You’re beginning to turn a lot of us around with epoxy resin on PU blanks. What differences are there when adding color or artwork to the boards. Airbrushing? Resin tints? Resin swirls, etc? Opaque resin? Glossing & polishing? What do we need to know? Thanks. Rob Olliges
i thought polyurethane blanks could only be glassed with polyester resin? and polystyrene blanks with epoxy? can you glass a Clark blank with epoxy?
Yes you can glass anything with epoxy. The only foam for surfboards that can be glassed with polyester is urethane. Maybe you guys are just beginning to see how inferior polyester resins are. In every regard they are inferior. Clark even knows this but keeps telling everyone NOT to use epoxies on their foam because if people start to use epoxies then any foam can be used. This would threaten their strangle hold on the industry. Colors can be done generally using the same color dispersions that are used for polyesters. While I have not done a lot of color work in epoxy, swirls and the like should work similarly to polyester. And by saying I’ve not done a lot, I have done some and found things to work fine. Trim laps should be done with an exacto knife instead of a razor blade. And a double dose of additive F in the laminate seems to make the trimming easier as well. Glossing comes out unreal since Additive F came along. Sanding is the same as polyester. Hot coating is the same. Laminating is easier. And for those of you working in your garage epoxy won’t stink up your house like polyester does.
where are you located on the east coast Greg? know what would be sweet for an article here on Sway’s …a list of pro’s and con’s when comparing epoxy and polyester resins. i might be trying the epoxy route, seems to be breaking through…
hey Greg is there an e-mail where i could direct my ?'s to you? if you don’t mind the endless questions
My e-mail address is . I live in the Melbourne fl area. As far as comparing epoxy and polyester, epoxy is superior in every way. Much of this has to do with new technology just developed in the last couple years.
Sounds like epoxies have come a long way in the last year or so.A friend of mine built a couple of boards last summer in my shop using Resin Research Epoxy and Coda blanks…they came out nice.Where can one see a glossed and polished total epoxy board? R.B.
I’ve been trying to grab the epoxy tips posted here, but they don’t quite add up to a step-by-step how to. Is there a paper, book or video available on how to glass with epoxy, including product names and where to get them? If not, is there an experienced user who would be kind enough to add a brief such tutorial description to the Swaylock’s “Resources”? Thanks.
Quit teasing us Greg! Can you tell us how much$$$ for this stuff? Price is the only con I’ve found in my resin research.TS
Epoxy pigment dispersions are available, Fiberglass Supply carries a whole line of them, you do need to specify that you want the epoxy ones, pricing is on their website under epoxy resins. I have also heard that the yellow works good for doing tints. I don’t want to rain on the epoxy parade however serious consideration has to be made to the health risks of using epoxy. The hardener is corrosive and over time a person working with it can anticipate becoming sensitized. The best defense against sensitization is very clean working habits! I have seen a lot of people lured into a false sense of security because it doesn’t have the nasty styrene stentch. I’ve seen guys with it all over their bare hands clueless to what could be happening to them. Sanding dust can also cause sensitization from the amines in the dust that is put into the air. Often times people pushing the the benefits of epoxy gloss over this aspect but it is something that has pushed a lot of board builders and boat builders out of their trades. Epoxies do have some great physical properties and definately are good in many applications.
Epoxy is a great glue.I use West Epoxy with a filler to repair furniture.No need for clamps just use tape to hold it in place.The resin is stronger than the wood.Its a lifesaver. R.B.
Matthew, The health effects of using epoxy has been covered recently on this site. You are certainly right about cleanliness but it seems by your comments that you are unfamiliar with that earier post. So I’m going to repost that here. There is quite a lot of misinformation on this website about epoxy resins i.e. toxicity, durability and strength, difficulty of use, etc. I believe I have the expertise to answer some of these issues in a dialogue to inform the American surfboard industry the truth about this material. First, Toxicity. Vapor from most epoxies is much lower than it’s polyester counterparts. The resins we produce (Resin Research Epoxies) are all high solids and have 1/50th the vapor of polyester surfboard resins. In our shop (which is well ventilated) we don’t even wear masks. Epoxy is also NOT a carcinogen. That has been well proven by OSHA and many others in industry. What epoxy is, is a skin sensitizer. This varies greatly between different epoxy systems depending on different company’s formulations. Most older epoxy hardeners are formulated with a chemical known as TETA or another called DETA. These base hardeners are in the aliphatic amine family, are very reactive, somewhat unstable, quite toxic and easily can cause sensitization of the skin (or dermatitis). Most of these hardeners are also modified with phenol and formaldehyde. Phenol is what dermatologists use for chemical skin peels and increases TETA and DETA’s toxicity to the skin dramatically. Many of these older hardeners are up to 50% phenol. Formaldehyde is also no picnic as it also increases risk because of it’s ability to act as a vehicle for the phenol and amines through the skin and into the blood system. By the way, the reason these epoxy hardeners are still used today is because they’re CHEAP. DETA and TETA cost 1/5 what a modern diamine based hardener costs to produce. Anyone who has worked with many of the West System epoxies are familiar with these low cost systems. Modern epoxy hardeners are nothing like their 60’s counterparts. As I mentioned above, they are formulated with modern diamines and have vastly reduced incidences of sensitization. They also have lower vapor, better color, better finish, and lower exotherm. They contain NO phenol and NO formaldehyde. Our company was one of the first in the US to formulate and market diamine based epoxy hardeners 20 years ago which gives us an edge in experience with these chemicals. As superior as they are they still must be respected as skin sensitizers. The simple way to eliminate problems related to dermatitis in the workplace is to reduce or preferably eliminate contact with the skin. This means gloves. That’s it. We wear disposable vinyl gloves. Vinyl is preferable to rubber because rubber gloves are also skin sensitizers. The other, even more harmful, ingredient is contaminated acetone. Like formaldehyde above it is a vehicle for toxins into the bloodstream. Fortunately epoxy can be cleaned up with soap and water. Not standard bar soap but with products like Go-Jo and Fast Orange. These products are water based and don’t act as a vehicle the way VOC solvents do. In 20 years of producing epoxy surfboards we have NEVER had one incidence of dermatitis in our shop. I have also NEVER seen a case of dermatitis that didn’t have something to do with the co-toxin acetone. Given the aforementioned resin parameters and if shop practice adheres to the above suggestions, epoxy resins are MUCH safer to use for producing surfboards than their polyester counterparts.
I have a surfboard building guide but it’s about 10 years old. I’m updating it now and will post here when I get it finished. Give me a week or so, OK.