Envirotex Lite coating tips

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Original poster: Vardan <vardan01@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi,

I coated my little coil with Envirotex Lite (available at any hobby 
or hardware store) today.

http://www.eti-usa.com/consum/envtex/envlite.htm

It is cool stuff!!  Add had a few issues mostly due to the fact I had 
no idea at all what I was doing 0:o)))  Here are my tips:

1.	Brush it on, don't "pour it" ;-))  It is too runny and tends to 
just fall off the coil.  The fancy hardwood winder was covered with 
plastic so no big deal.  Just use about a 1 inch (small coil) paint 
brush.  The "cheap" (very cheap!!" brushes are fine.  Probably those 
"sponge brushes" are perfect but I did not test that.

2. 	Use "thin" coats.  It is a two part epoxy thing so you "can" make 
one coat like 1/8 inch think plus if you want to!  But it gets 
bubbles and just is not real beautiful once it gets too thick.  It 
looks very simple just to use multicoats of you want "thick".  My 
single coat is like 1/16 inch :o)))

3.	Bubbles - The bubbles normally rise to the surface and burst 
especially in the presence of CO2 from your breath or a "propane" 
torch.  "NO heat!" it is just the CO2 "gas" that breaks the 
bubbles!!  However, with the coil turning on the winder, gravity does 
not work and the bubbles can be trapped.  A "thin" coat should take 
care of this fine.

4.	Working time - Like hours, so don't rush ;-)))  At about two hours 
it starts to set up and goes pretty fast from that point.

5.	Smell - Does smell, sort of like epoxy on steroids.  Not a bad 
thing, but you probably want a window fan.  Not the type of smell 
that will kill you at all, but it does smell up the room for a few hours.

6.	It does not take much!!  For my 12 x 3 inch coil, mixing up 2 oz 
of the stuff would have been way too much (I did 8 oz ;-))  The 
remaining is making a pretty "paintbrush in epoxy" sculpture 
now...  It is trivial to make more if you need it.

So even with screwups, it works just fine ;-))  Ignore the "pore and 
lots" tips in the printed instructions since that just help them sell 
more of it ;-))  If you have used two part epoxy stuff before, just 
throw the instructions away...  It is one of those things that you 
will do far better the "second time" so no big deal to test it all on 
scraps first.

The coating looks bullet proof and easily repaired if (when) the car 
jack hit it.  A thick glassy coating.

Cheers,

	Terry