, yours seem to be clear.
Maybe some ones stealing your AddF and replacing it with motor oil.
I’m curious if the original poster used an air compressor to blow off the board before the hot-coat? I’ve seen some nasty stuff come out of air compressors over the years. Like stated earlier the only way I see the resin cratering like that is if wax or oil were involved. Compressor oil?
Also if you used silicone spray anywhere near the board you could get that effect. The stuff goes airborn and will settle all over the room. I made that mistake once years ago when I was making custom trolling rods.
Did you use car wash soap to wash the board? Some brands contain wax.
My prep guy once used that on a car before it went in the booth. The paint job looked like your board. It realy looks like a surface contamination issue. The DNA probably did a good job of evenly dispersing the contaminate all over the board.
Another possibility could be the rag used to wipe the board down. What was the rag used for previously? What was the rag made from???? The solvent could have broken down the rag's fabric and left a residue if it was not a natural fiber or it could have released substances left on the rag from its previous life. Silicon is perhaps the biggest enemy of epoxy and even the slightest traces of silicone would make epoxy do what is in the pictures. If your rag had ever had silicone sprayed on it that could be the sourse even if the rag had been run thru the washing machine.
