Im a cheap bastard so I thin a last epoxy coat with denatured, hand sand, and then rattle coat a clear coat, polish that and rattle can clear coat it again.
So Im not polishing resin but paint…
Hey Navor,
Rey here from Entropy. A good Gloss & Polish is achievable with Entropy’s CLR Epoxy with CLF Hardener (Fast Speed). E-Tech Surfboards/ Greenhouse Glassing here in Los Angeles has been doing regular production Gloss Jobs with this resin for a couple years now. It will have to be applied as a secondary ‘hot coat’, after a primary hot coat is applied and sanded back flat. The general procedure as outlined previously in this thread should suffice. Here is a basic tutorial for laminating with Super Sap Resins, including hot coating.
http://www.entropyresins.com/wooden-surfboard-lamination-grain-surfboards
Hardness is plenty with Super Sap, enough to get a good gloss. But I also don’t want to mislead you, in that although our resin is partially bio-based, it’s still a chemical at the end of the day and should still be treated with proper safety. Our main benefit to the environment is in the resin’s overall carbon footprint, as calculated by a Life Cycle Asessment (ISO 14040:2006). Since the resin’s feedstock comes from industrial waste streams of plant oils, there is less energy and resources required during manufacturing.
Here’s a pic of what a Super Sap CLR/CLF (Fast) Gloss job looks like. Hope this helps.
-Rey
Entropy Resins
Hey Guys has any one had success with polishing up any of the Entropy Resin Systems products?
wouter nailed it
that’s the way to go if you don’t want to do poly over epoxy
I’m getting pretty good polish results with SurfSource epoxy. I take it up to 1200 grit then go to the machine with #7 compound then Collonite Fleetwax.
Right on man - looks like a great finish! I’ve applied a similar
methodology to various other epoxy systems with good results (at full
cure dry sanding to 400 grit, then working at 40 - 100 grit intervals to
2000 grit and step polishing using 3 separated compounds) , but am
becoming more and more disillusioned with petro-chemical derived
products, hence why i’m wanting to see if the Entropy Resins range
facilitates satisfactory results. Not all resins being the same, my
concern is that with a bio-resin that the surface hardness will not be
the comparable to that of the more toxic variety.
So its been a bit since this post went out - am hoping that the experiments on this end will be helpful to folk out there with similar questions.
We’ve tried out several different epoxy systems as well as several different abrasive brands to get the desired result (a mirror smooth finish with no haloing using popular epoxy resin systems).
One successful methodology used in order to get the great results ,using pretty much any of the popular surfboard epoxy resin systems is as follows:
**
- Flat the initial hotcoat back making sure to work carefully and not burn into the cloth (the texture will print through to the subsequent coat over time and will end up ruining the final product.**
- Re-coated using a 2.5 - 5% thinned coat of epoxy using epoxy thinners, denatured alcohol or Resin Research Additive depending on the epoxy system being used but only if the initial viscosity is too high - this may slow the curing process but it will allow the resin to flow slightly. Be aware of the correct thinning agent for your system as incorrect additives may cause the epoxy not to cure or and rather become brittle and discolored.**
- Start on the finishing coat using nothing heavier than 320 paper and a RO sander (hand sanding tends to create deep scoring in the finish that’s extremely hard to get out).**
- From 320 you can move all the way to 400 grit (I suggest using a foil based disc for a better, longer lasting cut)**
- Once satisfied with the finish derived from using the hard discs, move to Velcro backed foam sanding pad (we used the Wurth's Velvet solid surface finishing products from this point on - expensive at $3.5 a pad, but totally worth the money and they last forever!) the foam backing helps to distribute the heat caused by friction and holds water helping to lubricate the cut. Use a 20% liquid soap to warm water solution from this point onward. **
- Step sanding at 100 grit intervals per stage up to 1000 grit - from here move up in either 500 or 1000 grit intervals up to 4000 grit.**
- You've made it this far - the surface will have a slight sheen but is still more of a dull rubbed finish than a high gloss shine. Switch over to variable speed polisher and rubbing compound. Using a foam pad kit (3M Perfect It Foam Polishing Pad is a good illustration) start with a compound finer than 4000 grit particle - 3M Imperial Finishing Compound is a great starting point and refine using what, in the automotive industry is referred to as, a "Glaze" which essentially is a very fine abrasive compound - 3M Finesse It II is a good product.**
**
Thats right...Always use quality 3M products.
i am building surfboards in south korea which isn’t so commo[img_assist|nid=1076084|title=epoxy gloss coat|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]n here. i get these holes after glosscoat. and i don’t know if ishould fill the hole and sand. If I sand it, I will lose the gloss that epoxy naturally gives.
Truepark,
The dreaded fish eye caused by surface contamination.
Few leave the natural gloss of epoxy unsanded, because, it is not flat.
Reflections reveal imperfections, and your fiberglass appears to not be fully saturated.
I’d probably scratch inside the fish eye with a needle and put another drop of resin in it and hope it levels out, but I’m over perfect finishes, and the effort required to achieve them with epoxy. If there are dozens of these all over the board, I’d sand and rehotcoat it
Prevention goes a long way
Do a search for epoxy hot coat, lots to read, lots of good advice.
On one Cedar HWS I made a decade ago, I polished it to 2000 grit and then used a meguires car polish/wax on it which made a huge difference over just the 2000 grit. It came out beautiful, then a week later it started to get all cloudy/ milky in the reflection. The epoxy reacted with some chemical in the car polish. This was with System3 SB-112 resin.
I resanded back to near cloth, re hotcoated, then wet sanded upto 2000 grit, then waited two + weeks before adding polishing compound and no cloudyness formed. Later builds I took no chances with chemicals reacting with the not 100% cured epoxy. The system3 resins seemed more impervious to ‘fish eyeing’ Than the Apex epoxy I am currently using, but cost twice as much.
I’ve acheived fairly glossy final finishes by smearing very small volumes of epoxy on highly sanded finishes with a sponge. Like 7.5ML over a 9’6" wetsanded to 1500 grit. It does not dry as glossy as a thicker brushed epoxy hotcoat. Epoxy apparently does not need as much “mechanical” tooth to bond as I’ve had no issues with flakyness on any board treated to such. I’ve only tried this with System3 resins. I still use a washed dried sponge to hotcoat over fixed sanded (220) dings, and pull the tape after the epoxy gets gummy. If the edges lay down I call it done. If they are still sharp I scrape them with a razor and call it done. I can’t be bothered to make dings fully disappear anymore. I care only about it being watertight, and not sharp.
I must take greater care to prevent fisheyeing of dings with Apex epoxy when HC’ing dings. Any dust or surface contamination makes for a complete redo
As much as I loathe the China boards,
they have came up with a good way to polish epoxy boards.
Spray lacquer.
Then polish out.
Looks better than polished Epoxy. I think.
No seams.
Probably don’t sand.
Just straight to finish compound.
Hmmmm. I’m all ears. Spray Lacquer you say. From a rattle can? This sounds GOOD. Could you kindly elaberate?
From what I can gather, they probably spray with a gun.
Most likely out in the open, next to a pre-school. HAHA! (not really funny).
That would be the only way to apply it evenly.
Rattle cans never look even.
I tried a wiped on acrylic finish.
Proceeded to polish it with Meguiars #5 polish.
Not quite as shiny as a polished resin, but
Looked really good.
I would try the same with the Lacquer finish.
I know that polished epoxy looks very dull and hazy.
Good luck, let me know how it goes.