this is my fourth go-round of epoxy, and i always seem to wind up with pinholes in the hotcoat / glosscoat. i’m using greg’s 2020 RR epoxy with fast hardener and additive F. why am i getting these??? and more importantly, how can i un-get them!!! when they first arrived in the hotcoat, i blamed it on my clark blank outgassing…but when they again reared their ugly head in the gloss, i didn’t know what to blame it on? if someone older, wiser, and awesomer could shed some light on things for me, that would be quite spiffy.
somebody?..anybody??..everybody???
call greg he’ll help 321-223-5276
before i “hotcoat” i mix up a small batch and spread it around with a squeege, pressing hard, just enough to make the surface look wet… then after an hr or so i do the “hotcoat”… also you want to hotcoat when the temp in the room is droping so the blank is sucking in… and even before that you want to make sure your not drying out you lam too much by over working it…
the lam was good, and i also do a cheater coat with a squeegee before brushing on the hotcoat. i hotcoated and glossed in the evening just after sunset. still can’t explain the pinholes. ARGH!!!
Probably leaving the laminte too dry. This is rather easy to do and there are a couple methods you can use until your a bit better.
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After the laminate do a cheater coat. We usually mix up about 3 ounces and squeegee that over the flats especially on the bottom when the laminate is gelled and in the tacky state. You don’t generally get this problem too bad on decks because you have two layers but sometimes you do. Cheater coats are an easy way to ensure a tight laminate.
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Seal the blank before you start. Using either epoxy and microballoons or spackling compound. Sealing is an easy way to control how much resin the blank takes. There is also no way to know what any individual blank is going to take. That goes for ALL foams. Sealing makes resin content consistant in your glass job by taking the foams inconsistancy issues away.
To get rid of them at the state your in now, fill each with a drop or two of resin and then turn the board upside down. Also, it helps when the temperature is decending. If you leave it face up, it will just continue to bubble but turning it upside down will cause the air to stay in the blank and the resin will fill.
I got load my first attempt then less on my glass coat. I attibuted it to how fast I was walking out the coats. The slower I went the less they appears (I looked like I was moving in slow motion). But hearing Greg mention too dry a laminate has re motivated me to vacumm the lam.
are you sure it is not dust that settled before the fillcoats?
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are you sure it is not dust that settled before the fillcoats?
wiped clean with denatured alcohol…never touched it without gloves.
What about the humidity and temperature in your shop? Too humid and cool seems to exacerbate pinholes.
fairly humid…about 75 degrees…but i’m in south florida…it’s like that for about 350 days of the year.