I would love to have an epoxy-based, super-thin sealer that I could brush or rub on after sanding my hot coat. Currently use Behr acrylic sealer, but it doesn’t fill minor-burn-throughs or any minor imperfections, it just seals the surface. Is there anything out there that would do what I’m seeking? Perhaps thinning RR epoxy with Xylene? If so, how much (% by volume) Xylene. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Or Greg if you want to formulate something like this, I’ll be a great customer :).
Some have used automotive 2-part poliurethane clear coat.
Mako,
Any idea which 2-part clear coats? U-Pol makes a bunch of different kinds (2K, 2K VOC Compliant 1K), and even some 1-part clear coats. Will these fill minor burn-throughs? I’m at the stage where I can get pretty clean sanded hot coats (Epoxy) but there are always a few small burn-throughs here-and-there. Not enough to justify the added weight of a second hot coat. Spot-coating those areas just creates new ones when you sand the spots. But it would be nice to just lay on a super thin coat of something that fills those burnthroughs and leaves a nice smooth finish that can be buffed with scotch brite or compound.
I have a friend that has been using thinned out epoxy as a wood sealer for years. He thins with isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol. Might want try on a test panel first. He has pieces of mahogany from 15 years ago that have held up to the weather since. For wood, he mixes it to a consistancy of milk, not quite watery. Might be worth a try as long as there is NO exposed weave.
I want something that WILL fill in the exposed weave (not a lot of it, mind you, but just a few small patches), basically something halfway between the Behr acrylic sealer and another hot-coat of Epoxy.
I heard something like no more than 10% Xylene to thin out epoxy. I recently did a final coat of epoxy with about 5% Xylene. I wasn’t trying to fill anything, but I wanted a good sealer coat. The board was smooth, but I exposed the glass on the laps and wanted to make sure they were covered. Kind of what you described. The places where I hit the glass are covered, but you can see where they are.
In the past I’ve sprayed a rattle can clear coat, but that stuff is so thin it’s not worth doing if you touch the glass. It doesn’t fill the weave well. The thinned epoxy worked well to add a nice shell. Not sure how much thinner the end result is.
interested in what people suggest here as im looking for a good finish coat too, used Seal Skin which is i think known as ‘secret sauce’ by most with some ok results but at this stage probably a double filler coat of epoxy is the go for a clean finish with the first sanded well and then the second applied very thin to cover any imperfections…
picked up a quart of this for my wood projects
or CA glue
Interesting. Have you tried these on boards yet? I wonder if they have any UV stability.
I like thin resin. Greg Loehr says to add 5% xylene to CE2000, over 5% not recommended. So I asked Greg Loehr if I could add more xylene for glossing? He said try 10%. Maybe the 10% thinned resin will clean up the burn thrus without visual blending issues. I’ve used massivly diluted CE2000 on ding repairs, works good, but watch out for melting eps foam with the xylene.
Epoxy viscosity varies. The epoxy rated for bagging appear thinner. A warm day also helps.
Do a search for concrete sealer
Isn’t the Behr concrete sealer? This is what I use now. Doesn’t fill/hide weave.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/BEHR-Premium-1-gal-Low-Lustre-Sealer-98601/202263929
Oops
My apologies.
I just skimread your post.
it was mentioned before you need to use styrene to hide the weave
you need something thicker to fill it as well as any pin holes
not sure what you’re looking for
filler typical are to smooth out the surface for a final coat like you see in those ood finishing videos
some use a thickened baste coat pressed in with a squeegee to fill the weave before applying a hotcoat
i think woodogre’s slow roller application technique eliminates the need for a fill coat.
many ways to skin a cat who’d thought you’d apply super glue with a squeegee to the outside of your custom rosewood guitar or high end curly koa pen to get a hard and glass like finish on wood…
turners use 10% xylene thinned resin to stabilize “punky wood” similar to an open weave and pinholed glass job.
glassing and hotcoating in dropping temps helps
i have found a spray on type resin called top clear however i think it was vynelester or something and from the small tests that i did it did not seam to bond very well to epoxy.
A thiner type epoxy would be good but i guess could be tricky with aplication so that you dont get fish eye or anything like that
A thin sanded gloss isophtalic polyester resin. Old school for sure but effective for uv protection and watertightness. Suffisant adhesion on well cured well prep epoxy sanded coat. Easy to do.
And polyester won’t kill you as easily as 2 part upol
watch out on the vinylester stuff
my rocket science friends said its nasty stuff
Just tonight I tried some spot smears of 10% xylene thinned RR CE2000. Using a foam brush backed up by gloved hand it smeared on ultra thin and smoothly, just right. I don’t think 5% thinned would,ve been as thin and smooth but I havn’t tested 5% for smear glossing. For laminating, 5% thinned soaked in real well to 4 oz done over a pre laminated side. Tomorrow or the next day I’ll smear gloss a whole 9’ side with 10% thinned and will report.`This gloss coat will be finely sanded and redone if needed, preparing for paint.