I made a table filled with bottle caps. Finished pouring the resin over all of them and it looked beautiful. Come to find out, 24 hours later, there are 2 areas where the epoxy remained uncured, which means the batch was not mixed properly. I scraped off as much as possible and just poured a new layer over it.

Problem is, the coating is now uneven due to laying another coat only on the sticky parts. Once it dries, can I sand it even and progressively get higher until I reach 1000 grit. Then buff and polish it to glass again? I just don't want to lose the clarity of the product.

wrote:
I made a table filled with bottle caps. Finished pouring the resin
over all of them and it looked beautiful. Come to find out, 24 hours
later, there are 2 areas where the epoxy remained uncured, which
means the batch was not mixed properly. I scraped off as much as
possible and just poured a new layer over it.

Problem is, the coating is now uneven due to laying another coat only
on the sticky parts. Once it dries, can I sand it even and
progressively get higher until I reach 1000 grit. Then buff and
polish it to glass again? I just don't want to lose the clarity of
the product.

Yes. You may want to go higher than 1000 grit though. Common automotive
buffing compounds will generally buff out 1500 grit scratches. You can buff
out 1000 grit, but it takes a lot more effort. You might want to go up to
2000 grit before buffing - it'll just make life easier for you.

--

-Mike-

On Thursday, April 12, 2012 12:37:30 PM UTC-4, Mike Marlow wrote:
wrote:
I made a table filled with bottle caps. Finished pouring the resin
over all of them and it looked beautiful. Come to find out, 24 hours
later, there are 2 areas where the epoxy remained uncured, which
means the batch was not mixed properly. I scraped off as much as
possible and just poured a new layer over it.

Problem is, the coating is now uneven due to laying another coat only
on the sticky parts. Once it dries, can I sand it even and
progressively get higher until I reach 1000 grit. Then buff and
polish it to glass again? I just don't want to lose the clarity of
the product.

Yes. You may want to go higher than 1000 grit though. Common automotive
buffing compounds will generally buff out 1500 grit scratches. You can buff
out 1000 grit, but it takes a lot more effort. You might want to go up to
2000 grit before buffing - it'll just make life easier for you.

--

-Mike-


Ok cool. Then that is what I'll do. It sucked though because the finish looked perfect. Then when it was dry it felt like glass. Rubbing my hand on it, I hit a terribly sticky spot. Uncured epoxy :/

You should have left that spot to cure. It probably didn't have enough
hardner. But it might have cured in a couple of days with just a little
hardner.

Anyway. I used to work with epoxy regularly. Yes it sands well. Just
wait for it to fully cure and harden in a couple of days. Yes I know
most cure fully in 24 hours. But you want them to harden, and that takes
a while. Then it won't clog your paper as much.

You can use a good quality paper to quickly take it down.
Using 120grit... progressing to 320 or 400. I used to use freecut gold
(3m) for that. Any good paper will do it.

After that start using wet/dry paper and progress. Water work. I used
sikkens m600 instead when I had to sand a lot off. It cuts cleaner with
less loading of the paper. Just where nitrile gloves. Then I would go to
1200 paper... when done let it sit for a day... then buff.

If you have access to an automotive paint supplier... see if they have
liquid ebony for the most beautiful final polishing. It takes out any
swirl marks from buffing.

On 4/12/2012 12:44 PM, wrote:
On Thursday, April 12, 2012 12:37:30 PM UTC-4, Mike Marlow wrote:
wrote:
I made a table filled with bottle caps. Finished pouring the resin
over all of them and it looked beautiful. Come to find out, 24 hours
later, there are 2 areas where the epoxy remained uncured, which
means the batch was not mixed properly. I scraped off as much as
possible and just poured a new layer over it.

Problem is, the coating is now uneven due to laying another coat only
on the sticky parts. Once it dries, can I sand it even and
progressively get higher until I reach 1000 grit. Then buff and
polish it to glass again? I just don't want to lose the clarity of
the product.

Yes. You may want to go higher than 1000 grit though. Common automotive
buffing compounds will generally buff out 1500 grit scratches. You can buff
out 1000 grit, but it takes a lot more effort. You might want to go up to
2000 grit before buffing - it'll just make life easier for you.

--

-Mike-


Ok cool. Then that is what I'll do. It sucked though because the finish looked perfect. Then when it was dry it felt like glass. Rubbing my hand on it, I hit a terribly sticky spot. Uncured epoxy :/

tiredofspam wrote:


You can use a good quality paper to quickly take it down.
Using 120grit... progressing to 320 or 400. I used to use freecut gold
(3m) for that. Any good paper will do it.


Noooooooo! Nothing more coarse than 600. 1000 will work just fine, though
it does take longer than 600. It will leave less scratches to work out than
600. Never anything as coarse as 120! Unless of course, you like to
sand...



--

-Mike-

wrote:

Ok cool. Then that is what I'll do. It sucked though because the
finish looked perfect. Then when it was dry it felt like glass.
Rubbing my hand on it, I hit a terribly sticky spot. Uncured epoxy :/

Are you 100% sure that it was epoxy? I ask because casting resin is usually
polyester. People tend to call any two part resin "epoxy" but that is
something totally different from polyester.

Polyester resin needs two things to harden: the first is the catalyst; if
you mixed the catalyst & resin even cursorily I would not think your lack of
cure was due to lack of catalyst. The second thing it needs is lack of
air...polyester doesn't cure completely if it is exposed to air. The reason
for that is so that multiple layups can be made. For exposed surfaces, one
uses a "finishing resin" which has a bit of wax dissolved in it...the wax
keeps away the air and the resin cures hard. I've had occasions when
finishing resin stays tacky in spots, no idea why, one would think that the
wax layer would be even. Cure is another coat or dust with something to
block of air.

OTOH, maybe it *was* epoxy. How long did it take to cure hard? Hours =
epoxy, minutes = polyester.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

On Thursday, April 12, 2012 1:57:05 PM UTC-4, dadiOH wrote:
wrote:

Ok cool. Then that is what I'll do. It sucked though because the
finish looked perfect. Then when it was dry it felt like glass.
Rubbing my hand on it, I hit a terribly sticky spot. Uncured epoxy :/

Are you 100% sure that it was epoxy? I ask because casting resin is usually
polyester. People tend to call any two part resin "epoxy" but that is
something totally different from polyester.

Polyester resin needs two things to harden: the first is the catalyst; if
you mixed the catalyst & resin even cursorily I would not think your lack of
cure was due to lack of catalyst. The second thing it needs is lack of
air...polyester doesn't cure completely if it is exposed to air. The reason
for that is so that multiple layups can be made. For exposed surfaces, one
uses a "finishing resin" which has a bit of wax dissolved in it...the wax
keeps away the air and the resin cures hard. I've had occasions when
finishing resin stays tacky in spots, no idea why, one would think that the
wax layer would be even. Cure is another coat or dust with something to
block of air.

OTOH, maybe it *was* epoxy. How long did it take to cure hard? Hours =
epoxy, minutes = polyester.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

It is definitely a two part epoxy resin. Made specifically for bar tops. It takes 8 hours to harden and 12-14 to fully cure. It should then be left alone for 2-3 days to completely harden. I poured a layer over the sticky parts because in the instruction manual for the resin, it said to do so if that happens.

The new layer is beginning to harden and is completely tack free!! It is slightly uneven due to the new layer that was poured on, but I will sand that out most likely tomorrow afternoon.

Some say 200 grit. Others say not to. Should I just start an use the 1000 and work my way up to 2000? Not quite sure how to do this properly to maintain that glass like look.

wrote:


Some say 200 grit. Others say not to. Should I just start an use the
1000 and work my way up to 2000? Not quite sure how to do this
properly to maintain that glass like look.

You can start with any grit you want, but the coarser you start with, the
more grits you will have to sand up through, in order to get all the
scratches out. Obviously, the more coarse the grit, the faster the sanding
will go, but you then have to work your way up through grits, so in the end
there is no gain. The other problem with coarse grits is the depth of the
scratch. You will create some rather deep scratches with coarse grits, and
the entire area that you have to sand in order to blend the repair gets much
larger. 1000 grit will do it just fine and will not take an unrealistic
amount of time. From there - 1500 or 2000 and you're ready to buff up to a
full shine.

--

-Mike-

Wait the 2-3 days. It definetly is less gummy.
Was this Enviro Tex...?

Too level 1000 will not do it. Too fine.
But you can work your way backwards to find out what paper to start
with.... You can start with 400 and find out if it is cutting fast
enough, if not move down to 320.... But I do urge you to wait the 2-3
days. So you don't fill your sandpaper with globs of soft epoxy.
Softer sands faster, but not evenly.

If you were not looking for a fine finish, I would say go ahead.
You would topcoat it later. But you are looking for a fine finish aren't
you? A little patience while it hardens fully. It will powder off nicer...

On 4/12/2012 5:23 PM, wrote:
On Thursday, April 12, 2012 1:57:05 PM UTC-4, dadiOH wrote:
wrote:

Ok cool. Then that is what I'll do. It sucked though because the
finish looked perfect. Then when it was dry it felt like glass.
Rubbing my hand on it, I hit a terribly sticky spot. Uncured epoxy :/

Are you 100% sure that it was epoxy? I ask because casting resin is usually
polyester. People tend to call any two part resin "epoxy" but that is
something totally different from polyester.

Polyester resin needs two things to harden: the first is the catalyst; if
you mixed the catalyst& resin even cursorily I would not think your lack of
cure was due to lack of catalyst. The second thing it needs is lack of
air...polyester doesn't cure completely if it is exposed to air. The reason
for that is so that multiple layups can be made. For exposed surfaces, one
uses a "finishing resin" which has a bit of wax dissolved in it...the wax
keeps away the air and the resin cures hard. I've had occasions when
finishing resin stays tacky in spots, no idea why, one would think that the
wax layer would be even. Cure is another coat or dust with something to
block of air.

OTOH, maybe it *was* epoxy. How long did it take to cure hard? Hours =
epoxy, minutes = polyester.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips& tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

It is definitely a two part epoxy resin. Made specifically for bar tops. It takes 8 hours to harden and 12-14 to fully cure. It should then be left alone for 2-3 days to completely harden. I poured a layer over the sticky parts because in the instruction manual for the resin, it said to do so if that happens.

The new layer is beginning to harden and is completely tack free!! It is slightly uneven due to the new layer that was poured on, but I will sand that out most likely tomorrow afternoon.

Some say 200 grit. Others say not to. Should I just start an use the 1000 and work my way up to 2000? Not quite sure how to do this properly to maintain that glass like look.