I am installing new skid plates on three of my canoes. I like to color the epoxy so to make the skid plates a bit more esthetic looking. Old Town has pigmentations for sale on their site but they have not had it in stock for over a year. I doubt they will ever have it again, I guess customer service is not their thing. Anyway, does anyone know were I could purchase pigmentation to add to the epoxy?
West Marine…
– Last Updated: Mar-25-07 5:45 AM EST –
The pigmentation used for coloring in gelcoat resin works as well in epoxy. I use it to patch dings and match with the surrounding color on my epoxy/glass waveskis.
The 4-5 color kit was like $30. It's pretty expensive but a little dab of pigment goes a long way in coloring the epoxy.
sing
Local art store … just pick your
favorite color from those little acrylic bottles and remember the epoxy will yellow/orange it out a bit … reds change to orange once the curing reaction takes place. Play with them first … if the resin looks ‘sticky’ as you mix it you are on the edge of too much … no big deal for skid plates but too much for good building.
Dark reds, blues, oranges last the longest out in th sun. Greens, yellows, and other light colors fade preetee quick.
Anyone else reading this … mix resin and hardiner first before adding pigments that are not epoxy based such as West Systems and System Threes too i believe. Mixing above acrylics + West White makes them more opaque.
Some of those ones you see in the kits are ‘plastisized’ or something like that and are not so great for epoxy projects.
or try
the local boat store/marina. they haev fiber glass and resin there. I have bought pigment at mine.
Liveoutside
Check the exact nature of the resin.
Some more recent skid pad kits are not using epoxy, but (I believe) a 2-part urethane. This may make no difference for your coloring, but it would be nice to know.
Remember that ANY addition of pigment to a resin tends to weaken the resin somewhat. When I was rolling epoxy onto a boat to cover accumulated Kevlar “fuzz,” I used clear resin for the first layer, and then graphite (blackening and friction) to the later layers.
Skid pads are customarily put on in one stip, maybe with some final film covering for smoothness. You might consider putting some resin aside for your pigment, then put the pads on without pigment, and then adding the colored resin at the end.
If you buy the pigment as a dry powder
Getting a good dipersion into the epoxy will be difficult but not impossible.
Try a food blender or liquidiser. You should use a little epoxy as possible to get maximum shear to the pigment, then add the rest of the epoxy to achieve the gloss/coverage you need. The more pigment used the lower the gloss.
The alternative is to use pre-dispersed pigments. However the medium they are dispersed in could affect the properties of the epoxy.