Does anyone have any advice on tinting epoxy? There are a few older threads, but nothing too current. Also, there aren’t a whole lot of decent images of what it looks like if you do go for it.
Any insight would be great.
You are completely right, an epoxy board will outlast a polyester board every time. So I suppose over the life cycle of the board it is cheaper as it will withstand the elements much better. I was only speaking on the production cost by itself. The only isue I have had with the epoxy boards is that they yellow so damn quickly the board tends to look like $%@! after about six months if you are taking it out a few times a week.
I did my first board with blue tinted epoxy. I pretinted the resin for the entire project so it would come out uniform. I can send you some picture if you like. I used RR epoxy and I got the pigment from fiberglass supply. So the entire board is blue. I think the arguement against is that sandthroughs may show up more. I did both the lamination and the fill coat with the blue epoxy.
Any images you have would be great. Is it harder to get uniformity out of darker tints?
I’ll take some picture later today and post. You’ll see my blue is pretty dark. I don’t think it is uneven at all. I don’t have that much experience to say if lighter colors are easier.
I’m going for this kind of look …
Hi -
If you're glassing over fine sanded polyurethane foam (US Blanks, etc) it is just as easy to get even color with epoxy as with polyester resin.
If glassing EPS the voids between the beads can trap resin and cause uneven color. Properly sealed and fine sanded EPS works fine.
Some colors are more tricky than others to get even with either type of foam.
Ive have been using guitar tints from guitar luthier supplies, never had a problem and the colours come out really vibrant.
Only use them in epoxy, i tried on on poly res and a blue tint went pink
Well as promised here is my blue tinted board. Looking at it again, I guess it is not so uniform. You can see its darker around the fin box patch and around the rails where the lams overlap. It is a little splotchy.
You can't see too much detail on the front due to the wax.
[img_assist|nid=1052237|title=KK resin swirl retro fish|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=484|height=641]
Not a problem. Mix it well, and laminate as usual. Deck is epoxy swirl, bottom is epoxy tint. Sorry, no pic of the bottom.[img_assist|nid=1052238|title=KK resin swirl retro fish|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=419|height=555]
Thanks guys. It seems like the marble/swirl approach works out well b/c it masks some of the imperfections. Although, the unevenness from the EPS doesn’t bother me at all. All these boards look GOOD.
Tints and swirls are apples and oranges. From what I’ve read, getting even color, like the example you gave, is not possible…though I have not bothered to try.
Does anyone have photographs of tints that came out really nice and even like polyester?
Here is a Clark blank that had a tinted epoxy deck inlay that came out pretty even. Sorry I don't have better pics of it... you can see where the deck patch ends below the label.
Other than the steps to getting the color even, the trickiest thing I have found with epoxy tints is always doing any clear layers after.
On darker colors you tend to see some of the silvery threads of the cloth, and you have to always take steps to avoid frothing(re: overworking) the resin, which will give give you milkyness, especially on the laps. means using more resin.
It can be done reasonably well, but care must be taken. … I learned the hard way that red cannot be done. Got a nice fire engine red bottom lam, and even though I went very slowly and carefully lamming the top by doing half the board at a time with a brush being careful on the laps. It looked terrible. You could see all of the lap on the bottom and all of the fin box patches as well as the patch over the logo on the bottom. Frustrating.
I’ve gotten a couple of green and blue boards that looked pretty good, but nowhere near the pic you posted above. I’m no pro laminator, but I have used all the tips given out here, and it seems you can’t get by some of the effects of the epoxy.
I cheat. I seal EPS blanks with a layer of 1.5oz cloth in clear or white tint, then do my color layer in 1.5oz and cap it with a 3rd lam in clear. The pinlines and logo go on under the 3rd layer. I’ve only done it a couple times this way but it did come out clean both times.
One thing about doing the color layer in the middle and with 1.5oz cloth is that it makes it a lot easier to get that nice even coverage without splotches or pooling or showing the imperfections of the blank. The other thing is that the weave is so small that it practically disappears, which I think kind of detracts from the look.
I’ve been doing epoxy tints to cover up the cork rails on my hollow wood boards. My experience is that dark colors are a pain, any mistakes in glassing show up like a beacon, and my perfectionist mentality forces me to try to fix them. The fiberglass supply “black” and “white” are opaque, while “blue” is not, and you need a ton of pigment to get it pretty dark (and in my case, cover up the cork). Here are a couple examples where it worked out ok, I’ve got another board that will be done in the next week or two–hopefully with yellow rails and black pinline:
Is that a poly gloss, or did you buff the epoxy?