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Warren (Staff) - 6/25/2018 4:20:30 PM

What a nightmare that picture shows! I can see how you must be frustrated with the end result, especially with the time laying the pennies down - especially in that special layout.   Unfortunately we can only see that some form of mixing error has occurred to cause that result.  Some bits, as you say, have cured properly on the surface which tells me that some bits of the resin did fully cure and were hence fully mixed.  I understand you mentioned that you were careful to follow the instructions and chances are it's just a simple mistake or oversight that has ruined the project.  It sounds like it is something simple like several containers were mixed up and in a simple error, one was missed  and made its way onto the floor thus meaning the resin all mixed together to make a mass that in places is fine and the rest not fine.  It would, to an extent make sense for some of the mixed resin to rise as it settles and begins to cure which could explain the reason why the top in many areas seemed fine.  Or it could be the last bucket poured out was fully mixed and covered over the poorly mixed batch. We know of a few people who have made similar mistakes. I did something similar when doing a lego table with GlassCast, although luckily I realised long before it was curing so recovery was a bit easier.

Without having been there and with the elapsed time, I doubt it would be possible to work out exactly what happened. The next focus is to try and recover the floor as best you can. If the whole lot is peeling off as in the photo, peel off as much of the resin as you can.  Then using a plastic scraper (even a cut up old milk container or similar), scoop up and remove as much of the runny resin as you can.  Then you would need to use rags to get the floor as dry as possible.  It will still likely be tacky at this point from acetone residue. You can then use a cloth made slightly wet, but not soaked, in acetone to break down and remove the remaining tacky feel.  Don't go too liberal with the acetone or rub too hard as it is quite a strong cleaning solvent and you wouldn't want to clean up the tarnished pennies.  Just wiping over should be enough to get rid of most of the tack.  Once all dried and fully clean, you would be ready to go again.  If you have any more questions then please let me know.

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Warren (Staff) - 6/27/2018 4:26:19 PM

Hi Dawn

Thanks for getting back to me.  Its a real shame you can't get enough of the mess up to be able to leave the pennies in place..  That is a lot of extra work and I can completely understand how soul destroying that must be.  I would seriously consider another attempt at cleaning the  resin off, even scraping it off as a gloop then using acetone to soften anything that's too hard to easily scrape off. Unless the resin has fully hardened, I would expect it is easier to get the resin off the floor than the bonded down pennies off the floor.    If you have to remove the pennies, you can use acetone to wipe down the coins, although only  use what you need rather than soaking the coins for a period of time.  Most solvents or acidic/caustic cleaning agents will strip off the  oxidization off the coins leaving them as new. - coke is a classic  example of this - a few pennies left in a glass of coke overnight will  be shiny and clean by the morning in most cases. 

Doing a bit more investigation, I have checked the batch of resin and hardener you were supplied and we have sold over 1 metric ton since receiving that batch with no reported issues so far (it is our most popular product so we literally sell many tons per year). We have even used the same batch in some pigment experiments with no issues so I can be as confident as possible that the resin itself is unlikely to be a defective batch.  The way we decant and bottle the resins is such that it would be again extremely unlikely that some additional contaminant could get into it causing issues with just your specific bottles (or a small quantity).  That leads me to believe that the only reasonable explanation is a problem with the process or a simple error at some stage which has caused the issue.

From reading the description,  did you measure out each part by weight on scales or pour it directly into the bucket?  If the later, depending how much of the dregs you got out the bottle, you might have a slight error in mixing ratio, although  in this case I suspect that alone would not cause the extent of your issues. 5kg is a bit big to mix in one go in our opinion.  We tend to recommend mixing in batches of 3kg or smaller due to practicality issues.  It is physically quite hard to mix a 5kg batch.  Also simple things like using a relatively small mixing stick, round stick or something with a small surface area can all lead to making the mixing less accurate, even if you did mechanically stir it for the recommended time. For example our resin mixing stick we recommend has a large flat surface which is sized perfectly for ensuring the resin is suitably mixed at the recommended batch size.