Epoxy colorant

[Steve Bietau]

Can anyone suggest a colorant to use with West systems epoxy?

[Jerry Wright]

Rotten stone. Various amounts give various woodlike shaded.

[Glenn de Souza]

Transtint dyes?

I've used them with epoxy from the box stores, not specifically West systems. Don't see why it would work with one and not the other though.

[Andrew J. Coholic]

Can anyone suggest a colorant to use with West systems epoxy?

I use a fair bit of west systems resin. Been using artists acrylic to tint the product since the 90's. Always add a small amount not to the epoxy after mixing the resin and hardened well. Doesn't take much to make the resin fairly opaque. I have heard of guys using tempra powder paint. But I have no experience other than using acrylics.

[Wayne Lomman]

Pigments work but anything solvent based will change the curing mechanism as these are all solventless epoxies. You might get away with it but you may not. Cheers

[Andrew J. Coholic]

Artists acrylic are water based. Never had any issues with cure or time to cure. I've used it many many times, on some big jobs where we used a few gallons of resin. No issues.

[Mike Henderson]

I use a powdered dye. I don't remember the maker but I buy it at my local wood place (Austin Hardwoods). Works fine. I've dyed epoxy black to mimic ebony.

Mike

[Jamie Buxton]

Transtint works well. With it, you can get translucent epoxy, or by adding more you can get opaque. I've also used universal colorants -- the pigments used to custom-color paints at paint stores.

[Bill Adamsen]

Steve ... West System has an article on adding colorants. I personally have done simple addition of graphite powder to achieve an opaque black color (typically in wood defects, or on boats bonding things like break-away transom panels) with no noticeable adhesion or strength issues.

[Frederick Skelly]

Thank you Bill. That's helpful to me!
Fred

[Jim Finn]

I have mixed powdered chalk to epoxy to fill voids in mesquite. Blue chalk looked a lot like turquoise.