sticky hotcoat

I just hotcoated my first board and it’s not sandable.It’s slightly tacky and if you touch it you can see the fingerprint.I used finishing resin that you don’t have to add wax to and it worked great on the bottom , but on the top there are areas that are sticky still. It’s been 3 or 4 days since i applied it and im becoming concerned.If you have any suggestions id be glad to hear them.

did you not add enough mekp? has it cured? jersey is COLD this time of year.

I used just as much juice as i did in all the previous coats and it has been sitting for almost 5 days now. Even if it was a little off , shouldnt it have hardend? Any suggestions on how to fix it?

a hotcoat takes double the MEKP. you’ll need to redo it. i’m from florida, so i don’t know the specifics of working in cold weather…you’ll need to ask someone with more experience in that climate for the precise ratios to use (or check the archives).

…problems - styrene evaporation…

  • breeze in the room

  • cold weather (less than 15 c)

  • low quantity of mekp

  • too much brush work

  • old resin

  • bad stir

Hey Jersey,

Has it been in a warm garage for the past few days - same as the bottom was? If it’s tackie like a lam coat is, the wax just didn’t raise for a reason or two.

If you’re working in relatively the same temps and humidity as you did with the bottom, the ratios do not need to be messed with. Setting it off too fast will also screw up the wax’s ability to rise. Do another thin hot coat on top of the tacky one, which set off the one below.

Other things to be careful of:

~Do not over brush - brush as prescribed with haste and walk away. Don’t obsess with brush marks, dimples, etc. Brushing too much make styrene evaporate too fast and/or you’re brushing the wax into the mix.

~Also no air moving. No fans, heaters, windows closed, etc. Moving air will also evaporate the styrene too fast and the wax will not raise up.

Best,

Herb

edit - typo

Howzit Grom, I had a bad batch of finish resin that had a few uncured spots, I put it in the sun and after about 20 mins it was OK and I wasn’t using UV resin. Aloha,Kokua

try the girlfriends hot air hair blower, or whatever the hell its called.

you can also run another hot coat on top of that one. if it ever warms up.

Jersey,

Don’t give up too soon on that sticky hotcoat. Sometimes it’s just a thin veneer of sticky stuff with good sandable resin underneath. In the future shoot your hotcoat resin uv stuff with a little catalyst. Got this from Kokua I think. Mike

i went out there today after school and it was still tacky , i mixed up a small batch of epoxy and put it on. A couple hours later it was great , so glossy I only had to wetsand. It was just an experimental board and i only had to put the epoxy over where the deck patch is , so I’m not really concerned about delam or anything. It only cost me 30 bucks to make the board and i learned a lot. I cant wait to make my next one.