I wrote this to one of the major California glass shops that are now investagating alternatives. I thought it had some good info to post here on Sways. Below I’m writing some tips on making our stuff easier to use. If you take your time epoxy is actually easier to laminate than polyester, uses much less material and eliminates harmful chemicals in the factory. 1. Mix ratio must be adhered to. Deviation from the mix ratio will keep the resin from attaining a full cure. Also the material must be THOROUGHLY mixed. If not there can be soft spots. We use metered buckets (I’m sending you one which we get at the local hardware store) to assure proper mix. We use large paint stir sticks (like the ones hardware stores give you to stir paint). All our resins are 2 to 1 mix ratio by volume. The metered buckets work unreal, actually better than pumps and we laminate right out of those buckets. 2. Additive F. We use it in every batch we shoot, including laminates. It eliminates blush which is the biggest problem in building epoxy boards. It only takes 1cc per ounce of hardener in the mix. We put it in after pouring the resin and hardener into the bucket and then mix them all at once. It makes the resin a bit cloudy but clears out when the resin cures. 3. When laminating, the first thing to do is to pour all the resin out and spread it over the glass. You then wet the rails and tuck them. This gives the resin time to soak into the cloth on the flats. Polyester must be pushed through the cloth. Epoxy just soaks in and it does that in its own good time. It can’t and shouldn’t be forced. Additive F actually helps with this quite a bit. After it soaks in, squeegee out any air and remove any excess. We use plastic, “spreader,” type squeegees. We’ve found that they move epoxy better than rubber squeegees do. They take a couple boards to get wired but after the initial learning curve laminating is much easier. 4. We use VERY little resin. Below is an example of our use levels for different size boards. As there is no “gel” time, any resin left over can be used on the next board. If you run short you can easily mix up additional resin to finish with. Usually we just work out of one bucket and simply keep mixing more material as needed. It isn’t the same, “this bucket for this board,” as polyester. These are estimates for total mixed material. 6’ and under - 9 -12 oz. bottom 12-15oz. deck 7’ and under - 12 -15oz bottom 15-18 oz. deck 8’ and under - 18 - 21 oz bottom 21- 24 oz. deck 9’ and under - 24 - 27 oz bottom 27- 33 oz deck Hot coats run just a bit more than an ounce per foot. For instance a 6’ board would take about 7 oz. per side. Longboards, 9’, take about 12-15 oz. per side. If your glossing use a bit less than a hot coat. We use 3" disposable white bristle brushes for hot coating. We don’t clean them. We use them for one batch and pitch em. Not only do we feel that their not worth cleaning but we’ve also had problems in the past with contamination from cleaned brushes which manifested itself in bad hot coats. New brushes always make for clean hot coats. 5. Do not use acetone for clean up and never let contaminated acetone touch the skin. Any toxicity problems we’ve seen in the past always included contaminated acetone. Not only that but acetone doesn’t work that well with epoxy anyway. Leaves everything sticky. For your hands use disposable vinyl gloves. Clean gloves between boards with scrap fiberglass. I usually cut scrap and pile it neatly on the table so I have plenty ready. Clean your squeegee with scrap glass. Anytime the squeegee gets slick I just wipe it and my gloves down. When the gloves get funky, peel em off and put on a new pair. 10 cents a pair is cheaper than acetone. With so little resin being used very little goes anywhere except on the board so things tend to stay much cleaner. We don’t ever get more than a drop or two on us. If you do get some on you, use Go-Jo or Fast Orange or some other waterless cleaner with water to get it off. These clean epoxy more effectively and are much safer to use than acetone. I think that’s it. You shouldn’t have any problems but if you do my phone number is on the bottle. I also have a cell # 321-223-5276 which I usually have with me always. Thanks for the order and good luck. Sincerely, Greg Loehr
Greg… Thanks for that…I’ll be using some of those tips in the future… Once again, Swaylock’s rules…!!! Paul