Base coat

J

josie

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I just turned my final pass on three cues I am finishing up. I am going to use an epoxy as my base coat/sealer. Should I let the cues sit awhile to breath or can I go ahead and apply a thin coat of epoxy. I thought I read on here where some guys let the cues hang awhile after their final pass but could not remember why and could not find it in the search function.

Thanks for your help.

Eric
 
i do it like this final pass, sand, clean, epoxy coat all one after the other no real breaks in between then apply finish the next day usually.
 
That depends on the wood or woods.
If it's an acidic wood, it gets the magic formula first.
If it's a pitty wood, it gets some toxic chemical first.
If it's all hard maple, sealer, heat lamp then epoxy.
 
JoeyInCali said:
That depends on the wood or woods.
If it's an acidic wood, it gets the magic formula first.
If it's a pitty wood, it gets some toxic chemical first.
If it's all hard maple, sealer, heat lamp then epoxy.
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Two of the forearms are ebony and one is brazilian rosewood.
 
and whys that joey???

ive finished over both those woods with a slow epoxy, then my finish and its turned out fine.

especially ebony its always turned out really nice.

actually i just put a epoxy finish on last night after i finished that post on a maple foream and ebony pointed cue.
 
JoeyInCali said:
Definitely not suitable for epoxy basecoat before de-acidation.
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The ebony cues have paduak points with holly veneers. I am afraid of using denatured alcohol or something similar because of the chance of the colors bleeding together.

I too have used just an epoxy base on ebony cues before, I was just curious to any advantages of letting the cue sit for awhile before applying anything.

Joey, What would you suggest to get rid of the acid or oils without any bleeding?

Thansk for everyone's help.
 
Trent said:
and whys that joey???

ive finished over both those woods with a slow epoxy, then my finish and its turned out fine.

especially ebony its always turned out really nice.

actually i just put a epoxy finish on last night after i finished that post on a maple foream and ebony pointed cue.
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I seal the acidic wood so when I spread the epoxy , it doesn't take some of that dark oil to the lighter wood.
The really acidic one I wait overnight.
 
JoeyInCali said:
I seal the acidic wood so when I spread the epoxy , it doesn't take some of that dark oil to the lighter wood.
The really acidic one I wait overnight.
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Are you just talking about a sanding sealer or is it a secret recipe?
 
I use CA thin on some woods where I don't want bleeding or staining . Remember it goes on thin and takes a few coats . Don't try to put on heavy . Most important to have overkill ventilation . The fumes will kill you ... :cool:;)
 
Eric Wynne said:
I use CA thin on some woods where I don't want bleeding or staining . Remember it goes on thin and takes a few coats . Don't try to put on heavy . Most important to have overkill ventilation . The fumes will kill you ... :cool:;)
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It kills dust mites too.
:grin:
 
josie said:
The ebony cues have paduak points with holly veneers. I am afraid of using denatured alcohol or something similar because of the chance of the colors bleeding together.

I too have used just an epoxy base on ebony cues before, I was just curious to any advantages of letting the cue sit for awhile before applying anything.

Joey, What would you suggest to get rid of the acid or oils without any bleeding?

Thansk for everyone's help.
Click to expand...

If your Ebony is kiln dried it most likely will not bleed the color by sealing with epoxy. Same goes for Padauk. Now Cocobolo and a few others are a different story. I prefer to spray a midst of finish or sealer over Cocobolo and let it dry before wiping anything over the surface as it allows color bleeding really bad. When I say a midst that means a real thin coat that does not run. No flow out coats of anything until that dries.
 
As long as you aren't going to apply one of the sealers designed to seal oily woods, a mist coat is going to be the best thing you can do, and several mist coats may be needed. The sealers come in gallon cans, have a short shelf life, a very short pot life, are hard to get, and are a couple hundred dollars a gallon. Axon Products sells a Koa wood sealer through its distributors.

Don't even think of using denatured alcohol, laquer thinner, acetone or most other solvents including epoxy.

Test scraps of the wood in question to see if it is going to bleed. If it is really bad, you're in trouble, if not, you are probably fine with a mist coat.

I'm a chemist by training and I never heard of anything called acidation so I wouldn't worry about it.
 
Hi,

I use clear shellack thinned with a little denatured, or lacquer sealer depending on the wood. Shellack is great but I think the lacquer sealer penetrates a little deeper and stabilizes colored veneers so I use it for my veneered cues and cues that have ebony next to holly for example.

Both work well with 120 psi of dry air for good luck during sanding.

After flat sanding, I use 4 coats of G5 applied with 3 minutes between coats for a monolithic substrate that I flat sand under my clear coat. The 4 coats allows me to sand all the high spots down without any fear of burning through the epoxy.

Rick G
 
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ive never had luck with 5 min epoxy as a sealer seems to npt level out good enough since it sets so fast.

i tried a new finish on a cue this weekend and it looks really good, i think i may have figured out my permanent finshing system.
 
I have been using West sytem as a basecoat, and sealer, and so far it looks like it works well. I use a water based topcoat from General finishes. I have not had any bleeding problems on ebony yet.
 
Just to give you guys an update:

I went ahead and sealed the two ebony cues with 20 min finish cure (Hightower's epoxy works just as good but I think it takes about 4 hours to set-up). I put a very thin coat on each cue and let them slowly rotate for two hours and them hang them up. I will let them sit for a few days.

One problem I have had on a few cues in the past is bubbles that keep popping up even after using a torch over them to pop the bubbles. I had this problem with one of the cues I did this weekend. I remembered a trick I used in the past. It is a product called Eat-a-Bubble and is used for epoxy on table tops or for fishing rods. Just mist it on the cue while it is turning and the bubbles are gone and it does not effect the finish at all. Just thought I would passs that tip onto guys trying to use an epoxy finish.

I assume there was no need to wait on putting a base coat on a cue after my final pass since nobody mentioned it. I did let them sit over night just because it was getting late.


Thanks everyone for the help.
 
olsonsview said:
I saw that you have a new finish system for cues, care to share??
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i use a nice thick coat of finish cure epoxy, sand smooth with 220 and then brush on auto clear coat. thats right brush it on and spin it slowly.

i had a 2 bubbles on the hole cue small though, the rest of the finish looks like glass im going to sand and buff it out later today.

over all it was the easiest finish job ive done yet.:thumbup:
 
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