I friggin hate epoxy

[Tagger]

I've always battled with epoxy.. my basement is to cool to apply epoxy .. I epoxy them with mirror coat on the kitchen table.. I get set up with the plugs upstairs and my epoxy (unmixed) on the table.. crank the heat in the house about 74 ,,plus I put a space heater on the table..not blowing on the plugs but bouncing of the wall .. then i go away for about an hour... Plugs are not hot,, but the room is toasty.. Its been flowing and kicking pretty good so far .. I only do 6 plugs at a time ,, small batches .. I wear a powderless glove on one hand during and after paint so my oily fingers never touch the plug prior to epoxy ..I had durabilty issues with etex.. a little knick and i could peel it .. Not mirror coat ,

[Jigman]

I never bothered with a scratch coat for the Systems III clear coat. Like Tagger said, the room has to be warm. A spinner helps too. The thing that I found with the Clear Coat is that you really need to mix it well. When doing a batch, I would mix in a small plastic cup for a couple of minutes. Let sit for a couple of minutes, then stir well again. Get everything set up ready to go, then a final mix. Can do up 12 plugs at a time with this stuff. The key seemed to be mixing it well and doing it in a warm place.

Jigman

[Diggin Jiggin]

I think I'm heading back to the mirror coat. I do want to try the clear coat again without the scratch coat, maybe that will make it easier...

thanks guys.

[MAC]

The clear coat is very tempermental temperature wise. If it isn't 70 degrees, with our humidity you will have problems. I use it in the basement but have to crank the heat. The glove is a must too.

[afterhours]

mixing thouroughly and climate control are the keys to a great finish imho. i mix for 3-4 minutes(timed) and have a dehumidifier in my epoxy room and get the results i want.

[piemma]

I was going to post this before DJ's post but I will now. I went back to just mirror coating 2 years ago. Since I don't sell my plugs I am not concerned with looking like a commercial plug. I have posted pics of my plugs and the general consensus was that they looked great.

I usually do 2 or 3 coats of clear gloss. One word of caution!!! Use the same brand gloss as the paint you use. I made the mistake once of mixing different brands and the gloss coat crinkled like crumbled aluminum foil .

[justplugit]

I think the temp along with the proper mix, are the most important things I mix the e-tex or mirror in a cup inside a cup of hot water. Hit the plug with a hair dryer before applyin to warm it, and spin with two 100 watt flood lamps inside the box.

[RIROCKHOUND]

Unless they are being swapped or made for other people, I generally dont coat my plugs... and if I do I generally only do it on needles and poppers....

[Krispy]