Fill Coating Epoxy Without The Brush

I really beginning to wonder if fill coating epoxy with a brush is a good way to go. In fact I think it’s pretty crap. Takes a ton of epoxy to do the job and lays down really thick. A Bondo spreader does a much better job of using less resin and filling in the weaves but can leave it a bit thin in places.

Anyone got any better ideas? By the way, if you feel like suggesting a West System squeegee, keep a close eye out for a large bomb headed in your direction.

My favorite squeegies are 99 cent store rubber baking spatulas, just the right stiffness/flex for me and inexpensive, the squeegies always forget to get cleaned! For fill coats I find a brush of any type allows too much resin bulk up, I like thin resin layers.

I’m not familiar with WEST squeegee. Resin-X suggests a plastic squeegee with uniform notches for their urethane resin… kind of like what is used to spread floor adhesive at a consistent thickness.

um yeah its a be arch in cold weather bro

heat the room

heat the board

heat the resin

Bert B said hed get them pretty toasty

but i imagine he would have had the leggy plug drilled for gasing

but yeah i hear you

its the same as poly gloss

gotta be nice and warm

ibelieve you might be on to something

fill the weave with the squgee as a cheater

let cure and do a poly sanding coat

perhaps

still got the problem of the thick coat tho

but at least it doesnt takehours to sand clean

epoxy fully sux nobs on that respect

hope this helps

your not the only one that thinks sanding epoxy sucks nobs

there is deffinately some hand sanding with a big block invloved for a perfectly flat bottom

I use a foam brush. It works well.

With the epoxies being thicker than poly’s and more costly, I don’t pour resin on the board, but paint it on til the brush drags and apply another patch. once I have it completely covered, I cross brush in both directions and then brush lengthwise.

I did this the first time when I had called it a bit too close to get easy coverage, I thought I had gone and done it this time, but the sanding went very easy to get to no shiny spots, Now it is my go to method of epoxy hot coating.

I do a really thorough pre-sand feather of patches and laps before hot coating, even using some used 100-220 to scuff the flats and NEVER wash with alcohol or anyother cleaner

jim

you mention presanding before hotcoat…

when i do that, all the voids between the fibres fill up with dust, leaving white dots. looks bad.

how do you avoid/resolve that?

Wouter

I just got finished with a leash loop and was meticulously cleaning out

the nooks…

if it’s just epoxy dust, the next coat of resin will wet those pinholes out

and dry clear.

think of it as dust filler.

Wouter,

Scrub with water and a stiff bristle brush.

Of course make sure both sides are laminated first, so you know it’s water tight.

You should always wash cured epoxy with water before and sanding, to remove blush (it’s water soluble)

This makes the sandpaper cut soooo much better, less clogging.

I don’t believe/trust any resin that claims not to blush, theres always something. Wash to be safe

Wouter, there ain’t supposed to be any holes between the weave, and if you do wind up with some and there is dust in them, use the tip of the brush to pump resin into the holes, if that doesn’t fill them then you are in a lot more serious trouble.

Those damn vacced on fibres were dry as!

i will look for a way to vac without all the dryness.

Cheers for the replies!! i am going to wash the board that i am going to polish in a bit now…

Wouter

Has anyone ever sprayed an epoxy filler like a sprayed on gelcoat?

Thanks to Great White North for a tip: use a squeegee to apply a thin coat and get it quickly spread around, mostly evenly. Then come back with a brush to cross stroke it. I’ve tried it and it works well here in sunny Florida.

Also, he uses a casting resin called XP74 to apply a super thin coat for gloss. About 3 oz for a 7 foot board. It has a ton of flow additives and doesn’t fish eye. It won’t sand well, but if you are super careful you don’t need to. ( I add Add F) I wouldn’t use it for laminating, though. Only use RR.

are we talking about the sand coat? (applied thick with brush)

or

a preliminary coat just to fill in the little weave squares? (applied with sqeegie) usualy done for basting laps

why do this? fill coat on the lam when your gonna do a sand coat

makes no sense

and dam it deanbo, if your pullin the trigger on your own web buisness ,you should already have your process down

and not be second guessing your proceedures

I don’t have a web business but it is for fill coating the entire board, not just filling in the lap which I do when I fill coat (hot coat) the deck.

Quote:

I don’t have a web business but it is for fill coating the entire board, not just filling in the lap which I do when I fill coat (hot coat) the deck.

Ahhh! I see

what about the abyss.com

is that not a web buisness?

I thought you meant designing web pages for a living. Yeah, I suppose it is. Brushing epoxy is still shite though.

dean get the room the board and the resin nice and hot

it will brush out like poly

but its okay to polyester fill coats as well

Any suggestions of where to buy a decent heater without paying a couple of grand? I only want to heat a small room up to 25 celsius. Built in thermostat would be nice as well.