| The basic epoxy ingredients we use come from the major chemical manufacturers. We blend and modify our epoxies to meet specific parameters to get the right balance of properties to suit our customers needs. We also add special additives that help to get the air bubbles out and to improve flow and leveling. These additives reduce surface cratering and pin holing that can be a result of a less than perfect substrate. Many epoxy sellers do not incorporate additives or additives of little effect. Our epoxies have a proven track record showing excellent performance for marine and shop use. The strength characteristics, water resistance and the low viscosity of our products are excellent for working with wood and fiberglass. The majority of our business comes from our many satisfied repeat customers, many of whom build boats professionally. They have found that we give quality products and personal service at prices lower than even most discount stores. Give us a try and you’ll agree! |
All Raka Epoxies are 100 % solids with no evaporating solvents and have low viscosity for superb penetration and wetting out of wood and fiberglass. Raka 127 Low Viscosity resin The Raka 127 low viscosity resin is our standard resin. With a low viscosity of 600 centipoise it makes an excellent choice for wetting out fiberglass and penetrating wood. We formulate our epoxies to have very little smell. Raka 900 Medium Viscosity resin The Raka 900 medium viscosity is thicker than our 127 resin but by utilizing more efficient epoxy diluents you will gain slightly higher physical properties compared to the 127 resin. It will give faster curing, much higher strength properties, more rigidity and much higher heat deflection temperatures. It can be used with all our hardeners at normal mix ratios but will yield the maximum physical properties when used with our 5 to 1 mix 631 hardener. Raka 1500 High Viscosity resin The Raka 1500 high viscosity is our thickest resin. This resin is excellent when needing to use thickeners for fillets, knot filling, and other areas where you would want to put as much epoxy on in a single coat. Our standard Raka hardeners come in a variety of speeds from super slow to fast. These hardeners are designed to be user friendly with an easy to understand 2 to 1 mix ratio. All our hardeners were designed to be mixed by volume, but can be mixed by weight for smaller more precise batches. Raka 606 Slow hardener The slow hardener has a slow pot life of about 20 minutes(3oz in cup at 77F). You will have an hour or 2 to work with the epoxy once you put it onto your project. At 77F this hardener reaches a hard finish that can be sanded in about 18-24 hours. Raka 608 Medium hardener The medium hardener has a pot life of about 15 minutes(3oz in cup at 77F). You will have an hour or 2 to work with the epoxy once you put it onto your project. At 77F this hardener reaches a hard finish that can be sanded in about 18-24 hours. Raka 610 Fast hardener The fast hardener has a pot life of about 10 minutes(3oz in cup at 77F). You will have an hour or 2 to work with the epoxy once you put it onto your project. At 77F this hardener reaches a hard finish that can be sanded in about 18-24 hours. Raka 260 Tropical hardener The tropical hardener has an extremely slow pot life of about 45-60 minutes(3oz in cup at 77F). You will have several hours to work with the epoxy once you put it onto your project. At 77F this hardener reaches a hard finish that can be sanded in about 24-30 hours. This hardener does have a tendency to blush after curing and will require being sanded or washed with warm soapy water before apply the next coat. Warmer temperatures will give better results, we recommend doing work in temperatures of at least 60F. While our epoxies will cure in colder environments they must stay above freezing and will take longer to reach a hard finish or full strength. Epoxy at room temperature will reach full strength in 5-7 days. Raka 350 Non-Blushing hardener We feel this hardener is second to none in its ability to resist blushing, white clouding and water spotting. Blushing is the greasy surface film on cured epoxy caused by humidity in the air as the epoxy cures. We tried many non blushing type hardeners before we settled on the 350 formulation. Regardless of the most extreme humidity or cool dropping temperatures our tests show this hardener gives an excellent high gloss and clear, blemish free coatings. This formulation also has the best resistance to cratering and trapped air bubbles in the cured epoxy coating. Raka 350 like our other hardeners has good strength properties, excellent water resistance and the best general chemical resistance of our hardeners. Cured epoxy using the 350 formulation will also give better flexibility to resist impact and wood deformation. The 350 is a 2 to 1 mix by volume. This system has a good pot life approximately 35 minutes at room temperature. The 350 is more expensive than our other hardeners but when combined with our economical Resins the average price per gallon is the best competitive value around. Raka 631 Fast (5:1) hardener This hardener has a mix ratio of 5 to 1. With its fast formulation you have about 8 minutes of pot life, but cures to a hard finish in about 12-18 hours. It makes the strongest epoxy with higher heat deflection temperatures than our standard hardeners. This formulation does have a tendency to blush and will need to be sanded or washed with warm soapy water before coating again. Not recommended for clear coating applications. UV Inhibited Epoxy systems Raka UV Inhibited epoxies were designed for a superior clear coat with an added benefit of some extra UV protection. All epoxies will break down chemically and change colors over time with the exposure to UV light. With the added UV Inhibitors that will slow that process down considerably compared to unprotected epoxy. While we still recommend using a varnish to help with the UV protection this will give you peace of mind knowing the epoxy has a backup if something were to happen to the protection. Raka UV Inhibited epoxies come in 2 speeds, Slow and Fast. This epoxy is an easy to use 2 to 1 mix ratio by volume. The Slow version has a pot life of about 30 minutes and reaches a hard finish ready to be sanded in about 12 hours at room temperature. The Fast version has a pot life of about 18 minutes and reaches a hard finish ready to be sanded in about 4 hours at room temperature. The Fast UV hardener was designed for people that want to be able to do multiple steps in a lamination in a shorter time frame. With standard epoxy you would have to wait approximately 24hrs before you would be able to sand and continue working. We thought that wasn’t good enough. To give you an example: If you start fiberglassing a surfboard at 8am at 77F, you would be able to glass one side and about 12pm would be able to flip the board over and do the other side. After doing the other side around noon by 4pm you can be sanding the overlaps and ready for the final hot coat on your board. Surfboards are not the only market this epoxy can be used for. If you want the UV Protection, the ability to work multiple coats sooner, and the strength of epoxy, THIS IS FOR YOU! CASTING EPOXY SYSTEM This system was specifically designed for large/deep pours that require crystal clear finish without air bubbles. Depending on your volume of pour we recommend not going over 1 inch deep at a time. We also recommend doing the project in a dust free temperature controlled room around 75F. Depending on the thickness of the pour this epoxy will cure hard in 24-48 hours. This was designed to meet the needs of projects that require excellent clarity and thick finishes such as River Tables. |