First Time builder Laminate Problems

General Discussion
1

Hey all, I’m sorry for posting a question that I am positive has been asked a thousand times. I read in a previous thread about a laminating schedule in

the archive but I couldn’t find it! I am a first time board builder, and I have just laminated the bottom of my board. I’m laminating using 6oz Hex cloth and Iso 7x resin.

I used a 1.5% MEKP to Resin ratio but I know that my temp was way too low (18 degrees Celsius). I was scared of the resin gelling before I had the time to wrap the rails.

 

I’m just afraid I have ruined my board. It has been about 4 days now, and even though the resin is starting to cure (slowly) have I weakened the board or helped delamination to occur??

I’m afraid to turn the board over and work on the deck as I’m afraid that it’ll stick to the racks and delaminate it…

Could someone explain why the 21 ish degrees Celius is the optimum temp, could I just find an MEKP to resin ratio that would work best at room temp that would give me a consistent and short Gel/cure time??

 

Any advice would be appreciated!!

 

L

2

...ignore this, somethings not working right for me...

 

actually, while im here;

 

try upping the % of catalyst your using. im pretty sure the reccommended max is 2% but ive used 2.5 with no problems..then again this is in ireland where 18 degrees is considered hot.

 

your board will cure eventually i think, leave it in a warm place for a few days before giving up on it anyway. 

3

…optimum for lam is more like 25ºC than 21C, but with 18 and that % you ll be ok with the work time

have more resin “in hand” the first time, to avoid any problem.

gobs of cat produce a weaker lam

the problems start at 15C or bellow.

main problem is humidity in the lam so you ll see that the resin turn white and transform all the lam in somewaht of that color + weaker lam.

 

4

 

if you have hot sunny days like we do in FL in august, you could put it outside for a few hours and see if that moves the curing along.

failing that, you can hit it with another coat of lam mixed hot, or with a coat of hot sanding resin. sounds like the lam u put on is sort of tacky now, so you could brush on a thin hot coat and not gain too much weight. if you use the thin hot coat of sanding resin you would have to hand sand the rails before you lam the deck, tape off a cut line along the bottom of the rails, and cut your deck lam on that.

you could also try an electric hair dryer to put some xtra heat into the cure process and see how that goes before doing another coat of resin on that bottom.