Hi, thanks for taking the time to read, this is my first post after lurking for a few years while soaking up as much info as possible. So, I remember reading a while back about the maximum percentage of pigment one can add to an epoxy batch before it has trouble kicking, but I’m having trouble finding it in the archives. What I’m after is a dark red color that’s opaque enough to hide the pits and scratches on the #1 eps I’m using, but after the %10 red pigment/resin test I just did, I’m finding that it’s still pretty translucent. I’ve done a few boards in the past with opaque color, but I think it has more to do with the white I mixed in? There’s a been a recent thread (thank to the person that enlightened me, I wish I could remember your moniker so I could give proper credit) suggesting that certain pigments are more soluble in resin that others, and that maybe the white is less soluble, so therefore the opacity? So, I’m thinking that if I use some black (suggested as less soluble) with the red, I might achieve better results, but thought I should check with the experts before performing countless experiments. Also thinking that if I can max out whatever % of pigment to resin that it might help. Thanks!
If you mix black with red, you get a darker red or even a maroon. I’ve always had trouble with red providing good coverage. Maybe try a spray coat of white acrylic before glassing to hide those parts you want to conceal?
Also, “opaque tint” is an oxymoron. A tint is exactly what the word implies. It’s a translucent color application that allows what’s underneath to remain visible. An opaque glass job is the opposite of a tint, and vice versa.
As mntioned in another recent thread,,,
do a fill coat before laming with color on EPS
I’m no expert, but if you’re trying to go opaque to hide something, hide the something first… a good primer/sealer is a good start. You can also paint the foam first with good ol’ high quality latex house paint, with some added acrylic (some use Futures, I use straight up acrylic), to cover what you need to cover. Then mix your pigments (not tints) until you get as close as you can to the color of the paint, and lam with that. Usually I add white to make colors opaque, but red will turn pink. Black added to read makes a nice blood red color.
You can use between 8-12% colorant to epoxy by volume. After that the epoxy be more flexible when hardens........Not necessarly a bad thing sometimes.
Make sure you are using an actual 12% by volume........that's a lot of colorant. i.e. 10 oz of epoxy to 1 oz of pigment! Or for the alcoholics in the crowd......1 beer to 1.2 shots of tequila.
Thank you for phrasing that in a way that an Irishman like me can understand.
Your welcome....from one drunk to another!
Try spraying your sealed/fine sanded blank with red acrylic before laminating.
Thanks for all the input! I’m embarrassed to say that I noticed that I said “opaque tints” as well, meant opaque colors, of course. I like the latex paint idea, I’ll put that in the bank for later. What I was hoping for was a way to glass the board without sealing or fine sanding to save a step but still get an even color.
I’ve made my last two blanks from 1lb Home Depot eps, still haven’t found a local source for 2lb. Since the foam beads are so big, even after spackling and fine sanding the last board, my green tint still showed every little scratch and divot, should have done a sealer coat, which I will do next time I want to try another tint. I ended up mixing green tint with white pigment on the next layer of 6oz and got a nice, light green opaque color, and was hoping to do the same on this board but with a dark red.
So, I finally found the time to do my first layer of deck glass this morning. I have red, yellow, and blue tints that I bought at home depot (the kind they use to tint their paint) that has worked great on 3 previous 2lb eps boards, and I have some white and black pigment from Foam EZ. So I mixed up 750g of epoxy with 10g of black pigment and 40g of red tint, and ended up with, well, black. Apparently pigment goes a lot further than tint, but I probably should have guessed that first, but it did hide all of the pits and scratches.
I’m planning on doing another layer, maybe two, of 6oz on top of this, so I think I can still salvage it, but I’ll do some test batches first. Definitely going to order some red pigment first.
Thanks again for all the help, not just on this question, but over the past few years. I think I’ve read about a thousand pages of info from all of you that replied, an many others.
So resinhead, if I did your math right, when I take my girlfriend out for dinner, I should have five shots of tequila and six beers? Can’t order 1.2 shots, after all…
Apparently didn’t do your math right after all, 6 shot and 5 beers!
I’d lose count after the first three rounds anyway…
WAY too much black, brother.
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So resinhead, if I did your math right, when I take my girlfriend out for dinner, I should have five shots of tequila and six beers? Can't order 1.2 shots, after all...
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No.... she should have 5 shots, and 6 beers.........you need to stay awake for the after party.
Resinhead,
You stated that at 12% it would be 1oz of pigment to 10 oz of epoxy. That would be 10%. If my math is correct, 12% of 10 oz is 1.2 oz of pigment, and 12 % of a 12 oz beer is 1.44 shots. You might as well just round it off to 1.5 shots, and if you wanted to make it easy, just make it 2 shots per beer.
Just to be clear, are we talking 8-12% colorant to resin, or to total epoxy? Also, I like surfifty's math, I can keep track of 2 shots to one beer into the wee hours.
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.... she should have 5 shots, and 6 beers.........you need to stay awake for the after party.
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Is that the kind of after party where you play a game of "get her through the door of the appartment without planting her face on a doorframe"? Funzzies! :)