My wife recently inadvertently unplugged the heater in the room where I had the wraps drying on a new rod I am building. It caused a very irregular surface to the finish. I decided to just thin the next coat of Flex Coat lite a little with Acetone and it seemed to smooth it out some and let it dry on the lathe for 24 hours. This morning when I went down to check it out and the surface was still tacky/sticky and caused a wrinkle/bubble when I touched it. Is it advisable to thin Flex Coat with Acetone and can I just re-coat over the bump/ bubble? Will Acetone cause a cloudy film? Should I scrape off the wrap and re do it?
BjR

Brad, I would redo the wraps. Ralph

If at first you don't succeed, go fishing, then try, try again.

There is no good reason to thin epoxy with acetone. No manufacturer of epoxy recommends you add a solvent to it. Your problem could be the acetone and it could be an improper mix ratio.

You can continue to recoat, but additional coats will simply flow over the bumps you have now, they won't smooth them out. You're either going to have to sand things flat and then recoat, or strip and start over.

..........

I may be opening a can of worms here, but personally, I would never have acetone in my rod room. Just don't see any need to ever use it! I wouldn't use it on a blank as it could cause damage and I don't thin anything. I can't think of anything that denatured alcohol won't do as good.

Like Tom saids, putting finish on a wavy/lumpy surface will just give you a thicker wavy/lumpy surface. You need to sand the surface to get it smooth brfore a second coat.


Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

What you should have done is to heat the Fex coat which will make it thinner. I use the Flexcoat Lite and heat the bottle in very warm water. This thins the Flexcoat without adding acetone.

Not for nothing but I would say it's the Acetone. I thin out my epoxy when I make colored cork rings. Just for the heck of it two days ago I thought I would thin with acetone cause I had a pint. Mixed it up like I always do tinted added cork dust. All looked well. let it sit over night. In the morning it was still soft.
made another batch mixed my epoxy -- but thinned it with lacquer thinner -- which I always do. next day as hard as a rock.
Could have been my mix with the acetone but I don't think so.
I would say it was the acetone. .

Bill,
You're dead wrong...it was absolutely your acetone. I've been warning you about this and now it finally came back to bite you....I am glad it did, and I hope you learned your lesson. And by the way. lacquer thinner is probably an even less desirable solvent to thin a finish with. I hope Ralph weighs in on this and gives you one heck of a lashing.

What happened is that all of the acetone did not evaporate before the finish started to gel trapping the acetone in the finish and leaving it uncured.
Thinning finish with a solvent is a terrible habit to get into, if you do it, sooner or later your bound to get in trouble just like Bill did.

Andy Dear
www.lamarfishing.com

I agree with Mike about acetone in the rod room. My basic rod room (clean) is a converted bedroom - not a place for acetone here. The "dirty" area is an enclosed 2 car garage where shop tools are located for saw-dusting. Not place for acetone here.

I do use acetone as a solvent occassionally, mainly to remove oil/grease and store in a shed located away from the house. It's a useful solvent for some uses, but not for thinning epoxyies for finishes. To clean things, it's hard to beat denatured alcohol, but it has no use as an epoxy thinner either.

Stan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2006 09:56PM by Stan Gregory.

ANDY

I USED THE ACETONE ONE TIME ONLY AND ONLY BECAUSE IT WAS THERE AND THOUGHT I WOULD USE IT UP

THE ACETONE DID MAKE THE EPOXY " NOT HARDEN " I KNOW THIS

BUT THE LACQUER THINNER THAT I ALWAYS USE WORKED WELL -----AS IT ALWAYS DOES WITH THE LACQUER THINNER IT HARDEN OVERNIGHT LIKE IT ALWAYS DOES.

NOTHING BIT ME I did not use it in your threadmaster. I use flexcoat for my colored rings



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2006 08:33PM by bill boettcher.

The only thing I use Acetone for is for Final Cleanup on some brushes (oil paints). I use zylene for final cleanup on brushes used for Perma-Gloss because Perma-Gloss contains zylene. Yes, Andy in a different room from my rodbuilding stuff. Ralph

If at first you don't succeed, go fishing, then try, try again.