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How hot is too hot for epoxy and varnish?
It's hot here in utah this summer. Most days are above 95 right now. I just started working on a passagemaker and before I start all my epoxy work, I wanted to check on the forum to see what you guys' experience has been. The manual states that ideally the room be 75 degrees for the epoxy to work the best. I've been working on the boat in my garage which has no A/C. It doesn't get blistering hot by any means, but I would imagine my garage is around 10 degrees cooler than outside temps most of the time. So I would imagine i'm hovering around the high 80s most of the day. It cools down a lot a night though because of our dry climate, so I'm sure we get down to the 70s at night.
You guys think i'll have any issues? Really not wanting to fork out the $$$ to install an A/C unit just for this project. I don't need my garage cooled. I have a shed I normally work in and it makes more sense to cool that, but it's just too small for this project.
3 replies:
RE: How hot is too hot for epoxy and varnish?
Consider keeping the resin cool and mixing it in the air conditioning then taking it out to the garage and spreading it ASAP. The curing reaction generates heat internally (exothermic) so the critical time is when it's all in the pot together where it can't transfer the heat out of the mass quickly. Spread it and it can release heat even in a warm garage.
RE: How hot is too hot for epoxy and varnish?
I hope that when the pandemic is over, I can fix my boat and sail the seas, this is my only dream.
RE: How hot is too hot for epoxy and varnish?
» Submitted by Mark N - Fri, 6/18/21 » 6:37 PM
I build in an un-conditioned garage in Florida year round. Try to do the epoxy work in the mornings and evenings when cooler. Also, work with small batches.