• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Epoxy coatings

A

Alec W. Conway

Jun 26, 2006
303
4
Mother North
#1
Heya guys,

So thats it, I unfretted my old 4 strings a while ago, to get the feel of a fretless. I did a quick job but it turned out pretty well for a first attempt at anything lutherie related. Now I played for a while on this fretless and I can't stand my fretted 5 strings. Guess I'm made to play fretless... :D

So I'm planning on defretting my 5 string now, but I'll follow the guides shown on this site to the letter, I wanna make a pro-quality job. So I bought a few things, mainly some cherry wood strip to fill the fret gaps and some epoxy coating along with some spongy brushes.

The thing is, I think I saw most of you guys are working with epoxy in pints or gallons. I couldn't find that, I could only fin pressure cans of clear epoxy coating.

Now I tried it on a scrap piece of wood. It seemed to do the trick.

Then I decided to coat the neck of my 4 string, since the rosewood fretboard was getting eaten away by my round wound strings. She needed an epoxy job, so I figured I might as well try it out.

Here's where you guys can come in with some advice.

I know its already done and all that, but i still want your opinion on canned epoxy coating as opposed to pints and gallons. I wanna gather ALL the info i can before touching my dear dear 5 string. :help:
 
#2
Without knowing anything about spray can epoxy, I'll go out on a limb and say that it's not desirable. For one thing, real epoxy is a 2-part catalyzed coating. Mixing the hardener and resin kicks off an irreversible chemical reaction that causes the epoxy to harden. Unless those spray cans have two separate chambers for resin and hardener and it mixes when you spray (doubt it), then they're loaded with some sort of resin dissolved in a solvent, which hardens when the solvent evaporates. Or maybe it is a catalyzed finish with air as the catalyst. :hmm:

Anyway, the bottom line is I don't think it will dry as hard, and I wouldn't use it on my bass. That said, I used brush-on polyurethane varnish (this was before I knew better) on my defretted bass, which is probably worse than your spray-on epoxy, and I never had any problems with it.

EDIT: If you want the real deal, check out a marine supply store. The West Systems stuff at West Marine is supposed to be good. It won't be cheap though, and it's tough to buy in small quantities. I've heard the Devcon epoxy sold at hardware stores is pretty good, too. Make sure to get the clear kind and NOT the 5-minute stuff. You need more working time than that, and the slower setting stuff dries harder, too. If you can't find any of that stuff, Stew-Mac sells suitable epoxy in reasonable quantities.
 
#3
Epoxy is a 2 part product. I don't know how those guys that market spray epoxy made it work, but it's best to stay with what's used commonly.

You can buy west system on most boat/marine shops. They are normally used for patching stuff around boats. It doesn't say exactly where you are, but you can mail order a kit of both system three and west system epoxy that'll be enough for several basses.
 
#6
It's all good advice, but also look into coating the fingerboard with cyanoacrylate (superglue) too. Hambone described how he does this in another thread, and I did it once as he described with excellent results. It's really hard, and with predictable results.
 
#8
Well for my canned epoxy, it says "epoxy enamel" on the can, and in french (I'm in Montreal) it says "émail époxyde". Now "époxyde" would mean "very similar to" epoxy.

But I'm still giving it a shot with my old 4 string bass. I don't really care about that bass, and worst case around I'll buy a new neck.

Though I *will* go to some boat material shop and buy that epoxy. Or I'll see what else I can get.

I really appreciate all the advice! :D
 
#10
THIRSTYGUMS said:
When you guys talk about Epoxy do you mean the epoxy glues that you can buy in small double barrel plunger dispensers like this?:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Marine-Evercoat...7QQihZ015QQcategoryZ15272QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
is that all there is to it?
Click to expand...

Pretty much, except that the brands mentioned in this thread are probably higher quality than your typical "syringe" epoxy. I wouldn't buy the syringe-style things anyway because they're a pain to dispense.

By the way, do any of you guys thin your epoxy? I've read (on frets.com, I think) that alcohol can be used for this.
 
As an eBay Associate, TalkBass may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.
#11
Alec W. Conway said:
Well for my canned epoxy, it says "epoxy enamel" on the can, and in french (I'm in Montreal) it says "émail époxyde". Now "époxyde" would mean "very similar to" epoxy.

But I'm still giving it a shot with my old 4 string bass. I don't really care about that bass, and worst case around I'll buy a new neck.

Though I *will* go to some boat material shop and buy that epoxy. Or I'll see what else I can get.

I really appreciate all the advice! :D
Click to expand...

Even check woodworking shops. One near me carries the System 3.
 
#13
fookgub said:
...By the way, do any of you guys thin your epoxy? I've read (on frets.com, I think) that alcohol can be used for this.
Click to expand...

You can thin epoxy with denatured alcohol or acetone. With acetone you should never exceed 10% of the mix and with denatured alcohol I think it's more like 50%.

By the way, MIX RATIO of hardener/resin as detailed by the manufacturer is critical, especially with west system epoxy. This is why I prefer system three, it's a lot more forgiving in the mix ratio (small differences don't make the chemical process fail) and it's also clearer, as west system epoxy has a kind of an amberish tone to it's color.
 
#14
I cheked Home Depot near my house and they dont carry any kind of epoxy. Then I went to one of the local competitors, Reno Depot, and they only carried the canned epoxy I talked about. Those are the two biggest names around for wood related products. Guess I'll have to chek in smaller shops.
 
#16
Allright, good news.

I went down to my shop in my basement to chek on my bass this morning. The canned stuff i put was crystal clear and rock hard. I set up my strings and came back up to chek it on my amp.

Tone is slighty brighter, sustain greatly improved. Great result overall as far as I can tell right now.

It's Krylon Epoxy Enamel if anyone wants to chek it out.

Way easy to apply, the spray does the spreading for you. And the stuff dries ultra fast. I put 3 coatings with a light sanding in between each. Took me 4 hours. Then I left it to dry overnight. Thumbs up!
 
#17
how much epoxy do you need?
i was digging around the basement last night and my dad has some little epoxy packets...i dont imagine theres much in them, but there was two sides to each packet, so im assuming its the same 2 part product your all talking about.

the packets arent very big i was just wondering how much you think i would need to coat just one 4 string neck...pints and gallons sounds a bit extreme.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back