im putting together my plan of attack for glassing a pu board using poly resin and sunbake UV catalyst.
one question (there have been a few!!); what lighting can I use when doing the laminating given that my shed will not have any UV light for obvious reasons, but surely I dont have to work in the dark! are flourescents ok?
I've never used it, but I just learned about this stuff from McDing yesterday - he has experience with it. His advice was NO natural light whatsoever, not even a tiny knot-hole. But regular incandescent light is OK. That's my understanding, someone with more experience will happen along soon, I'm sure!
"...His advice was NO natural light whatsoever, not even a tiny knot-hole...."
Yes...you're going to need it to be pitch black....That's right,,,, pitch black.....It has to be so dark that you will need "night vision glasses".....glassing with night vision glasses is so cool.......
...Ha ha Ha.....
I do repairs with UV cure and I have the door completely open...door faces East. I never start before 10:00am. No worries...I've got about 10 min. Maybe more....Complete glass jobs door is open about 18".....So Cal...Two car garage... In winter I've glassed a complete bottom with the door wide open.......your risk.....not mine....I can do it....
I buy my UV cure catalyst from Mitch's Surf Shop in Solona Beach California.
"...His advice was NO natural light whatsoever, not even a tiny knot-hole...."
Yes...you're going to need it to be pitch black....That's right,,,, pitch black.....It has to be so dark that you will need "night vision glasses".....glassing with night vision glasses is so cool.......
...Ha ha Ha..... Stingray
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HELLO. Did I knot just say "But regular incandescent light is OK."???
"Lets go glassin' now, everybodys learnin how, come on now let's cure with UV..."
i’m getting ready to glass my second board with UV resin, but this time the board will have fusion boxes. I’m guessing I should mix in some MEKP when glassing in the boxes but do I need to add surfacing agent to the resin/MEKP mix?
I also want to do cut laps this time. How long in the sun before bringing it in the pull the tape and cut the laps?
hey kokua...cheeers for that. I think ill work under the flouros, given that LEE mentioned that itll give a few hous working time! Sheeeesh If it takes me longer than that there is something wrong!
I guess I could always do a test run under flouro lights and get some idea if its goingto affect curing!
when i first started using uv resin i did test patches in all the rooms
one room has a frosted glass window it took 1 hr to kick.
in the glass room there is no out side light only flouresent lights it took three days for the resin to kick at stand height.
as ken said you can use wax paper on the racks when flipping but the best thing is clear plastic bags as if the resin is still a little bit tacky you wont get any brown paper residue.
Thanks for all the info. Great tip with the wax paper/plastic bags. I glass in my garage with the side door open and covered with a blue tarp and flouro’s overhead. This set-up gives me plenty of time to get things right before moving the board outside. Looking like a nice sunny weekend, stoked to get board #2 glassed.
So that's my problem, that's why my lams are draining into the foam, and i got bubbles all over the blace....and my cut laps...forget it, I need to cover them with 1 1/2 pinlines.
I've been glassing in the dark..I mean complete dark, so your telling me that i can do this uv stuff with the window open too?.......I see my glassing getting better already.
My $0.02 about glassing with UV resin is that you need to get in the mentality of glassing like you've got catalyst in the resin. That is, if you move slowly, taking your time, you going to use more resin because the foam will be soaking it up. Try to get your lam down and get it kicking ASAP, otherwise you're using extra resin and adding unnecessary weight to your board.
Of course, if you're new to glassing, take your time and get it right, but work on speeding it up. Watch a glasser or, if none are available, get a glassing video and watch their technique. The best one I've seen was posted by bammbamm a year or so ago. He was glassing with epoxy, but the technique's essentially the same with the exception of flooding the rail laps.
You should be putting catalist in the resin even with uv. You just put in less. I am sure somone will say " I don’t use any cat and it turns out great." but most glass shops that use light boxes still put cat in the resin. I do.