I’ve been lurking in the forum for quite a while now and digging the archives for some tips about fixing fish eyes on an epoxy board. Aside from sanding and redoing the sand coat all over again, all I can find are ways to prevent having fisheyes. In my case, I don’t think it’s necessary to sand the whole board and redo the sand coat as the fish eyes, though many, appear distant from each other and are only present in some parts of the rail and deck. I’m thinking of roughing the holes then filling them with epoxy. Will this work? I would appreciate any advice.
If the epoxy is already cured, I just wipe the spots clean with denatured alcohol and the gently brush on a little more epoxy. Then sand out the high spots when I sand out the rest of the board.
If your are using resin research resin make sure you use the additive f and also don’t sand the surface smoother than 80 grit if you plan additional coats of epoxy.
Resin Research seems a bit touchy when it comes to fish eyes in my experience.
A great trick I learned on this forum: usually a fish eye starts to form almost immediately after you brush on the resin. If you see one forming, take a clean piece of paper towel and wipe the resin off that spot -usually you’ll also wipe off whatever the contaminate is so when you brush resin back over that spot it will lay down real nice.
Trent
Thanks trent,
Yeah the epoxy is already cured. I’ll follow your advice using denatured alcohol. Great to know that there’s another option aside from sanding the whole board all over again.
Regards,
tumorwarrior
If your getting fisheyes you probably haven’t brushed the hot coast enough. Spread he resin lengthwise with the brush and get the entire board wet. Then cross brush. Then a final lengthwise pass and you should be good. To really flatten your hot coat this should be done anyway. Sometimes another lengthwise is nessasary. The reason for fisheyes is usually either blush on the surface or if you used Additive F in the laminate then the solids are on the surface. A dirty brush is also many times to blame. But either will disolve if gone over enough times but the first pass left alone will be probably look like the moon.
Thanks for the tip gregloehr.
Thanks for that information Trent. I’m getting a lot of fish eye because [i think]the resin in the timber. [Cedar] But I never heard of denatured alcohol. But after a short search I discover it’s called metholated spirits here in OZ. So yeah I can get that at the supermarket. And I also learned you can thin down epoxy with it. I never would have thunked it. I always had used Acetone!
And that paper towel trick sounds like a winner. So obvious… Remove the contamination … Move on.
This place is a treasure trove!
Cheers.
~Q~