West is MUCH nicer to work with than polyester....
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
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
I made a call and found out that I can paint it after it is coated, very good.
1. Do you coat both sides of the sink with this stuff or just the inside? My sink is 8ft x 30 inches deep with 8" sides, I wonder how much would be needed for a sink that size.
2. Clear but amber colored resin applied over plywood, this is not the look I'm after. I want the plywood to be colored either to a light gray or some off-white color----can the sink be primed and then the resin applied, or does the resin have to be applied to an unpainted wood surface? The joints are caulked with a high quality polyurethane caulk. The reason for wanting an epoxy paint is that I can tint it the color I desire and it seems it would be simpler to apply, just like painting, but I don't really know about that assertion, it's just how it seems to me without any experience with it.
epoxy is best applied to raw wood. I'd remove the caulk, lot's of things don't stick to it and it's not needed if your coating is waterproof. You didn't use birch ply which is more stable but you don't need to coat both sides. Just paint the outside. My first sink was slightly smaller than yours and the links I provided were enough to do 2 coats, maybe I did three. Several coats with a brush to the joints. The nice thing is you can buy powder to mix with the epoxy to die it. Defender sells that as well. My latest sink is 8ft x 30 inches and 18in deep at the back with a drop down basin. I bought the large .98 gal can of epoxy and did three coats with a foam roller (not the right roller cuz it left bubbles). The cans don't feel like I used that much but doing light coats with a roller uses less than sloppying it on with a brush. Those bubbles can be eliminated with a propane torch (manufacturer recommended) if you go over the surface before it sets up. I mix the resin in a beer can with the top cut out.
Here's some attached pics of my new sink in my new darkroom. Whoever buys my house when I die is getting a sink because I assembled it in place and I'm pretty sure it's an inch wider/deeper than the door. The drain is epoxied in place after being routed out so it would sit flush.
For what it is worth..........I'm going with the Sherwin Williams "Water Based Catalyzed Epoxy" paint. The cost of the West Systems epoxy for a gallon of the 105 resin and a quart of the 206 hardener is right about the same as a gallon and a quart of the A and B components of the SW product, ~$150. It was explained to me today also that I would need the pump kit to accurately obtain the 5:1 ratio of resin to hardener, that's another $15 or 20$, then I need to buy at Lowes paint to paint the sink once it's coated and dried, then their is the shipping cost for the epoxy product itself.
I can get the SW product locally with no other associated cost, except a quart of primer.
I can report that I am satisfied with the West System epoxy that I used on the darkroom sink I just finished building. I ordered one day, Fedex delivered the next. The online instructional videos and written documentation were very helpful. I ordered the quart size of epoxy and the matching amount of catalyzer, and got 2 coats plus all of the filleting that I had to do for the corners. Because I have never used epoxy before I ordered the pumps, rollers, mixing tubs, swizzle sticks, etc, which added a bit to the cost. With the exception of pumps for convenience, I probably would not do that again with the experience I now have.
I think that the 2 coats I applied will hold up just fine, but in the near future I plan to build a tray storage area under the sink which I will want to epoxy, so I will put another coating on the sink at that time.
My only complaints; because of inexperience I was spooked by the set up time and rolled it on pretty fast. As a result the surface is not as smooth as I would like, but it is not fine furniture. It is a darkroom sink that is going to get fixer stains all over it, so I am not terribly concerned with final finish.
I was also disappointed in the West Systems rollers, one came apart partway through the first coat. I will probably just buy short nap foam rollers from Lowe's next time. If I had it to do over again, I would use West again. But I am glad I don't have to do it over again. I want to make prints, not sinks.
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