Getting ready to build a power mixer and done a lot of reading here on them, but why are you pouring the finish out on to aluminum foil? Just curious, I use a spatula to apply the finish to the rod.

It lengthens the pot life a little and spreading it out allows the bubbles to escape pretty much on their own. If you're using a mixer, bubbles shouldn't be a problem.

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!!

Yep! Heat dissipation (pot life) and bubbles

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

the heat comes from the chemical reaction of the resin and hardener?

-
Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day..
Teach a man to fish, he'll be broke!

like Candy makers pouring their Candy onto a cool marble surface takes away heat , the same is true for "foiling" thread epoxy, in this case, heat from the chemical reaction as it is being produced, and some Rod Makers actually do use marble slabs.
If Mixed with a mind set on not inducing (entraining) air bubbles... "foiling" only serves to remove heat. I limit the amount of mixing cup I use as it is always tipped and I scrap flat against the side of the cup, with my mixing stick and never with a circular motion. I make a "Smile" shaped motion, back and forth never lifting the stir stick. I do scrtch the cup where the premixed components were first added an have since been spread to. You will achieve the same affect using an automated mixer as the Steel BB's are never lifted, but also realise that the mixing cup is never fully scraped over the entirity of the surface that the premixed components 1st touched. There is also a dead spot between the round surface of the BB and the sharp angled bottom corner of the mixing cup that is a dead area, but if your mixing 6 cc's total per mix it is well mixed enough; On the other hand, I can mix as little as a half a gram of the combinded components with favorable and predictable results every time, and thus I need to scrap every bit of the mixing cup the premixed components touched and consqquently were spread to, which amounts to touching just under half the surface area of the inside of the cup.

Heat comes from the reaction of the two parts, and heat speeds the cure. So trying to keep the heat from getting too intense helps lengthen pot life.

Also the thinner the layer of finish is, the easier it is for bubbles to rise and escape.

By spreading the epoxy onto foil you create a thin layer with a greater surface area which allows heat and bubbles to escape more readily. Foil is just a handy material to accomplish this purpose.

Stan Grace
Helena, MT
"Our best is none too good"

Foil, over a 12" X 12" square of cheap marble tile from Lowes, etc, gives even more cooling of mixed epoxy.

Stan

Because it works great. Thats why.