The Fear of Fiberglassing

[sarafina]

Originally Posted by minaret

WEST is FDA approved to eat off of. But coating a tank interior goes much faster with Interlux Interline 850. Works like 2000, you can stack up coats with a very long chemical bonding window, zero blush, won't hang and drip like neat WEST. It's great stuff for potable water tanks. 850 is designed specifically for water tanks.


Interlux Interline Epoxy Tank Coating

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com...line%20850.pdf

This looks like a good product, but the 1 gallon is not in stock ($130) and 5 gallons would be over kill... and the shipping and hazmat on top of that...

The good news is by doing the West on very warm days in very thin coats we have had little issue with slumps, droops, drips or pooling. It is clear so you can see the pitting underneath, but the surface is glass smooth.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by sarafina

This looks like a good product, but the 1 gallon is not in stock ($130) and 5 gallons would be over kill... and the shipping and hazmat on top of that...

The good news is by doing the West on very warm days in very thin coats we have had little issue with slumps, droops, drips or pooling. It is clear so you can see the pitting underneath, but the surface is glass smooth.

Nice. Warm does help a lot. Heating your resin a bit (put a pot in hot water) works too, especially if it's cold out. But if you are using Fast hardener this can cause problems with premature kick off. Most people just start slopping it on like house paint and have problems, I see you are not in that category. A little bit of MEK can really help flow too, but I wouldn't reduce at all for coating a water tank. I'm sure it'll work out great for you.

[ozskipper]

Seeing that everyone here is giving "after the job tips", I thought I might chime in with my tip for larger jobs.

If you're going to need more than one ice cream container of resin, pre pour into "multiple" containers the amount of resin you need for the job at hand. Then add and mix the hardener to the first container, just before you need it. Once its on the job and rolled out, add and mix the 2nd and so forth.

This means you will work much faster and you can simply add catalyst as you go. Also fresh mixes wont be contaminated by catalyzed and setting resins, from older batches, due to constant re-use of the same container.

[SabreKai]

Originally Posted by minaret

Nice. Warm does help a lot. Heating your resin a bit (put a pot in hot water) works too, especially if it's cold out. But if you are using Fast hardener this can cause problems with premature kick off. Most people just start slopping it on like house paint and have problems, I see you are not in that category. A little bit of MEK can really help flow too, but I wouldn't reduce at all for coating a water tank. I'm sure it'll work out great for you.

Agreed. I was once involved in an electric race car project, at a local highschool. We took out the rear window and replaced it with a light wood fairing and a piece of lexan. I did the epoxy work and sculpting. That shop was brutally cold for some reason, so that the epoxy wouldn't kick in less than a couple of days. We ended up pinching the coffee pot from the staff lounge and I kept my gallon can in there with it set on low. Worked a treat.

This winter I'm going to be grinding and epoxy coating the insides of Sabre Dance. Given its going to be dead winter and she is steel I'm thinking about putting an electric blanket hung on lines from the toe rail against the outside skin where I'm going to put the epoxy.