[Katherine Swift]

This question comes from Robin:

I was mixing my resin (envirotex lite) and noticed it was really cloudy. I looked it up and I believe one container was contaminated with water. I put the cloudy batch mixing cup in the trash and after a few minutes the mixing cup was burning hot and melted the cup! Why did this happen?

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Robin,

When resin is smoking, it means it has heated up very quickly. (I’m glad you didn’t hurt yourself!) There are a couple of different reasons or ways this could have happened.

1. The manufacturer recommends mixing no more than 1 gallon total at once. If you mixed more than this, the mixture can heat up quickly.
2. Your resin/hardener could have reacted with something in your mixing cup. I have seen this happen with styrofoam and red party cups.
3. In your case though, something already likely happened with resin or hardener (whichever was cloudy). Neither should be cloudy, so it sounds some kind of chemical change already happened. Whatever it was likely caused the smoking you saw from your mixing cups.

[Luna]

My epoxy got overheated/smoking using a hot gun. Is my Epoxy project damaged or destroyed? Advise on what do do next, please.

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Luna, this article explains what happened. https://resinobsession.com/resin-resin-resin/why-is-my-resin-hot-reasons-for-hot-resin-resin-getting-hot/

If your resin cured as expected, then the project should be fine.

[Katherine Swift]

This article explains why your resin is smoking: https://resinobsession.com/resin-frequently-asked-questions/epoxy-resin-overheated-resin-is-hot-and-smoking/

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