Bar Top Coating and working with 2 part Epoxy

What to do if you have a bad poor and then your wife sets something on top of the sticky area. 

It may seem unfixable, but it is not impossible as I will show. 

Just sanding alow will not work. you will need to carefully shave out the uncured part with a hand chisel. 

This is the brand coating I used. 

Prepping the work area. 

Lay plastic down where ever you can to protect the work area. That means under the table and ceiling if you have ceiling open to prevent debris falling onto the project. 

Level the work area out so that the flow of coating is as even as possible. This may require shoving shims under your legs. 

After you have scraped out the bad area and have sanded the surface to smooth edges of the affected area. Clean all dust from the area using mineral spirits then rubbing alcohol.

For sanding, I used an orbital sander with 36 grit paper. To speed up drying I used a heat gun, which you will need for this project to remove bubbles after the poor.

Pour down the middle evenly. Use your clean putty knife to spread and pull epoxy to all edges with light pressure. You want to leave as much as you can on the table so it can level itself out.

use a heat gun to address any bubbles. Just lightly blow heat over bubble area so they rise and pop. Keep gun moving back and forth while keeping cord over your pack to protect work area.

If you're quick and you see a hair you can fish out with a toothpick.

Another way to protect your project is to build a canopy over it as seen here. 

You may have something like this happen. See the nat. In the future they will consider this prehistoric nat and extract DNA to recreate an extinct species of nats. LOL. I love Jurassic Park.

This project can be a real mess, but with proper preparation a disaster can be avoided. This is why you lay down plastic. Paper will not cut it.

Next is to clean up the bottom edges. I used the my sander with 36 grit paper and a razor blade.

 

 

I have 3 coats of Epoxy coating I used the bucket method on the second coat and it did not thoroughly mix enough.. When I did the 3rd poor I just poured hardener and resin into the bucket at the same time and thoroughly mixed for 8 - 12 minutes with a paint stir stick hitting swiping the inner sides of the bucket and across the bottom of the bucket. When thoroughly mixed it has an amber tint to the coating. When Applying you need to move fast.