• Epoxy coatings have outstanding resistance, durability and strength.

• Epoxy consist of a ‘base’ and a ‘curing’ component mixed in a certain ratio.

• After it’s made, epoxy becomes an inert that may be called hard ‘plastic’.

• After the two epoxy components are combined, there is a limited working time to use or apply epoxy; from minutes to one hour or longer. Afterwards, it hardens.

• Can the pot life (limited working time) of the epoxy be extended?
– In theory, a change of 18 degrees F. may double its pot life.
– Higher temperatures will lower the viscosity (thin) the epoxy, but also reduce the working time a person has to apply it.
– Spreading out the mixed epoxy instead of keeping it concentrated in a bucket or container will extend the pot life.

• Epoxies harden in minutes or hours, but complete hardening takes several days.

• Epoxies become thick harden too slowly to be applied at temperatures below 50 or 60 degrees F. Temperatures in the 60s, 70s, or low 80s, are best.

• After the epoxy has cured, it can handle temperatures well below zero degrees F.

• Epoxies soften at about 140 degrees F, but re harden when the temperature is reduced. For common epoxies this temperature is approximate upper end of working temperature range of epoxies. Special high temperature epoxies do exist, however.

• The best time to recoat epoxy is within about 48 hours after the initial coat.

• Because epoxies take days to reach the full cure, a second coat applied shortly after the first coat will partially fuse to the first coat rather than forming a simple mechanical bond.

• The difference between polyester resins (commonly used in surfboards) and epoxy resins: Polyester resins are toxic, less expensive, have very strong fumes, are more porous than epoxy resins, and only sticks really well to itself.

• Generally epoxies (which are often solvent-free) can be applied to Polystyrene foam products whereas the polyester resins will dissolve these products.

• Fish eyes are areas on a painted surface where the coating literally pulls away for the substrate leaving a coating less void or fish eye. Often fish eyes are caused by surface contaminants such as a bit of silicon, wax, or oil. Surface tension plays a big part in fish eyeing. There are some additives that can be mixed into the epoxy that will reduce surface tension. Applying several coats of thinned epoxy, instead of one coat of epoxy that’s not thinned, seems to work well. Applying a thick coat of epoxy over a contaminated fish eye surface will bury the fish eye but expect the coating to peel away in the future. As a rule of thumb, always suspect some sort of surface contamination as the primary cause of fish eyeing. Pinholes are similar but caused by expanding air bubbles under the still soft epoxy.