I had a “sandy particle” problem with RR epoxy. Anyone else have this, and is there a solution. If I can’t find a fix…it’s goodbye RR epoxy.
Doug
Im guessing you mean small grit like particles in the resin when you hotcoated? Kind of like little pimples all over? If so I had the same problem on two paddleboards that I just finished. But it was all good when I sanded them. It went away. I think its small resin balls that sink to the bottom of the barrel and get stired up when they put it into the gallon jugs. Next time im going to strain the resin through cloth before I mix in the hardener to see if that fixes it. At first I thought it was just the EPS foam off gassing but they weren’t bubbles. If this seems like your problem I’d try straining the resin before giving up.
These particles were actually imbedded in the gloss. Even though I polished it out, they were under the surface and very visible…like specks of light colored sand. I think it was undisolved solids from the additive F.
My best guess is a quality control problem either with RR Epoxy or with Foam EZ.
I dont think FoamEZ divides up the resins in their shop
I go there and talk with them guys enough to know whats goin on there.
they get the jugs from RR and sell them to us as is. same goes for the poly resins.
5 gal pales are sealed and so are the gallon and qrts.
the polish is another deal as it is not a enviromental issue, they do break that down from a large can to small cans.
Ive never seen any sand in any epoxy Ive gotten from them.
hope you sort it out
How warm was it when you glassed? Most of the wood guys- colder weather guys skip the additive F for this reason. The additive F has to be warm to fully desolve and shows much more on a dark background.
I will bet money the fatal flaw wasn’t the resin but the operator. Got to understand what your doing and how to avoid issues that can happen. Lets see some close up pictures, and I bet we can figure out where you went wrong. I only bet when I am pretty sure I will win, and winning here is not for my ego, as some may believe, but so you can avoid making more mistakes, like I have.
Room temperature was 80 degrees. Room was swept and clean. I used a brand new brush, and did a light wipe-down with denatured alcohol 5 minutes prior to applying the resin.
This sort of thing happened once before to a lesser degree, so I called Greg Loehr about it. He said that the additive F is mostly Xylene which evaporates just sitting around, leaving more solids. He suggested adding xylene. I can't get xylene at the usual stores in CA anymore, so I cooled off the additive F until the solids showed, then strained some of them out using a panty hose filter. It greatly improved the situation, but that way is sort of like "science by feel" which is too iffy for me. I just need resin I can count on.
Do the solids accually do much? Maybe strain out all the solids and just go with xylene. By the way, the bottles of additive F I got from Foam EZ were 4ounces, which makes me think they were filled from a larger container.
I have always had great luck with Foam EZ, and I really like the people there. They give me great service, and are a great group. Nothing against them at all. I just need to solve this problem.
Doug
I think I know what you are talking about. it looks like sugar, granular. Mine..I'm assuming was from older epoxy. It had been sitting around for about 6 months...or more. The day was warm down here in So cal, but the shop closet where the epoxy lives wasn't. I heated it up real good, and it seemed to morph back into what epoxy should look like. But i still had the thick ball in the bottom of the jug. So I shook it up, and used what I had.
In hind sight I should have microwaved the heck out of it, then let it sit of a few hrs too cool. I don't know what to call it except re mixing the epoxy..some times it needs to be shook up, just like poly lam.
I've never had any problems with new fresh RR. It's usually me trying to cobble together a few old jugs, or a mixing error going too fast, etc.
...from the thread title, I'm just glad to know nobody died as a result!!
Huck,
Yeah, no deaths. Just nightmares. All those hours of work, then the final touch ends up looking wrong.
I'll try to post a picture when I get a minute.
Just a sidenote for gassing bubbles (mentioned here but not the cause). I have learned if you fan any wet epoxy with a blow tourch - very fast, the gas bubbles come out and you have a smooth finish with little wetsand and buff.
compare and contrast blow torch and hair dryer, please?
I don’t glass boards with epoxy but I do make resin tables. When I gloss a table I use the fan torch method. I like it better than a heat gun which tends to move the resin around due to the fan in the gun. I let my glosses flow for around 10 minutes before applying the heat.
Same. I just use torch because I can see the flame (heat)…when I use a heat gun I just see the glass lifting in the back of my mind…when restoring wooden boats I use a heat gun to remove glass from wood.
Picture shows the problem I had. I'm still thinking it's solids in the additive F.
Im guessing Add F. I’ve seen those particles in the little cc cup I use. Maybe someone else with more experience may agree.
If the temperature was 80 degrees there will be no solids in the Additive F. Something else is causing the problem.
was the lam cured hard and scuffed?
or
was it scuffed while the lam was sorta hard
Im thinking torn cloth fibers from scuffing the lam
Regarding temp: I keep all materials in the same room, so the resin and additive F are the same temp. Even at 80 degrees ,when I poured the F into the resin, the small particles appeared. I thought mixing it enough would blend everything together, but apparently it didn't.
Scratches in the fabric wouldn't be the problem, since this didn't show up until the gloss coat. It had to be in the resin itself.
Which begs the question again: would xylene alone do the trick?
sorry I forgot it was in the gloss
maybe its just a shitty batch of aditive F
strain it next time you see crumbs
xylene alone wont do the job
personally I dont use much add F
never in the lam
a little in the sand coat
and use poly for the gloss