I’e poked around in the archives recently, and have had a hard time finding a direct answer to my question. I want to do a foam stain an eps board I am working on. I am using 2# eps and RR epoxy. I am curious if I could mix an off the shelf (from like Blick Art) arcrylic paint with the epoxy? My thought would be this would help seal the blank as well as ensure the paint wont bleed if I chose to do a freelap for my lam.
If this is within the realm of possibility, how much acrylic would I add to the epoxy? I am looking for an opaque stain.
Thanks Chris. I’ve never done color, so this is all speculation.
My thought was if I just painted the blank, that when I did my lam, assuming I do a free lap, that the epoxy would reconstitute the acrylic causing it to bleed. I am very open to an oreder of operations, if anyone was willing to offer one up. See attached for what I have in mind, tentatively.
this topic has been gone over lot’s so there is probably a lot off good info if you search but, from memory:
you need to seal the blank and get a nice smooth surface before you paint. Either use lightweight spackle or epoxy/microballoon bog.
Mix your acrylic paint with pure acrylic (futures floor polish) and distilled water. 1:1:1 ratio iirc??? I think HerbSpitzer and or Atomized posted this up???
I’ve done acryllic on EPS twice with no issues. Dilute as mentioned above. I just used water but atomizied probably knows better than me. Don’t pour tons of it on there. Stain the foam and that’s it. A thick layer would probably cause issues and bleeding. Mine didn’t bleed at all, and I did fat horizontal stripes so if it did bleed you’d notice on the edges of them. No bonding issues, both boards are well used and completely fine. I’d imagine drying is critical. I let mine dry for a day or two cause I wasn’t rushing things.
I would lean toward painting the blank rather than tinting the epoxy… My main reason here is that I have talked myself into tinting / opaquing epoxy before and every time it doesn’t end up as imagined. I surf those boards, of course, but it always makes me remind myself that I should only do clear lams/fill coats… Just sayin’.
Do not add paint to your epoxy, don’t do a test etc. etc…paint is not supposed to go into epoxy, or resin, or beer, or be used as a meat seasoning…Paint is paint…Your just going to $%^ it up.
Add pigment or tint to epoxy and resins…that the way you do it…now if you want to paint a board…the paint it and put clear epoxy or resin over it.
As for EPS , epoxy and paint…well. The darker the paint the crappier it will look. Yellows, light blues etc will be fine. Dark colors will have blush and faded rails. Also if you seal, paint then glass the board…there could be issues. A lot of time if the board takes on water, then there is a bonding issue between the paint and spackle stuff…aka delamination. All will be good until you take on a bit o water.
if you really want your board to look like your picture, then do the color work after the board is all finished. get a spray can of paint and paint it, then put a automotive clear coat over it. If it good enough for a MBZ, or BMW it’s good enough for a surfamabord.
I’ve done color in epoxy (and over EPS) with pigments and tints. I seal the board with a single layer lamination, first; then hit it with a separate color lam so as to obscure the EPS beads without having to go opaque.
