Tinting Hot Coat?

Ok got the tints in and laminated my fish with tint for the first time. I had to throw the first batch away as I messed up my tint ratios… tested the second batch and thought it was on, but ended up slightly lighter than I had hoped for. I needed more black in my ratio, but not unhappy with the outcome. I read on the archives by one guy that you could tint the hot coat if you planned to tint all three coats (Lam, hot and gloss). Others said no due to an uneven texture… What is the concensus on this? If I could tint the hot coat I would go slightly darker with another 0.5 ml of black… Thanks

 

Also first time laminating a fish and that tail was not fun. Ha… I read in the archives of how guys cut and followed, but ended up with not enough material on the points as it was so pointed I just kept removing strands of fiberglass… I left it alone at one point knowing I would make it worse. We’ll see how it looks when dry and maybe I will lam a small piece on. 


If that’s the desired effect and what you wanted, then I would say you are good.  Don’t put tint in the gloss.  You’ll regret it.

Did some more digging and it seems like too high a risk I would take being that it isn’t too far off and the chance I run messing it up… Thanks

If you tint your hot coat it’s going to end up blotchy and uneven after sanding, especially over the lap areas where the hot coat will be thinner. 

Your board looks great, don’t mess with it!!! It’ll look even better after the clear hot coat which will add a little depth to the color. 

Thanks Johnny - yeah that is what I gathered. Even if it is a little lighter than planned it is even and looks even… I figured the hot and gloss coat will help with bringing more color out as well… 

 

It took a lot more tint than I realized initially. I wanted it transperant so I could still see the wood under. If I had just added a little more black it would’ve been on I think, but I took good notes of the amount of tinting put in so the next one I can add a few more drops of black and see.

 

Thanks again for the buy in. Tonight I will lam the top and then just waiting for the fins to arrive and glass those in

 

Cheers!

Looks great.

Here are some before, during & after pics of an old board getting a face lift. I rolled a coat of epoxy resin with tint.







Huck thats a great idea! I never thought to use a roller… So I ended up marring the bottom… it felt dry to the touch and not sticky so I flipped it for the 20 minutes to take the razer to the edge and remove the tape before the epoxy set. I use reversed 3M tape on my stand to keep it from moving when working and didn’t think about that and it stuck pretty good in 20 minutes… leaving some visable marks and residue that I had to sand with 400 grit to work down a little… which the required a little 3M scotch brite and 320 grit to the rest of the board… so mad, but mistakes happen and lessons are learned.

 

So I did some more digging in the archives and found a post where a guy mention throwing on a very thin tinted coat letting it set and then hot coating over. The idea being to get some more tint down to even things out and then protecting it with the hot coat. Let the hot coat cure then sand lightly and you’ll never hit the tinted coat below. Obvioulsy not ideal, but could work to correct my imperfections. 

I am thinking of doing it like the cheater coat. Mixing 3 oz of tinted epoxy and was planning to squegee but not might use the roller for that super thin layer.

Again 3rd board and first to tint so I have to approach this all as oppurtunities to learn and develop techniques

Just like everybody said: if you add tint to hotcoat, sanding will leave unevenly colored spots. if you want to HIDE entirely what you have done, you may PIGMENT the gloss coat but I would not advise it except for panels on deck. But on the rails, it will easily become a nightmare when fine sanding. Here is one I made and I can’t remember how many times I had to come back to it to fix sand-throughs…

Turned out nice, but probably a lot of extra work.  I really like that outline.  Lowel

tint the hotcoat and the finish coat. it will look great. do it all the time

A word of caution;  The problema with tinting a hotcoat or a gloss is that they can come out blotchy and there is always the possibility of sanding thru, creating more blotchy spots.