[Danika]

I bought some new resin today from ecopoxy, got it home, mixed it exactly as the directions stated, 4 parts resin to 1 part hardener – which I thought was a little odd.
Dispersed it to my various containers and added my colour… I left the room for maybe 2 minutes to grab some paper towel, and came back to my containers bubbling and smoking like a damn witches cauldron, and on the verge of melting (they did eventually melt after I got them outside thankfully). WTF is this?! Has this happened to anyone else before?

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Danika,

I’m so sorry this happened to you. How frustrating!

When resin and hardener are mixed together, a chemical reaction occurs that produces heat. This heat is what allows the mixture to cure solid. For some reason, your resin mixture heated up too quickly. In your case, one of two things happened:

1. You mixed more than the recommended mixing amount. I have not used ecopoxy and don’t know what they recommend for their minimum and maximum mixing amounts. I would certainly check in with them to see what they suggest.
2. Something else, besides the hardener, sped up the reaction. This could come from the colors you added or even a reaction with the cup itself. (Certain plastics can do that.) If you got #1 right, then this is the likely explanation.

Let us know what you try next time!

[Katherine Swift]

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

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