How to make my own epoxy primer?

Can anybody advise me how to make an epoxy primer by myself from our 2 parts regular epoxy glue? we cannot buy epoxy primer from here.

 

teakcell,

what do you want to do with the primer, what sort of material are you trying to protect?

 

Epoxy glue is resin with fillers, you may simply be able to dilute the glue with epoxy thinner and then use that

 

Landlubber...
a dilution of epoxy resin is NOT a good primer !!!
I do´nt know enough² to provide a proper answer to the question above, but I know that thinner of any kind is strictly forbidden in professional use of Epoxy! Hundreds of formulations are available.
²(although I will ask on monday)
We allow thinners for cleaning tools solely!
No offence, but my friends process about 35 metric tons of Epoxy resin p.a. in wood Epoxy construction. The use of thinner by a employee is the immediate sack!

Kindest
Regards
Richard

 

Yep, don't thin the epoxy. Epoxy primer isn't "mixable" by the novice, without a fairly high chemical expertise. You can tint the resin (only the resin) which will offer color to the cured epoxy, which by itself is a wonderful primer, though an expensive way to do things.

If you're using epoxy on the substrate, then in most cases all you need to do is tooth up the cured epoxy and topcoat with the paint of choice (no primer). Primer does a few different things. It helps bond dissimilar coatings, provides a smoothable base for top coats, fills small imperfections in the surface and often neglected is it's ability to offer a uniform base, so color topcoats go down evenly.

What are you trying to do Teakcell?

 

Sorry fellas, I understand very well that thinning is not a "normal" option, howeve he is in Burma, there may be no other way to prime the wood as he wishes, sometimes there is no alternative to doing things"wrong"

 

I spent time there, life is not available at the corner store to be precious about how things are done, he may be lucky to even get epoxy glue at all

 

thanks for all your amswer. I make lightweight honeycomb furnitures with honeycomb and plywood. Then I cover the plywood with teak veneer. Teak has long deep grains and the epoxy coming through. Being unable to stop the glue coming to the top, I lay epoxy as a sealer on top of the veneer. Then I sand paper + top coat PU. But deep grain remains + orange skin at final makes me unhappy about the varnish quality. So, recently, on top of the veneer I have decided to adjust the viscosity of the epoxy. I read that ep viscosity can be adjusted with Xylene or pine oil. At first I stayed away from oil because glue and oil does not go together well... But it seemed all right. We have now reach that level of test and I should more next week.
Within all our tests, wood putty + sand paper + sealer and top coat gives the very best results. BUT, wood filler might crack under sunshine + we can see the epoxy going through the veneer... So My idea is to make my own wood filler out of epoxy. PLease remember that I operate in a non developped country and have limited choice of epoxy brand and varnish. Thanks for your coming help.

 

Hi Teakcell, I also in the past have had epoxy "soak" through in spots when bagging veneer, in this case I cabinet scraped the glue while set but still cheesy(not rock hard) apply a a very thin glue slurry with a 4" broadknifeto to adjust & make even the colour of the veneer to similar & will often solvent wipe epoxy glue lines on joinery work & usually have to wipe in the whole veneered area to achieve an even tone. If available to you get a respirator to keep the fumes out of your lungs & body. Also I have never heard of mixing epoxy & pine oil so cannot reccomend this process. All the best from Jeff.

 

When you thin epoxy, you decrease the molecular cross links that take place during the cure, which is the very thing that makes epoxy strong and water proof. Viscosity is best controlled with temperature.

I'd do a cross hatch scratch test in a few weeks to check it's ability to stay stuck, especially on teak.

What ever you do, you will have to top coat the epoxy with something to protect it from UV. I'm doing a teak veneer deck now, using 1/16" thick planks, which will be finished bright. The wood is scrubbed with Xylene just prior to wet out, allowed to flash off, which removes the oils, then the wood is coated with epoxy. The wood is about 80 degrees and the epoxy is about 90 degrees, the shop is about 70 degrees, during the process. The epoxy leaches right into the teak at this temperature. The only trick is to make sure the wood and epoxy are cooling off or you'll get bubbles from out gassing. I've also bagged the planks down, which helps keep things under control.

I too have some deep graining, but subsequent coatings with epoxy, smoothing between each coat will fill the grain, without resorting to filler. With several top coats of clear LPU, it will look like glass when I'm done. I suspect it will take 3 coats of epoxy to completely fill the grain and plank seams, plus several top coats for UV protection and additional smoothing.

 

Epoxy UV control

I have been using polyesters and epoxies for a number of years and the dissimilarities are more prevalent than the similarities. One big reason for the polyester movement in boats is because of excellent UV properties and superb topcoats or gelcoats. You can put a gel coat of polyester over wood but not over epoxy. You can put an epoxy over a polyester. So maybe think in reverse although doing that is quite mind numbing and I honestly would not know how to do that. Bottom line is if you want excellent salt water properties, UV protection, and fuel spill protection a catalyzed polyester is your only way to go. If you could prime the wood with a polyester friendly sealer maybe look at alcohol based clear primers, first to coat any problems with the epoxy oozing through cracks ( a good thing by the way) and second creating an excellent bond interface between your possible epoxy, and oily wood, You might look at the urethane sealers and these also have great UV and impact qualities. You will have to re-coat your boats from time to time there just is no easy answer there. Epoxy as a top coat is simply out of the question. UV attacks it layer by layer breaking down its bonds at the molecular level. Your only solution is to block the light and clear coats do not do that very effectively. I would recommend either a catalyzed urethane (very toxic) or a catalyzed polyester (not quite as toxic but styrene causes cancer) .

:!: What happens with these wet catalyzing particles is that when you breathe them in, they coat your lungs and catalyze where they land. Very, very bad and a source of getting pneumonia. Not only do you endanger your life but your body will become sensitized to even the smell. This is otherwise known as painter disease. Treat all your epoxies, polyester's and urethane's with a healthy dose of safety respect. These things are once toxic.:!:

As another post said, you want to wear Tyvek suits, rubber gloves, and respirator type face mask where in the instance of catalyzed agents there is no chance of any gas nor liquid reaching your skin. That also means duct taping your interfaces off and your hood/font of suit to face mask interface. Even the gas can get in and is toxic because the catylization happens at the molecular level and most of the lighter poly molecules are lighter than air. All cars are painted with catalyzed polyurethanes (even more dangerous) and are done in rooms no human enters and only by robots. Since I heard orange peal, that only occurs when you spray. Please be careful. Needless to say nobody else around when you do this.

So I would stick to the tried and true methods of varnishes that are not so toxic. The up side to catalyzed urethane's and polyester's are that they are very strong and do a better job at blocking UV. The upside to the non catalyzed products is better environmental and personal safety.

Looks to me you are in the area of a science project. Good luck to you let us know if you make any headway.

 

Angelgroove you do realize this thread is almost a year old now, right?

 

Yes I see all the posts are very old. I think it high time to reinvigorate the discussion as safety with these products is paramount.

 

Perhaps you'd like to author a new thread on the subject. It would get more attention and welcome aboard the forum.

 

Please reinvigorate the discussion as I still haven't reach full success on the matter + I'm sure that I'm not the only one in that situation. We are much better than before thanks to your advices and experience coming out but I'm still not 100% satisfied.
thank you