by angib » Sat Nov 25, 2006 12:45 pm
A few tips:
- You will mix too much epoxy at some point - throwing away the stuff that's gone solid in the bottom of the pot is how you learn not to mix so much next time......
- If applying epoxy to a large area, I would mix less than a pint (or half litre) at one time. But to use that much, I would have absolutely everything that I would need lined up and ready for use.
- When mixing epoxy, concentrate on getting your stirring stick into the 'corner' of the pot, between the bottom and side - you have to scrape the neat resin off all the surfaces of the pot when stirring and the corner is where many people fail to do this. It's worth letting a one inch depth of epoxy go solid in the pot one time - then turn it out and see if the ring around the bottom 'corner' is sticky, which it shouldn't be if you stirred it well enough.
- As soon as the epoxy is mixed, pour it into a flat tray as this will stop it going off so quickly (more spread out = more surface area = less self-heating effect). A regular plastic paint roller tray is one of the best things to use as not only is it ideal for loading a roller with epoxy, but cured epoxy won't stick to it. Let any unused epoxy cure and then twist the tray to get the solid epoxy to 'ping' out.
- When coating a large area, it is usually possible to mix extra batches of resin (have them already measured out and standing ready) but still use the same roller, tray, etc for all the batches.
Andrew