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I watched a couple of videos of a guy using epoxy as a finish for a bowl. He applies it, then attaches an electric motor to the piece as it remains on the lathe and slowly rotates it until dry. Then he sands it and adds another coat. He then often sells them as bathroom sinks.
His motor looked like a rotisserie motor, turns very slow but enough to keep the liquid from running.
I would like to try this on a vase . Does anyone here have experience using it this way?
Decades ago I used epoxy on fishing lures doing it like that. I bought a 12volt motor, added a rheostat to control the speed and created my own "rotisserie" rack for the lures. Now there is a 12-18 volt converter that has a built in speed controller that will do the same thing, plus a myriad of electronic gadgets that can control the speed of DC motors. You can also mix the epoxy with DNA so that it is thinner and brush it on.
On edit, that may have been acetone instead of DNA that I mixed with the epoxy.
Not the main point, but epoxy needs it's own solvent. Check which one the product you are using specifies and use that. The wrong solvent will inhibit the curing mechanism leading to either failure to cure or shortened service life. Cheers
Bill.
I use slow-set epoxy to finish drinking mugs. Most of my mugs use a steel or plastic liner, but some are wooden inside. I use West System or Max Clr (the latter is claimed to be food safe). To get to your point, I paint on a minimally thin coat with a disposable Chinese bristle brush (that will tell you how much shear force I use to brush it on). I don't thin the epoxy. I do not rotate the mugs while they cure. I have very little problem with runs, but the epoxy does not cure out perfectly smooth. It smooths very nicely with a card scraper and sandpaper, and I can get any finish from matte to glazed depending on the grit size that I end with (e.g., restore the glass-like glaze if I want with rottenstone). Smoothing and polishing the inside of a 3" diameter mug is a bit of a chore. My point is, I do not try to get a final finish without rubbing. I would encourage you to try an epoxy finish on a bowl without getting a rotisserie sort of action. See how it works.
I agree with Wayne (this is becoming a habit!) that the wrong solvent will interfere with curing time. But I don't thin my epoxy any longer, so I do not have to worry abouit that,
Doug
I thought your way for a long time, til I read enough posts from guys that say you can thin epoxy with alcohol (I used Methyl, same as DNA?) up to 10% without any adverse effects, and they are right. I've had several occasions where I needed to spray my epoxy, and thinning about 7% with alcohol was enough to lower its viscosity for spraying, and the finished product was every bit as clear and hard as without thinning. It may have a slight detrimental effect on overall properties, but I didn't notice any.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wayne Lomman
I would not use thinned epoxy for heavy gap filling, but for sealing / coating purposes where the solvent can evaporate, its ok by me. I think I tried acetone once, and it whitens the epoxy, but the alcohol does not. I thought it would go hazy in the cup but stayed clear.
To the OP's question, epoxy looks great as a finish, as long as you don't wet sand and buff (it won't buff to gloss). Personally, I would epoxy seal while turning slowly, then final sand then pour 2K urethane as final. That stuff buffs higher gloss than wet.
John,
Sounds as if we used different brands of epoxy. When I thinned MaxClr with acetone it required considerably longer (48 vs 24 hr) to cure hard. I don't recall ever thinning the West system. Also, I wet rub with pumice or rottenstone to a ceramic gloss.
Doug
John, you are correct that some epoxy has alcohol as a thinning agent. Some use water and most use a specific blend of aromatic hydrocarbons. The point is to use the correct solvent for the product you are using or risk failure. I have about a dozen different solvents in the shop that are specific to their products ( we do contract work where we comply with customer paint specs from all over the world). Use the wrong one and it can be a very expensive rework. The one that saw my predecessor out the door cost the company $120K. Cheers
Wow - going to listen to you very carefully from now on! Interesting to hear. Do you know much about the polyaspartic epoxies? Thats what all the cool kids are using now from what I hear.
John, I occasionally use a polyaspartic paint called Intercure 99. I can get a high build in one coat and unlike epoxy, it's uv stable so keeps it gloss. It's also reasonably quick curing. However, the price is a little eye watering. Cheers