I searched around, read decades old threads, found a golden Nugget. Chumboman posted a long explanation of a method.
Basically heating epoxy in hot water, putting down initial coat and scraping it off entirely, then putting on heated flow coat with a brush.
I’m using an epoxy from easycomposites, specific lam and coating epoxy.
It turned out really good. I’ll let you know how it buffs out.
That’s a great way to avoid fish eyes.
It is a great way. But you can do the same thing by just applying a thin cheater coat with a squeegee. No heat needed. But carry on. No knocks from me. Thanks for posting the heat method.
I used a heatgun to get the bubbles out on the other side- it seemed to work good. See what is looks like later.
This is coating epoxy from easycomposites. it Get amine blush that i have to wash off after cure.
I ordered some Resin Research Kwik Kick and additive F this weekend for my next build.
Beautiful work TW.
Very nice.
All the best
This has come up several times.
I plan to give it a go
Thanks for the compliments guys- lots of competence and sharing going on here, so it means a lot to both get positive feedback and share what i´m learning.
Back in the day, it was a lot harder to learn. Must have been 1973 or so my older brother taught me how to make a poly board. made boards sporadically over the next decades, but never put the effort and investment in tools and space to do it well as i am now.
TomW059… GREAT job! The shape, vacuumed deck, channels, lam, box installs, sand and gloss all look fantastic. That kind of result requires skill and attention to detail at every step. Looks like you nailed it.
So, I have questions…
Do you mix up a FULL fillcoat amount and squeegee that on before dumping it all on the floor?
Or do you mix up less than you would normally use for your fill coat?
The way I do it Chris is to mix up a very small amount, like a couple ounces in a little cup like you get salsa in at the burrito place. I squeegee it on as thin as I can get it, then when it starts to get tacky, I mix up a regular batch and fill coat (I’m trying to get away from calling it hot coat with epoxy, just fill coat, and I usually do a few thin fill coats). If there’s a little left of the initial batch I just mix that in with it. Nothing ends up on the floor. I’m very stingy with epoxy, I don’t even try to mix up a little extra when glassing (unless I’m doing a tint, of course), I just mix a little and lam until its used up then mix a little more and keep going. This is just what works for me, YMMV.
Gregtate/Huck- love that idea with squeegee! Because I work outdoors and in very contaminated areas with lots of stuff in the air, your process seems perfect for a guy like me who deals with small fisheyes regularly. Thanks for the tip I am actually going to try it on a “sealer” coat tonight.
Tom- Amazing work brother. I am totally stoked on your TOMO builds. So well done. I gotta step up my game! Ha ha. Keep posting. Love seeing the details and progress.
All the best,
Clint
So, Mr Tom
…people like to tell me how expensive epoxy is…you on the other hand want me to put a coat of epoxy on the board just so I can scrape it off… something seems to be wrong here…
ChrisP… keep doing what you are doing…like Huck I have my tricks, very little resin on the floor. And yes there’s a few things I’m not willing to post up for the general public. I’m tricky with random glossy photos too.
It’s all good…Ray
Huck is right. And Ray. Don’t waste it. It is a matter of honor for epoxy laminators to only have a drop or two hit the tray or the floor.
But heat is your friend with air bubbles and flow. I learned a hard lesson using a harbor freight heat gun. It sprayed droplets of some oil on the lam and I got miserable fish eyes.
All the best
i have been doing a similar thing and now get very consistant result in a less than perfect working space and in less than perfect temps.
I ust squeege a small amount of resin on to the board, just enuff to wet the surface, then hit that very quickly with a heat gun to pop any micro bubbles, let it tack off then go with a normaly brushed coat with resin that i have had stored nice and warm or zap it quick in the micro wave. After brushing out i hit it with the heat gun very quick and then once more a 30-40 mins in and you can soon see all the micro bubbles pop on the surface and if i get more than one or two spots that need a drip of resin im doing prity bad
I gave the squeegee method a go (I had never done it before).
I use Green Room Epoxy- Didnt pre heat it. Should have.
Shortboard- 6’x21"x2.75"
For the first go on the deck I mixed 3oz (way too much). Only ended up using about 1oz. then coated the deck. Worked perfectly!
Then I did the bottom- same process but I only mixed 1.5oz for squeegee application. Spread with the squeegee and then used my finger to smooth it out on the rail. I sped up the bottom (9oz) and brushed the sealer coat as usual. I had to go run an errand and came back about 40 mins later (mistake). Major micro bubbles evenly spread across the board when I got back! I have never had this happen across a whole board. You can kinds see them on the last photo, they were really hard to capture with an iPhone. I got out the heat gun and began heating it all up but at that point it only softened the bubble craters slightly. It didnt ruin it but will require more sanding. I am not sure why I got the mass of bubbles (me mixing the epoxy to fast I am assuming, or not warming epoxy up before hand?).
Bottom line, using the squeegee method worked minus the funky bubble situation on the bottom. I will refine and use it in the future. Thanks for the idea guys.
Looks pretty ace to me Clint regardless !!!
Spx
Hey CWRun, that last picture looks to me like lots of contaminants caused it. I once left the squeegeed resin on the board and got craters also, I scrape the resin of completely before coating. Working in less than ideal locations have made me look for tips to avoid fisheyes, craters, bubbles, etc… here are some tips that help me get pretty decent results for epoxy.
-Coat the board in falling temperature, afternoon, late at night if it doesn’t get too cold where you live, it’s usually pretty hot where I live so before hotcoat or gloss I just place the board under the sun for a couple of minutes then let it rest for about 10 minutes and start to work.
-Also read in here, cant remember who gave the idea to pass tape over the board before coats, works great to remove any dust that may have settled
-If you are still getting craters or fisheye, clean the board with denatured alcohol, this is usually last resort, make sure the DNA is a good brand, KleenStrip works great
-Some sandpaper brands have a anticlogging chemical which is also notorious for causing fisheye, verify what are you using isn’t anticlogging
-I always use the squeegee method described in another post
-Slightly heat the resin, I prefer to do it in a water bath than in a microwave (I use a really slow setting epoxy, like 8 hrs, so heating isn’t a problem, make sure that the resin you are using doesn’t set too fast that heating it may cause problems)
-After coating wait a couples of minutes until the bubbles appear than hit it with a propane torch (at a good distance, don’t bring the flame close to the board)
I know this seems like a lot more steps, but if you are glossing boards in a non-dedicated glassing room you have to take extra precautions, and I rather do extra steps to ensure a good gloss than to have to sand the board flat. Remember take my advice with a grain of salt, I am an amateur and this are the steps that help me achieve what I am after. Good luck!
