Epoxy Pin Lines

General Discussion
1

Is anyone doing pin lines out of epoxy?

I just hot coated a tinted RR epoxy on EPS and need to line the cut lap. It seams that everything in the archives is on painting – either acrylic or tempera – before the gloss coat or on using a poly pin line on top of the epoxy hotcoat, but has anyone done an epoxy pin line? Is it too runny with the slow set-up?

Thanks for the help,

Ira

2

You can do epoxy pin lines the same way you’d do poly. Don’t thin the resin with anything, and don’t put it in the microwave. Just sand, tape, mix, paint… I usually do it after a cheater coat has been applied and sanded, then gloss/hotcoat over top. You’ll still have that bump, but no edges on the pinline to deal with.

3

Thank you for the help! Would you mind elaborating on your cheater coat? I’ve read of a spray sealer being applied after the tape but before the line media.?

4

I just did a pin line in epoxy. Just like NJ said. Easy. You’ll want to put an epoxy clear coat on top to smooth out the pin line ridge. I sprayed with acrylic instead and wasn’t happy with the outcome. The epoxy ridge was too sharp with just a thin coat.

5

I don’t use spray sealers, but others do. I just paint a normal hotcoat over the lam, then sand it down to perfection, not worrying if I hit the weave in some spots. The goal with the cheater coat is fill the weave and give you something to sand through to take out all the little imperfections. Some guys do thin cheater coats and thick hotcoats. I do the opposite… thick cheater coat, then sand like hell with 80 or 100 to make it perfect, then a thin hot/gloss coat to make it nicey nice. That way you can go right to the finer grits and polish without sequencing the paper for the final sanding.

After you cheater coat, tape and paint your pin lines. When cured, lightly sand the edges to soften them, sort of rolling them down. Then do your final hot/gloss coat right over the whole thing.

6

Thank you for the reply. Thanks also for the previous posts on painting pin lines and cloth inlay on EPS in the archives. I learned a lot from those as well. It’s good to know that the acrylic finish doesn’t work well on the pins… I haven’t done an acrylic finish yet, but it is on my list.

Cheers,

Ira

7

Thank you for elaborating, NJ_surfer. That is very helpful!

Cheers,

Ira