Dr. Perkins: Your thoughts on Cam-Cote liner

[heus]

Dr. Perkins,
I wondered if you have any opinions on the product called camcote. It is a food grade epoxy that is used to line galvanized bee keeping honey extractors. Do you know of anyone that has used it successfully on sap buckets? After researching it on the internet, it seems real popular with the bee keeping people. It comes in quarts and is around $12 or so. It dries clear and can be applied with a brush. Any thoughts? Thanks

[tuckermtn]

hues- thats the epoxy that we have used on our buckets- holds up better than the zinc rich primer we tried...

do the epoxying in the summer when you have good drying weather- we did it on one day during feburary in a partially heated shop and had inconsistent results...

[heus]

Eric,
How has it held up? I also wonder if stacking buckets inside themselves causes it to scratch off. If its really durable I think I may use it. If it has to be reapplied every year or two then probably not.

[stoweski]

It absolutely will scratch off. I am also a beekeeper and bought a can to refinish the inside of my extractor. First time I coated the metal I let it dry for a few months. As soon as I reassembled the unit I accidentally hit the wall of the extractor with a piece of the metal basket and it chipped the coating right off. After another recoat I was careful when reassembling it. Works fine now and still no smell after a few years of use.

[tuckermtn]

in my opinion it has held up well- we did it 4 yrs ago and have not had any real issues with it...

again be careful not to apply when its too cold or damp- we had a few buckets that have really thick spots of epoxy on them- clearly applicator (me) error- wonder if you could apply to bucket then somehow rotate on side/roll around periodically to more evenly spread epoxy?

like the product- just need to tweek my process a bit...

-Eric

[DrTimPerkins]

Dr. Perkins, I wondered if you have any opinions on the product called camcote.

I can't comment on that specific product, however we have investigated a number of different paints/primers/epoxies. None have been fully satisfactory to this point.

Be careful when something says "food grade." There are definitely paints out there that say food-contact, but when you look very deep into it you will find that they are typically listed as "incidental" food-contact, meaning, if something splashes onto them it's OK and won't poison the food, but putting food into "direct" contact with them is NOT allowed, and certainly having food stored in direct and "prolonged" food contact is not good.

Most epoxies that are truly food-grade are not meant for non-professional application. They are often quite toxic (take the correct precautions if you do use any of these products), or require special curing procedures (baking) to fully dry and harden. I suspect that's what any of you who've used this product has found......it'll scuff off pretty easily, and if you get it too thick, it'll probably never fully harden. Stuff like this is meant to be sprayed into the inside of tanker trucks and then the tanks are baked in a huge oven at several hundred degrees for hours to cure them. Not likely you're going to do that.

[heus]

Thanks Dr. Perkins