I use rollers to spread resin when laminating on balsa sheets, that gives very good results. The rollers have short hairs, and take up resin where there is too much and put some back where the fiberglass is dry. It’s also excellent for doing the rails, no drops, only the right amount of resin everywhere, even spread.
Which rollers are you using?
Thanks
We used to use rollers a lot, thin foam ones, which were really good for doing extremely thin to medium thin very evenly applied coats . With a short roller frame in use, the roller sleeves can be cut into inch long lengths… many roller sleeves for the price of one.
Somebody, (Onela?) tipped me to use a small digital scale to weigh the resin mix. I think I paid $30 from Top Notch Scales (http://topnotchscales.com/s/index.html?loadfile=catalog0_0.html) I still use the pumps to put the resin in the bucket, but I weigh it as it is pumped. Much better results and you can easily do very small amounts accurately like for ding repair.
Word of warning. Those waxed paper cups with the volume marked on the side are worse than worthless for measuring. I tried to calibrate them using my scale and they even vary from cup to cup. You are getting a bad measurement if you use them. You run the risk of weak epoxy, or even uncured epoxy. Then you spend hours scrapping it off, you get grouchey, yell at your wife and kids, kick the dog. Your wife finally leaves you, takes the house, you loose your job, start drinking (more). Living on the street. Just a downward spiral. You can avoid all this if you get a digital scale.
Then you spend hours scrapping it off, you get grouchey, yell at your wife and kids, kick the dog. Your wife finally leaves you, takes the house, you loose your job, start drinking (more). Living on the street. Just a downward spiral. You can avoid all this if you get a digital scale.
LMAO!!!
Some manufacturers specify to measure by volume, some by weight, you have to go with what is best for you, digital scales are great, do as Harvaard sez and put them under plastic. I also use plastic calibrated cups that can be reused if measuring by volume, I have used pumps but if used infrequently the hardener one clogs up and becomes useless.
I use what we call ‘mohair’ rollers, short pile about 4" long for all my laminating, can be reused if cleaned out. I use acetone ( have a barrel to use up and then will try out something better if I can find it in the UK) and have no problems with contamination as long as the acetone is clean and roller dried out on paper towel. Also use small plastic spreaders instead of squeegee when needed.
I use medical graduated paper cups & find them to be very accurate. I threw away the messy big syringes. Plus, at $5 for 100, they’re super cheap…
I think, since they’re made for medical use, they are printed to better standards than, say, these:
I thought acetone was a big no-no with epoxy?
I’ve been using epoxy for some small ding repairs now and i’ve got a few questions.
1.) When i mix q-cell to the mix, its all great nice white pourable resin mix…
2.) Once the q-cell dries, there is distinct layers of an area with q-cell near the top, and clear resin near the bottom…
I understand that the qcell would be lighter and so gradually moves to the top, but does anyone else get this problem or is it a resin ratio mix problem or any ideas??
Cheers
Ant
Surfing new years day and all day is the only way to bring in the new year.
Lotsa talk on here about measurements.
I have a batch of 1ml medical syringes (available from good chemists anywhere). These let me measure strong medication accurately for those times the kids are crook. And by accurate I mean down to >0.05ml increments!!!
I’ve used these to measure poly resin/catalyst (ding repairs) and also 5min epoxy (various other stuff).
Can’t see a problem using this for the epoxy I received last week… Assuming I use one only for epoxy and one only for hardener 
hehe!
-doug
I believe RR epoxy is done by volume not weight when 2:1 is used.
Also for post curing I wrap the board in an electric blanket and put it in a padded board bag and zip it up. I get temps in the 105 range.
Christian
I only use it for tool cleaning, and have never had a problem, I know there are contamination concerns If using it to wipe down prior to laminating, in my experience you are better off not wiping with any solvents, just vacuum or blow off dust.
I have both pe and epoxy in the workshop and acetone works to clean tools used with both resins, as I explained though after learning of the health and environmental hazards here on swaylocks, when my drum is gone I will be finding an alternative.
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I believe RR epoxy is done by volume not weight when 2:1 is used.
RR epoxy is mixed 2:1 by volume or 45:100 by weight.
CMP told me about this post cure technique…
Put your board in a couple of large black construction garbage bags
and go put it in your old beater in the hot hawaiian sun…
temps probably will go way off the scale on that one…
Like everyone said vinegar work well breaking down epoxy. The old guy with the beard at Fiberglass Hawaii here told me to use it. What I found at Longs are these wet swipes you attach to the bottom of the Swifter cleaners that have vinegar in them. We usually place our yellow sgueegees in them after lamming to clean them off and them use the wet swipe to clean off any drippings that accidently missed the glassing drip pan and hit the garage floor
Always use two sets of gloves so you can rip the wet first set off and still be protected to grab things or move the board around etc…
wash wash then wash your board with dish soap again before finish coating and always do the tacky filler coat via squeegee right after lamming. Donot touch it with your hands during this washing process. The Fiberglass Hawaii folks say that the release of aluzine gasses from the 2-1 epoxy they sell with creates the contamination that ruins your finish coat. So it’s not just the oils from your hand or other contamination.
Amine blush can rise to the surface, and will wash off with soap and water. Plain water and a scotchbrite pad will usually do the trick (followed by an alcohol swab-down). The blush is typical of many epoxies - usually the faster curing the epoxy, the worse the blush. The salts used to dissolve the amines in the hardener are a principal culprit. The amines themselves should be cross-linking the epoxy. The blush layer is water soluble and will interfere with a chemical bond from the old epoxy to the new epoxy (or interfere with the mechanical bond for a gloss polyester resin layer).
If I am not mistaken RR epoxy is minimal in its blush compared to Fiberglass Hawaii epoxy. If you REALLY wanted to play it down use slower hardeners (maybe heat up the epoxy to cure it faster instead). I never had a blush problem with RR epoxy though…
I use rollers for acrylic lacquer, short hairs are better because they take up less resin, so you lose less as “dead” volume. Almost any kind of roller could to the trick, longer hairs work but they take up too much resin.
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CMP told me about this post cure technique…
Put your board in a couple of large black construction garbage bags
and go put it in your old beater in the hot hawaiian sun…
temps probably will go way off the scale on that one…
That’s my method too. 91* inside (I checked with a digital thermo) on a 72* day is easy…
hello, i think you should be carefull putting your board in the bin bags, make sure they are sufficiently cured first because you can easily remelt the epoxie if done too soon , i tried it one time ,a day after filler coating and the bag stuck into the resin as it melted,only an hour in a winter sun, i had to sand it all out and re coat, pete
That was the reason for the thermo…
If its warmer than 75* or so, no need for the bag - the sunlight by itself will do the trick 
If its warmer than 75* in my shop, the boards don’t go outside at all.
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Amine blush can rise to the surface, and will wash off with soap and water. Plain water and a scotchbrite pad will usually do the trick (followed by an alcohol swab-down).
If I am not mistaken RR epoxy is minimal in its blush compared to Fiberglass Hawaii epoxy. If you REALLY wanted to play it down use slower hardeners (maybe heat up the epoxy to cure it faster instead). I never had a blush problem with RR epoxy though…
I’m at a point where I really don’t want to apply anything like denatured alcohol to the surface before glossy.
Seems like good old dishwashing soap and water works the best I don’t know why, but when ever I bathe the board in some chemical like alcohol I get major problems later.
Blowing your board off really good before washing and before glossy helps in a dust/bug free room really helps too…
You’re 100% right on about Greg’s resin there’s nothing like it in many ways…
Thanks god he spent the time to figure it all out…