Hello, This is my first post and of course it is a newby question.

I am hoping to skin a part made of ABS plastic and would rather not have it melt into

a shapeless blob. Would the black skinning basecoat be safe to use on ABS?

Cheers,

Rich

Vancouver Canada

Hi Rich,

Thanks for the post and welcome to the forum.

Well, the good news is that the Black Epoxy Basecoat would certainly not melt the ABS like other more aggressive resins might but the bad news (or at least a friendly warning) is that ABS is notoriously difficult to stick to and that you'll need to really heavily 'key' the ABS so that the epoxy can mechanically bond to the plastic, rather that rely on a weak chemical bond. Use a coarse abrasive paper (like an 80 grit) to roughen the surface as much as possible before applying the basecoat.

All the best, Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

Hi Matt,

Hi Matthieu,

I like your thinking and the answer is yes and no. We've had resins release from ABS but then we've had them stick too. It's something you'd need to experiment with in terms of the specific resin and specific ABS.

With other plastics, like polypropylene or PTFE you will *always* get a great release. ABS is somewhere in the middle, neither good to bond to or to release from but it's more on the release side of things than bond!


Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

Thanks for the information Matt. The surface is already textured so rather than smooth it as I

originally intended I will key it instead.

Worse comes to worst I will take a mould from the part and make a proper carbon fibre copy.

(Which would be a better solution just a bit more involved!)