Trick for getting even tints with Epoxy/EPS

It’s something that any of us trying to do tints with epoxy over EPS has had to deal with: the roughness, even of sealed/spackled foam means that any tint will show it with discolorations.

Some colors are better/easier, lighter obviously being better, though even on a yellow board (I just did one) if you look closely you can see the darker spots where there were partially filled pucas and scratches.

Going from something mentioned by a user here; I got a few colors of tint/pigment from Home Depot, the kind they use to color paint, and did a bunch of test panels. The results have been great. If I use to heavy a mix, 10% the colors are usually opaque, but around 5% they are nice and translucent and they don’t show any of the pucas or scratches.

So far I have tested green, blue an orange and I just finished a board for a friend today with an orangey yellow. (Instant Delight in the Behr selection) This is the best tint job I have done. Nice even color, no hassles.

edit the medium sized pic’s page isn’t loading for some reason…

Detail:

I also avoided any frothing in the laps of the clear layer by spreading the resin out onto the deck and then instead of pulling it onto the rails, I flipped the rails up onto the deck and let them soak up resin. Carefully flipped them down again and the pulled the excess off. Nice clear laps!

Little tip for use at Home Depot, it will be easier to get some color if you avoid asking the grumpy old guy and instead go when there is a woman working the counter. Just give her a smile and explain what you are doing.

…she didn’t even charge me for it! [cool]

this is great!

did you spackle the test panels?

did you intentionaly leave sratches befor you tinted?

did you do an extra good sand job on the board?

were those colors opeque or tint?

not trying to harass ya, just seeking knowledge

The test panels I did, I purposely went for a rough finish… quick runs with a planes and some passes with my roughing out sanding board. Nice a scratchy and pucas. (note, the foam I got recently from a new company here in Montreal is better than my last supplyer, but it is still EPS… tearouts, just less than before)

I didn’t do a special job of sanding the board. I have tried doing more sanding and sealing the board twice in the past, but I have found that the double coat of spackle just makes for more variations in the surface…i.e. some areas an even smooth coat of spackle and some with that ‘furryness’ that EPS gets. Ends up still making for variations in the tint color. Plus more of a worry for bonding between glass/spackle/foam.

The colors are for paint,(opaque) but … the oranges were still translucent at 10% (generally max recommended for resin use), but on the way to being opaque, whereas the blue and green were pretty opaque at 10%. One of the tests ,with blue, was less than 5%, and it was starting to show the usual spottyness of a tint over EPS …though it was on unfinished EPS.

No harrassing at all Ken. I posted in the hopes of giving back a little to this community which has helped me so much. There are no local shapers here to learn from, so all of you here at Swaylocks have been my mentors.

Very nice, Johan! I especially liked the tip about getting the clear laps…any problems with ‘strings’ when folding the wet laps back down?

JSS

Not too much … I did prep them with Kokua’s tip of pulling out the bottom 3-4 strings in the middle of the board.

There was more of an issue in pulling the laps back down and getting them into place… though it wasn’t a big one. The dry spots left, were just above the rail and the ‘crinklyness’ (??) of the cloth worked out when I pulled resin onto and through these spots. After that most of the excess resin was just pulled off and scraped off into the bucket. I think that as long as the deck had a good amount of resin on it to soak the laps, you could get away with using less resin this way.

hey johan 1

     i see you took my advice 

just be a bit carefull whith red

been workin for me for a lo ooooong time

huie

So that was you huie! Sorry, I have read so many tips here that I don’t always remember you wrote them.

Thanks man.

What was the problem you had/have with the red?

Though I have done some tests with a poly tint in red and it seems to go nice in darker mixes.

I’m missing something. Sorry. Did you paint the foam? How? Roller, brush? thx

Hey Greg.

No, I didn’t paint the blank… I used the pigment or color that Home Depot normally uses to color paint (like if you bought some paint for your house), only I just took the pigment and used it to tint the epoxy resin.

For some reason it seems to make for a more even color, even while being transparent, as opposed to the surfboard specific tints that I have. It could very well be that it is an opaque color, but mixed as a light mixture it has enough transparency to look like a tint, but enough opaqueness to not show the roughness of the foam.

…Or maybe it is the chemical formulation of it… neats me, but it seems to work.

I took that advice as well. Had no white pigment so I got some from the paint shop.Did a green pigment bottom with normal resin pigment which still had some noticeable spots/imperfections. Off-white deck inlay using paint pigment came out perfect using less pigment than normal. Thanks for the tip Huie.

Good post Johan1 plenty of useful info.

Cheers

Mooneemick

Quote:

hey johan 1

i see you took my advice

just be a bit carefull whith red

been workin for me for a lo ooooong time

huie

Hey huie

What advice was that???

I did a search but couldn’t find anything.

Cheers

m d s

do a search alternative pigments in forums

huie

Thanks huie

I found it.

Just a couple of questions though.

Are you saying that if you want an opaque color, you start of with a batch of white pigment and add color to that before adding to your resin and if so how much white?? and for a tint, you just add the color to the resin.

Also does 5% mix ratio sound about right.

One more thing

Is there any spacific pigment I should ask for or are they the same for acrylic, enamle etc.

Cheers

A good trick for mixing tints into epoxy is to mix the tint in the resin and get fusterated as all of it does not dislove, then let it sit in a covered bucket overnight, by now most of those little chunks of pigment will be gone, and you can add the hardener, which will mix evenly.

cheers.

hey mds

i am haveing a bet this arvo

will come back to night

whith some info

huie

just go into bunnings paint section ask to buy some paint tinter

like the ones in pic these are best in transclucent tints

for opaqes you will be best to use epoxy pigment

for mixing tints into epoxy put the resin i n the sun(whithout hardener)

warm it up then mix tint in

for mixing the tint get a small amount of resin(about 100ml thin it down

as described tint it up a fair bit darker than you want

when it is all mixed in strain this mixture whith a stocking into your glassing mixstir realy well

just cover resin & let stand for a while

stir again then ad hardener just follow johan way & do some test panels

yellow is about the best to learn whith

remember i take no responsibility if yu f####k up

huie

Hey huie

Did you buy them off the shelf or is it their tints they use and you bought it from their stock???

How much did they charge you???

Cheers

How much pigment did you score for free Johan? And you got 3 colours eh? I’ve been meaning to try and pick some up.