plywood sink coating

Chuck_P · Jan 19, 2012

Just wandering how many may have used Sherwin Williams' Waterbased Tile Clad Expoxy finish for coating their darkroom sink----I was in their store today and came across this product. It's listed for for steel and masonry applications, but seems like it would be good for coating a wooden sink as well, pretty expensive though. I'm goint to go with the expoxy paint route as I don't want to use fiberglass.

Chuck

Rick A · Jan 19, 2012

I'm not familiar with that specific product, but it sounds like it will do the job. Garage floor epoxy coatings work exceptionally well.

Dan Henderson · Jan 19, 2012

I just finished the dry side of the darkroom in the house I moved in to, and tomorrow morning I begin the dry side. I intend to build a plywood sink and am planning to use West Marine Systems epoxy. It seems to be the most recommended product for this purpose.

Rick A · Jan 19, 2012

It is great stuff, but sooo danged expensive, regular epoxy based paints work just as well. There is always Bondo glass kits from the auto parts store as well, still cheaper than West System and serves the same function. I used West on a cedar strip canoe that I made years ago, I'm sure the price hasn't gone down any since.

wildbill · Jan 19, 2012

You don't need fiberglass, at all. Get the west system's epoxy, read up on it, put two or three coats on and a few more on the joints. It's not expensive in the long run and will outlast your darkroom. Get two of the small cans, that should do it. I bought the gallon kit (about $135, i think) this last time and didn't use that much of it for a tall, deep, 8ft sink. Make sure you paint the un epoxied surfaces of your plywood to keep them from warping.
Dan, let me know if you have any questions, I had some issues that were resolved with a phone call to west systems, which is in michigan.

jordanstarr · Jan 19, 2012

I used marine paint that is used for boats. It worked okay, but wish that someone could have recommended something better. I have some spots that are almost exposed the wood. I'll have to read it at some point, so I'd be interested to hear what others use. Unfortunately in Canada, our options are somewhat limited in comparison to the USA. Or at least it's harder to find.

dpurdy · Jan 20, 2012

My sinks are 22 years old and don't leak.. I just went to the local plastics store and got epoxy with the fiber glass. Very easy to do. No reason to not do the fiber glass it is no problem at all. I think my sinks will be water proof forever.
dennis

Wayne · Jan 20, 2012

I used swimming pool paint.

Roger Thoms · Jan 20, 2012

Never built a sink, but I have used West System epoxy quite a bit and it's a great product. Very versatile and there is a wealth of info on their website.

Sorry I don't have any insight into the Sherman Williams product you mention.

Roger

Trond · Jan 20, 2012

I used epoxy paint intended for garage floors. The cheapest I could find. Seems to have done the trick.

Trond

Steve Smith · Jan 20, 2012

I think that if I were doing this, I would use the polyester resin intended to be used with glass fibre. Possibly with some glass mat in the corners for added strength.

dpurdy said:
I just went to the local plastics store and got epoxy with the fiber glass.

You ushould use polyester resin with fibre glass and epoxy with carbon fibre.

Steve.

steven_e007 · Jan 20, 2012

I built plywood sinks about 20 years ago.

I took some bad advise and used marine yacht varnish. It isn't very chemical proof and isn't really all that soak proof, either.

One of the requirements of marine products is that the deck of a boat can be baked by high intensity sunlight for very long periods of time. Part of the spec must therefore be good UV resistance. I think this may be what you pay the extra $$$ for in a special yacht or marine finish - and obviously it is necessary in a darkroom!

I wish I'd tried an epoxy or polyester resin.

Chuck_P · Jan 20, 2012

Trond said:
I used epoxy paint intended for garage floors. The cheapest I could find. Seems to have done the trick.

Trond

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Trond,
I'm interested in this idea because I can get this much cheaper at Lowes or Home Depot, the Sherwin Williams product is about $200, over $100 for a gallon of the Part A component and almost $100 for the Part B component. I believe in my heart of hearts that the functionality that is required of this sink should not incur such an expense. I'm curious as to how long has your sink been coated with that type of epoxy paint and how frequently is the sink used? How many initial coats did you apply?

Thanks

jeffreyg · Jan 20, 2012

I coated my plywood sink and counter tops with marine polyester with medium gray pigment added thirty-five years ago and it is still going strong. I put fiberglass cloth strips imbeded in the polyester where the pieces of plywood met. It also helped to form rounded interior corners. You could also use molding for that (I thought of that but after I had already finished). As I recall I did two or three coats.

[Uhttp://www.jeffreyglasser.com/[/U]

Steve Smith · Jan 20, 2012

jeffreyg said:
I thought of that but after I had already finished

I also have a lot of good ideas when it's too late!

Steve.

Trond · Jan 20, 2012

The product I used cost about $75 for both components, 3,6 liters in total and I used 4 coats. I finished building the sink less than a year ago, and I use the sink about once a week. Looks good so far and the coating seems very tough. To early to tell when it comes to long term durability of course, but I can certainly recommend this product (or similar).

Trond

fotch · Jan 20, 2012

I used epoxy and used fiberglass in where ever the plywood would be attached to another section, suce as bottom to sides. Otherwise, epoxy by itself could crack. Sink is 30 years old and still in use. JMHO

Mark_S · Jan 20, 2012

I've done two darkroom sinks out of plywood, as far as I know, both are still working leak free. On one I used fiberglass and west system epoxy - I probably didn't need the fiberglass, but I did it anyway.

The second I painted with an epoxy paint, and then took to a place where they do spray on pickup truck bed liners - and they sprayed that stuff on. It was nice because it has a rubbery finish which kept things from slipping in the sink.

In both cases it was probably overkill, but I'd rather have overkill than have to go back to redo it.

Chuck_P · Jan 20, 2012

Trond said:
The product I used cost about $75 for both components, 3,6 liters in total and I used 4 coats. I finished building the sink less than a year ago, and I use the sink about once a week. Looks good so far and the coating seems very tough. To early to tell when it comes to long term durability of course, but I can certainly recommend this product (or similar).

Trond

Thanks for the picture----did you prime the surface of the plywood first? If so, latex primer, oil-based?

Wade D · Jan 20, 2012

Epoxy floor paint works very well. I've built 2 sinks over the years. Both were made of 2 x 12 pine instead of plywood. Both were securely glued and screwed together then a hardening caulk was used for all joints. The 1st sink (2' x 6') was too small and was left behind many years ago. The 2nd sink (30" x 92") is still in use. After 4 moves and 26 years it still looks good and is water tight. A good coat of floor paint was also put on the outside of the sink and on the stand.

Chuck_P · Jan 21, 2012

This is the product that I am looking at in Lowes----it has a pot life of 2.5 hours, doesn't leave much time to apply a coat, let dry, and re-apply, unless the first coat does not have to be totally dry---it's advertised as a one coat floor application.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_224198-4-00...L=/pl__0__s?Ntt=epoxy+paint&page=1&facetInfo=

Trond · Jan 21, 2012

No priming. No flaking yet!

Trond

Roger Thoms · Jan 21, 2012

CPorter said:
This is the product that I am looking at in Lowes----it has a pot life of 2.5 hours, doesn't leave much time to apply a coat, let dry, and re-apply, unless the first coat does not have to be totally dry---it's advertised as a one coat floor application.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_224198-4-00...L=/pl__0__s?Ntt=epoxy+paint&page=1&facetInfo=

Wouldn't you be better off mixing two batches, I think you are asking for trouble if you mix it all at once and try and do two coats. Btw I do think two coats would be better. I have done two garage floors both with two part waterborne epoxies which were one coat products and ended up doing two coats.

Roger

Trond · Jan 21, 2012

Roger Thoms said:
Wouldn't you be better off mixing two batches, I think you are asking for trouble if you mix it all at once and try and do two coats. Btw I do think two coats would be better. I have done two garage floors both with two part waterborne epoxies which were one coat products and ended up doing two coats.

Roger

This is what I did. I mixed several small batches. Once mixed the paint will start hardening. I don't think applying several coats from the same batch is possible.

Trond

wildbill · Jan 21, 2012

CPorter said:
This is the product that I am looking at in Lowes----it has a pot life of 2.5 hours, doesn't leave much time to apply a coat, let dry, and re-apply, unless the first coat does not have to be totally dry---it's advertised as a one coat floor application.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_224198-4-00...L=/pl__0__s?Ntt=epoxy+paint&page=1&facetInfo=

for about the same price, you can get the right quantity of west systems epoxy shipped to your door. It's sold at boating stores because it works well in making wooden boats or other things that get wet on a daily basis. Lots of us have used it on sinks w/o cloth. Why risk it with a product made for concrete?

http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|10918|12212|309317|636678&id=12198
http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|10918|12212|309317|636682&id=12283

plywood sink coating

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