Man, what an awesome video. Thanks to all involved. I watched it last night and have a few easy questions that I was wondering if anyone has answers to…
1.) He’s shooting his hotcoats off with 35cc per what looks like right under a quart of resin…Isn’t that ALOT? Is it because he’s working in an air conditioned room? When I hotcoated my board, I kicked a quart off with about 12cc’s, outside in 80 degree weather.
2.) As soon as his hotcoat has cured, I think he says “Ok, now it’s ready to sand”…Should you not wait at least 24 hours before you sand the hotcoat or is this directly related to question 1 (Maybe I’m not kicking it enough)?
3.) As soon as he starts sanding the hotcoat with his grinder, it sands nice and even/smooth…This is where I was forced to waste 40 pieces of sandpaper due to IMMEDIATE gum-up. Is this ALSO directly related to #1 (and 2)???
SOMETHING is causing me major hotcoat sanding issues and I’d like to figure out what it is before I do my next board.
Were you working under sun light? The direct sun light fried off the wax before it can rise properly. In 2 factories with corrigated asbestos roofing panels, the radiant heat, beaming down on the boards during the height of summer, cooks off the wax too
Hmmmmm…I’m working under two big “E-Z Shelter” tarp-like things. Once up, there is no direct sunlight in the area at all. Once my hotcoat had cured, it wasn’t sheet-like smooth, it was fairly bumpy, like if you got down low and looked at the board, you’d see nickel size “divits” or “bumps” where either the low (or high, I couldn’t tell) spots were waxy and the others were shiny…If I can figure out why that happened, I could save myself about 6 hours of sanding with gummed up paper trying to get through it all!
More temperature outside = less catalyst. Too much catalyst = a brittle hot coat. Too much catalyst = a stressed, rushed glass job, too little catalyst = gooey 4 day mess. When we did your cut lam on the bottom we used 15 cc @ 1 quart of resin, and it was about 85-90 degrees outside, it kicked in 10 min, just enough time to clean tools and brink a beer. Just think what would have happened if we used 30 cc.
Mr. Clean has the bitch’n controled environment that all us hacks would love to have. Keeping the environment at a perfect 70 degrees or so would allow you to micro manage your catalyst ratios. Hummm today I’ll kick this board with 23.175 cc. Mr. Clean has it down to “the science”. I think your ratios were just about right for the environment / first board / stress level. As you get faster and confident hotcoating, you can kick it faster up to a point. The goal (my opinion) is to be pulling the tape off the hotcoat around 15 min. Hot coat brush on 5 mins, clean up 5 mins, let gell set/wax rise 5 mins. pull tape. Keep a log of temps, cat ratio to resin, time of day. That way after a few boards you can refer back and get the optimum ratios.
One of my first 60’s restoration job I did, I kicked the hot coat at a whooping 5cc for 2 quarts of resin in the middle of winter during a rainy evening. it took 5 days for that beast to kick off, every fly, spider, dog hair in San Diego County landed on that board, Swaylock wasn’t around then, I wish it was. You’ll get use to it.
Let me see if I can remember the hotcoating thing.I don’t even have a copy of my own video anymore.Anyway the room is cold,probably more like 68 degrees.The 35cc catylization is pretty much the norm for those conditions using Reichold Gloss Resin.I really don’t measure catylist anymore,it’s more of an eyeball type thing depending on conditions.We learned many years ago that the perfect scenario for hotcoating and especially glossing is “A cold room with a hot batch”.I like to pull the tape within 15 minutes.I also do them thick so the wax will rise.If the wax doesn’t rise you will have a gummy hotcoat.If you don’t have a temp controlled room get your butt out of bed a 5AM and do the work.When I pulled the last tape and said the board is ready to sand I was reffering to the next step.That video is pretty casual and not too technical…I wanted it that way.I am kinda surprised that you guys liked it,I figured I would get hammered on some things.We had to cut a lot of other stuff like putting in Future Boxes…and setting up thrusters etc.You can email me on the personal message deal at the top of the site if you wish. R.B.
Thats a big issue and you are dead on.Get the resin on…crosstroke twice…one pass lengthwise and let it flow.For some reason everybody starting out wants to f*&% around with the resin.Its not foreplay…its hotcoating.
I like to start up at the nose, and tickle the outline with my brush down across the neck and toward the center… a couple of firm strokes on the hips and I’m usually about ready to start giving some attention to the tail… sorry, I couldn’t resist.
It definately sounds like your having a wax problem Tenover… but a little more cat might help. I usually glass in my garage, out of sunlight… but my last board I did at 18 degree C, and put in 30 cc for a half quart of hotcoat. I spread the resin, cross-stroke twice, lengthwise once, scan the coat for any brush hairs or debris, and it’s just about time to pull tape… there really isn’t much to do with the hotcoat, it takes but 5 minutes.
My shop isn’t air conditioned yet…cleanlines says he has his eyes on a unit for me…I hot coat above 80 degrees with no problem…the 15 minute trick to me is the key…If you can pull the tape in 15 minutes you batch is about right…However I cheat…I throw some suncure in the mix so if it’s kicking slow I just walk it out to the sun…presto…it also helps living in the same town as “cleanlines”. When I totally F#$k things up I call him to help bale me out!
This got me thinking about something.I once bought some premixed hot coat resin in a gallon can and I ran in to the same problem.Seems like the wax had settled to the bottom of the container and just shaking it did not get the wax mixed in.As I recall I dumped most of it into a bucket and stuck a dowel into the original can to losen up the wax.After a good shaking I poured it all into the bucket and stirred well.I worked fine.You can actually see the wax floating in a bucket of hotcoat resin if its right.Herb Spitzer(as usual) came up with an unreal thing about using wax paper on a gummy hotcoat that was supposed to work.Another thread long lost.Herb???KOkua???
A search for “wax paper” in the archives…this was the first thread that came up, tip courtesy of Herb Spitzer:
…YOU CAN ALSO DRAPE WAX PAPER OVER THE LAM COAT AFTER IT SETS-UP.Squeege the waxed paper down to the lam coat and let it set for a period.THEN COME BACK AND PULL THE PAPER…GET IT.Herb
…You can apply the wax paper right after the brush work is completed.
…By-the-way, That should have been apply the waxpaper to the lam resin??? I think???
…You can just add parafin wax to your lam resin (add a bit of styrene too.The Styrene is what brings the wax to the surface).As the resin “goes off” ,the styrene evaporates at the surface taking the wax in the mix topside.
…If you’ve already put the coat down and it gummy long after the fact,you can heat-up some parafin and rub it on the surface of the gummy coat(That is if the coat is not too soft).Then while heating the surface up with the sun,hair dryer,heatgun, mom’s car…er scratch that last one.Wipe the excess build up of wax off and evenly spread a thin transparent coat of the parafin on the gummy coat.
…Always shake/stur up your can(resin,wiseas*) well,and never hotcoat up-side-down.Herb
Whoa, what’s this about mixing suncure with regular catalyst? What kinda ratios makes this work? I’m working on my first board now, and im not up to glassing yet, but we got some suncure catalyst, and after working with regular catalyst doing bard repairs, i tend to like the slower gel time to cut laps and pull tape, etc., a comodity using cuncure doesn’t allow. If I could get a mix of slower gel time with a nice quick dry time when i cut the laps after it gels in the sun, that would be perfect for doing laps on this board. Anyone have more info?