For various reasons I chose to use a penetrating epoxy on these cane/umbrella stands as a “finish”. While It’s only the second time I’ve worked with epoxy for reasons other than an adhesive, I was well aware of its “challenges”. Things seemed like they were going well, when I was almost done with the first coat on the first one. I noticed that my foam brush was feeling a bit warm, then I noticed that it was melted, and then I noticed some smoke rising from the mixing cup. I had some thermal runaway occurring. After I had a quick check of the working conditions of my heart as I saw within my vivid imagination, images of my small shop(while only a millisecond it seemed like an eternity) and house going up into flames along with the bit of heat my hands got to feel as I dashed outside with cup in hand, I get to do a safety check. I’m normally a cautious guy and take safety seriously so why I didn’t have a bucket of water next to my table, knowing that thermal runaway is a risk for epoxy, I do not know.