Epoxy beading up on wood

I'm doing a refinish on my 17 and 16 Chesapeake's. The deck of the 20 yr old 16's fiberglass deck was peeling and I was able to pull all the fiberglass off leaving clean, sanded wood. I decided to just epoxy and varnish with no cloth like my 25 yr old 17. The rolled on epoxy beaded instead of being smooth over the whole deck. Two possibilities I think...(1) the humidity is too high (Florida) or (2) the slow MAS hardener is too old. I bought the resin and hardener in 2021 from CLC. Thoughts?


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RE: Epoxy beading up on wood

Hi  orinmor,

beading or fisheyes are usually indicative of some kind of contamination on the surface.

i have epoxy older than yours there and it still works fine.

i would suggest an experiment on a clean piece of corrugated cardboard or piece of old dry lumber - do one pump of hardener and resin, mix it well and paint onto that clean piece of the cardboard or wood....and see if it beads up.

if it doesn't then that probably confirms the contamination hypothesis.

i usually clean everything carefully with denatured alcohol to ensure no contaminants....there are just a lot of ways you can contaminate a surface....i suspect that is what is happening here.

h

 

RE: Epoxy beading up on wood

   Thanks. Should I sand the fisheyes down completly, or will five coats of varnish fill the holes?

 

RE: Epoxy beading up on wood

   Personally, I would sand it out  and try again.  Otherwise, you might very well put on 2-3 coats of varnish and decided you are still not happy and have to sand all that off as well.   

RE: Epoxy beading up on wood

sand it....varnish does not effectively fill/cover underlying imperfections in the epoxy.     

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