miapoxy......desperately need help

General Discussion
1

hi guys,

i am new to swaylocks as of tonight and am seeking some help from some experienced veterans of the trade. i am up to board #4 (shaped and glassed). so far not to bad with an obvious progression from one board to the next but i cant seem to finish the boards off properly. i am using eps foam with with an epoxy system called miapoxy. i seem to have relatively no difficulties until i get to the hot coat stage…all 3 finished boards to this point have all fish-eyed in the hot coat (severe). when i try do sand down the hoat coat to eliminate the fish eyes i end up hittin the lamination level and getting discolorations on the board. also i have tried…and tried to get each board nicely polished (despite discolorations) and seem to be having no luck. is there something i am doing wrong? is there some sort of miracle product for sanding and polishing epoxy? any help would be much appreciated.

cheer,

dbrock

2

main causes of fisheye is dust contaminates and amine blushing or moisture in the air

blushing is a light film of oily substance that comes to the surface when curing

make sure you wipe down the board with meths or xylene first

alternatives are to lay down the filler coat before the lam is cured(cheater coat)

another is to sponge a thin thinned layer of resin on with a sponge or cloth onto the cured lam

let that go tacky and then fill coat

i use a cheater on the deck

flip and grind the bottom laps

the lightly sand the weave on the bottom

wipe down with xylene

brush down filler coat

its all in the preperation

3

oh great!! thanks for the advice Paul.

please excuse my ignorance though but what is meths and xylene?

are they easy to find (local hardware)

thanks agains,

cheers!

4

Hi dbrock,

Most people on this forum swear by Resin Research epoxy – and it is supposedly safer to work with than most. But your problem is most likely not related to the type of epoxy you use.

There are 3 obvious things to consider:

  1. Did you seal the board prior to laminating? The “fisheyes” you’re getting could be due to the epoxy soaking into the EPS. Sometimes this isn’t all that apparent until you get to the hotcoat – the epoxy can flow through dry patches in the laminating coat, sucking portions of the hot coat dry. I’ve seen this happen lots on wooden boards, and it always happens over a joint or knot in the wood, where the laminating coat got sucked dry by a void underneath.

  2. Your problem could be outgassing. In that case you’re looking at the marks left by bubbles as air escaped from the blank – always laminate/hotcoat on a falling temperature (late afternoon) to avoid this.

  3. Some epoxys require a cleaning or sanding step to remove residue between coats – sometimes it’s called “amine blush.” The epoxy user manual should cover this.

If you search the archives I’m sure you’ll get all the info you need. This type of problem has been covered extensively in the past.

Good luck!

5

meths is denatured alcyhol

safe to use and does the job

xylene is a more nasty solvent

good thinner but wear a mask

both from the harware or paint shop

cheers mate hope that helps

6

I agree whole heartedly with the above. I’ve never had too many problems with fisheyes, one or two in the past, but it seems more likerly to happen if the resin is too cold ot there is too much humidity.

If you catch them forming, hit the spot with a dab of D.N.A and applie moe resin over the top.

If the resin has cured then hand sand the spot and fill them up before sanding the whole board.

As fare as polishing epoxy goes you need to wait for a full cure so the resin is hare enough, this will take 2-3 weeks.

I read that RR polishes up ok due to the additive F but other epoxy resin does not polish up so well.

Maybe try a water based polyurethane clear coat to finish, see Herbs posts on the recent acrylic clear coat thread