How to Clean up Epoxy Resin

Epoxy, unlike other paints and coating products, is a heavy-duty adhesive you can use for many projects, including fixing your patching cracked floors and coating furniture.

Depending on your project, the adhesive can be sticky and tough on surfaces, making it complex to remove and clean if you accidentaly have a spill or come in contact with clothing.

As a professional epoxy manufacturer here are some different ways we have found to easily clean up epoxy resin. 

 

Using Vinegar To Clean Up Epoxy Resin From Your Skin

Regardless of whether you wear gloves or not, the extent of epoxy contacting your skin can lead to scarring and irritation problems. Wear gloves or other protecting gear to prevent extensive contamination and stickiness. Also, remove and clean the adhesive by soaking vinegar on a cleaning cloth or towel.

Gently rub the contaminated part until the adhesive peels or softens.

Vinegar is one of the best options for cleaning up resin from your skin. When contaminated on the deeper layers of your skin, vinegar dissolves resin and moves it to the upper layers to easily wash it off with soap and water.

Sometimes vinegar may fail to clean resin thoroughly. When this happens, we can use Isopropyl alcohol. The alcohol has the similar features as vinegar. Still, it works by surpassing other cleaning solvents by containing solid chemical bonds that easily break elements in contact, including your skin and resin.

Good news is you can use hot or cold water to scrub and clean off resin particles after cleaning up with Isopropyl alcohol. At the same time, another option you can look to is citrus-based cleaning solvents, especially hand cleaners. 

We prefer soaps that have a grit added, similar to Fast Orange or Gojo brands. 

These citrus-based cleaning solvents are great to have when using epoxy resin. The reason you'll use these solvents is that they come with dissolving solid abilities, easily peeling and softening the adhesive.

 

 

Using Rubbing or Isopropyl Alcohols To Clean Up Epoxy From Plastic and Glass Surfaces

Besides affecting your skin, the resin also negatively affects surfaces such as plastic and glass. When this happens, your utensils or upholstery become fragile and break unpredictably, thus the need to immediately clean off the resin. Get a paper towel and soak it with either Isopropyl Alcohol or vinegar and gently rub the surface until the adhesive peels and softens off.

When resin sticks and hardly rubs off from these solvents, try and use another strong cleaning solvent called denature alcohol. Denature is better considering it is more potent and has strong chemical bonds that break the connection between resin and contaminated surfaces.

*** Always test small areas before use on large areas. 

 

Removing Epoxy Resin from Clothing is not ideal, but not the end of the world. 

In the case you did and need a way to try and remove it, try the following. 

  1. Get just the resin on your clothes? 

    Before using a solvent based Acetone or lacquer thinner to remove the resin, remember this may permantly stain or dye your clothes. They can also be flammable. Never use solvent directly on your skin. Remove clothing first before treating a spot of resin with solvent. Thoroughly wipe the spot with a paper towel dampened with solvent, then wash with hot, soapy water. Be advised, solvents can permanently change the color of some fabrics and melt others.

  2. Just get the hardener on your clothes?

    Hardener is the more hazardous of the two components when on clothing but may be easier to remove. Epoxy hardener by itself is best cleaned off with hot, soapy water. Solvents are not effective on these spots. Stick to soap and water.

  3. Getting mixed epoxy off of fabric

    Believe me, if you allow mixed epoxy to cure, it will. The spot will eventually crack and then could have a hole in your clothing when trying to remove it.  First, place a piece of scrap wood behind the area, dab waterless hand santizer on the spot, and scrape it off with a straight edge. Repeat four or five times. Then scrub with dish soap. If there is still residue in the fabric repeat until the spot disappears, then rinse thoroughly with water. Be careful, the more your repeat the more likley a wear spot will appear. 

The easiest way to clean epoxy resin from clothes and or fabric is to spend more time prepping your work area and preventing the accidental spill on your clothes or fabric. 

 

Hope this was helpful. 

Let us know what you would like to create below in the comments.

 

**If you made it this far down, We occasionally pick the best comment to win a giveaway. -hint-hint

 

We created a handy comparison guide to help understand the different properties of our epoxy resin. Just follow this link here https://www.theepoxyresinstore.com/blogs/news/what-epoxy-resin-is-best-for-my-project

https://www.theepoxyresinstore.com/ is an expert manufacturer of various epoxy resins that can be used for both craft projects and industrial applications.

We also offer colors, pigments, glitter, and other additives for various epoxy resin projects.

 

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Address: 540 Crane St suite A Lake Elsinore, CA 92530
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12 comments

Dean Sanderson

Dean Sanderson

i am very new to this. when i have poured my resign and it has cured and i take it out of the mold sometimes it has an edge id like to remove. no matter what i do, i still end up with fine scratch marks. also if i scratch a piece handling it. basically, how do i get it to be totally clear and shiny.

thanks,
Dean

TERS

TERS

Will try to answer some questions here…

When Items are still tacky after several days of drying, the culprit is typically unmixed material in the pour. Scraping the uncured material with a plastic straight edge is going to be the best move prior to re-applying a properly mixed pour over it.

For small cloudy areas, on cures, sanding it off our out of the cure is best. This can be done by hand if really small or by using a hand tool like a dremmel to carve it out. Do a light sand 200 grit to help with adhesion, then Add the project back to the mold and repour. The new epoxy will cover up the imperfections like magic.

Removing epoxy from glass cup or tumblers, ew have used exacto knives and an isopropyl alcohol to remove excess cured epoxy.

For the carbon fiber blades, Id consider the MarineGuard 8000 as it has outdoor protection properties and works well with cabosil thickening agent which you may need if trying to create curves or wetlayups.

Jim severson

Jim severson

10 % isn’t enough but thanks anyway

Barb

Barb

What about fabric? Can you get resin out of fabric? Thanks for the tips.

carl mcmurtry

carl mcmurtry

i have used the 7000 resin on coating my wood bowls after i turned them and after 2 weeks they are still tacky. I have mixed per instructions which is 1 to 1 ratio. So I can’t recommend this product. I was told by the Resin store to scrape off the resin and recoat the wooden bowls. That’s almost impossible to do.

Anne Everett

Anne Everett

Hand sanitizer works great to remove resin and it’s less expensive than Isopropyl Alcohol. Use the same procedure, work the hand sanitizer into the resin, it will become “grainy”, then wash with soap and water to remove the grains.

Virginia Valentine

Virginia Valentine

Can you clean resin off clothing?

William Jones

William Jones

I’m just getting a little bit more time to get back to try and take your advice and help to put in my work and play with some more creative ideas. Thank you for giving us some of your knowledge and time.

Karen Ratti

Karen Ratti

on my first project I accidently had tilted the piece (so slight you couldn’t really see it). Well… some of the epoxy ran to one side and formed a ‘bump’. I tried to sand it down and now I’m stuck with a cloudy area on (what should be) a clear finish. Any ideas??? Thanks! Karen

mary pledger

mary pledger

Can hair spray be used to get stuck on resin from inside a glass cup. I soaked it in hot soapy water and even put it in dishwasher and it didn’t work

Joe R

Joe R

You guys are the best! Thank you for keeping in touch. Joe

Robert Bennett

Robert Bennett

I’m looking for some epoxy resin to make carbon fiber wind generator blade do you have a suggestion?
Best regards
Robert Bennett

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