U guys know best so i figured id ask. Last night i finished hotcoating a repair and was expecting it to be sandable by morning. There is a 6 foot swell and i dont have a board to use. Is their any quick fixes to dry the resin faster. It gelled around midnight last night but still is not sandable. All help greatly appreciated!!!
good hotcoat resin shouldnt be tacky very long after its gelled,and also i dont think you really have to sand hotcoat pretty shure most of thats for looks…like i did a patch on a deck pretty large not long ago…none of it affected the rails…the guy wanted to ride it, so i said either ride it like it is , or heres a sander get to work…he sanded any sharp parts and left a little alone …but if its still tacky im not shure if you would want to get all sticky riding it
The hotcoat should gell within about 15 minutes. Sounds like you under catalyzed for conditions. You can sand it down with 50 grit and sacrifice the sandpaper, because it will gum up pretty quick, but at least you’ll get the job done. Eventually it will harden. You might try painting on a thin coat of sanding resin that is catalyzed hot, after you sand it down with the 50 grit. It will help set up the softer resin below. Doug
It should have kicked by now. Maybe you forgot to add the wax, didn’t hit the right ratios, or the resin/cat is spoiled.
Sand it off and try it again - it should litterally kick by the time you get the board to the beach (do the final sanding later tonight).
If it hasn’t kicked this second time, you prob have bad/spoiled resin or cat. In this case, surf it as is - You already have it repaired (I was following your earlier posts) with cloth so strength should not be an issue. Slap a sticker over it for any possible pinholes and ride 
We only get hurricanes once a year! The real problem would be missing the waves…
Get out there
HerbB
Well heres the results. By 7:30 this morning i came down to check on the repair and it was somewhat hard. Past gelling but not fully cured. I rough sanded the whole area with 80 grit until the area was free of all sharp edges and feathered the edges. Surfed it from 11am-2:30pm and got to see the best conditions all year. Board was fine just had to rough sand out and sand particles that got stuck in the resin. Later tonite i sanded down to the laminate coat just above the cloth, and re-hotcoated the entire area. It was sandable within the hour and only needed to be wetsanded with 280grit. Thanks for the advice, b/c i almost missed completely epic conditions.
–tom
P.S. --by any chance to you think the resin might not have kicked because of high humidity?
It was pretty bad last night so yeah, it could have.
I’ve also had problems in the past from playing with it too much once on the board - I’d put the fillcoat and keep moving it, pushing it, etc and I believe the styrene/wax never gets to the surface the way it should. I also think it makes the styrene evaporate faster than the resin kicks.
Air movement can also cause problems evaporating the styrene too fast. That is, if you had fan or was doing it outside, etc.
Hopefully, more wave coming our way - Frances, please stay offshore and ride up the coast for us…
Best,
HerbB
well yea all of the above basically messed it up i think.I had a fan on it thinking that it would dry faster. It was humid as hell last night. And after the hotcoat gelled but was still somewhat workable, i tryed to feather the edges with a paint brush to minimize sanding time. Well atleast i know for next time.
Howzit 5foot9, Here on Kauai the humidity gets to 110 % in the winter And I’ve never had it affect a hot coat, catalyzed laminations yes. And when it comes to gloss work I just warm the resin in hot water before using it. If any thing humidity will slow the kick off time and since you want the wax to rise to the surface, a slower kick time would be a plus. Yeah I know 110 % humidity sounds crazy but i have a hygrometer in the shop that is fine tuned so I know it’s readings are right on. Aloha,Kokua
Kokua, no offense here because I have learned quite a lot from your posts but here is a little correction. According to thermodynamic principles, its not possible to have a humidity of 110%. Air that has reached 100% humidity will start condensing if the temperature is lower or more moisture is introduced. Basically, air cannot hold more moisture than 100% before we start seeing rain or dew forming.
If your hygrometer is reading 110% most likely is not calibrated. Here is simple way to calibrate it using a wet towel:
- Dampen a towel so it’s soaked but not dripping. Wrap it completely around your hygrometer.
- Wait 30 to 40 minutes, unwrap, and quickly check your hygrometer reading. It should read 98% or higher.
- If it does, you’re done and your hygrometer is correctly calibrated.
- If it doesn’t, then turn the screw in the back of the hygrometer until the reading is 98% or greater. You’ve successfully calibrated your hygrometer and you can return it to the humidor. You should calibrate it again in about a year.
- If you don’t want to fiddle with the screw on the back of your hygrometer, then simply make a mental note about how far off your hygrometer was. Say after the towel, your device read 110%. You know it’s about 10% off.
No moving air around hotcoats or glosscoats! For repairs, brush the hotcoat vertically, then horizontally and then leave it alone until gelled. Watch the cup to see when that is. Pull the tape, and while it’s still rubbery, cut or scrape the tape lines with a razor blade. If you did the filling and lamination properly, you can ride it in a couple of hours. After your session, check for any water infiltration, sand it, re-hotcoat, sand again.
Howzit cappio777, I know it's strange, but my hygrometer has been calibrated and works fine. You need to realize that here we sometimes get 1" of rain in 15 minutes. I've always said that 110 % has to be wrong but another person who has a hygrometer has had the same readings. It can get so bad that home electric wiring is grounding out and my computer ground fault goes nuts, and that's real scary. But the bottom line is even if it's pouring rain I can still do hot coats and have no problems. In 1990 we had a 100 year storm that dumped 38 " of rain in 24 hrs. The coastal waters were brown for 2 weeks from the run off from the rivers and streams. Aloha,Kokua
Howzit Kokua, man I hate to be there during one of those downpours. Here we get 6 inches in 24 hours and people think its the end of the world. Flooding everywhere and you might even see a catfish slapping you on the ankle if you are not careful.
Nah bro, I am talking in the engineering and scientific when it comes to humidity. I used to teach physics as undergrad and basically its impossible to have anything over 100% humidity. Even when I was taking thermodynamics the professor used to mess with our heads giving us values higher than 1…which translates to bigger than 100. One-hundred percent humidity means the air is completely saturated and is holding its maximum amount of water vapor. That will make it appear foggy outside with perhaps some drizzle or mist. Doesnt mean that it has to rain but there sure is some kind condensation forming.
On another topic but I am gonna blame it on “humidity”, hehehe. The last board I made I left the FCS drying and held them with masking tape. I came back 20 mins later and the masking tape came off on the side fins and the toe in is slightly off, they point further passed the nose. Well I rode it and didnt notice anything “funky” but my concern is that since they arent centered would the plugs break off from the resin after some more sessions on it? I dont want to re-do it again and was looking on some other way to reinforce them without taking them off. That is, if they do need to be reinforced. Shaka