Stick'em Posted February 23, 2012 Report Share Posted February 23, 2012 Well, as most of you know, I'm still in "rookie" status with my new hobby. I came across the issue of coating my molds w/epoxy. Made the mistake of buying a cheap pack of brushes from one of those dollar stores. Went to coating w/un-thinned 5 min. epoxy. Yea, disaster struck quickly... The brush started shedding bristles at an alarming rate , causing me to pick them out of the super-quick setting epoxy and waste valuble time. I don't know why, but I quickly crammed the brush in for another dip of epoxy (thinking I had time for one more mold) and promptley ruined the mold's ridges with a couple ultra-thick swipes of the curing glob. Thanks to help from this site I found some 30 min. epoxy and thinned it ever so slightly with 91% rubbing alchohol (thanks, guys). I stayed away from the brush though, and went with a 1 inch foam brush. I used more of a "dabbing" instead of "brushing". What the foam does is soak up some of the epoxy while laying it on, resulting in an evener coat of epoxy with no chance of those nasty runaway brush bristles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric001 Posted February 23, 2012 Report Share Posted February 23, 2012 i use the dis. brushes for flux, they have the black syn. fiber bristles and the alum. handle- they dont pull out and get stuck in your finish- i dont dilute the epxy, ive used 5min to overnight stuff and it seals the same- id recomend 2 coats and its critical the mold is fairly dry so the epoxy sticks decent. i also like to slightly heat the mold before pouring, also if you dont seal all the pores in the pop, you will see more bubbles in the plastic, bubbles will also form if you overheat the plastisol. also if you run a heat gun over the epoxy, especially if you use 5 min i helps it to self level- again my .02 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stick'em Posted February 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2012 Ah ha! The brushes for flux sound like a good maneuver, Eric001. The body ridges on my molds are just taking too much of the epoxy with a "hair" brush. I was having too much build around those ridges, forcing me to keep pulling/raking epoxy from the cavity. For me the foam brush soaks up most of that excess while leaving an even coat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROWINGADUBAY Posted February 24, 2012 Report Share Posted February 24, 2012 Foam sounds like the way to go I use the flux brushes they don't shed alot but it sucks when they do I have never heard of anyone using foam just proves that new people bring new ideas good one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stick'em Posted February 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2012 Yea, Rowingadubay, ruining a perfectly good mold didn't sit well with me at all. I finally found a good use for the foam side of brushes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
