OK, new to the forum but I have been spying on you guys for about 2 years. I’ve researched the archive for this one with no luck. How does rain and humidity effect your lamination process. I’d like to glass my new tandem board tomorrow but unsure of the rainy weather we are having. Thanks for the help.
Polyester or Epoxy?
Polyester
I haven’t done polyester in quite a while but here’s what I remember. Generally it’s cooler when it’s raining, so that can slow your gell time down quite a bit. I don’t remember if the humidity slowed things down as well but I do remember having a lot more work time on rainy days. I also remember the resin draining worse when it was raining, that had to do with the slower speed. Other than that your cure time will also be a bit slower as well. I remember sitting around for hours waiting for the damn resin to kick enough to trim my laps. On hot coats, they generally don’t come out as clean in very humid conditions. They tend to split on the rails and sometimes fish eye. All in all, I’ve worked on hundreds of rainy days and everything did work. Things just tend to work better when it’s dry.
Mostly with polyester it just slows things down a lot. Adding more hardener can help but when it’s raining things just don’t kick the same as when it’s dry. If your trimming laps, you’ll end up waiting around for hours for the resin to get crisp enough to trim. And watch out for draining. The slow resin just loves to seep into the blank when it’s wet. Hot coats also don’t lay out as good in the rain and the rails tend to split worse and you may get some fish eyes. Having said all that, I’ve worked on hundreds of boards when it’s raining and while we never wished for rainy days, we didn’t stay home from work because of it either.
I believe the main worry is the foam soaking up moisture. Maybe ‘soaking up’ isn’t the best work choice. Then you have two issues, extra weight, and water vapor under your lamination.
I think it was FerralDave that posted a few months back talking about the little oven that he built to dry out all his blanks before glassing – regardless of the weather. I remember the figures were enough to get me thinking about building one. Equally important though, to me anyway, is consistency. Being able to shape two boards, of the same dimension, then have them come out the same weight is an art. Although the functionality of this could be argued, it’s certainly a testament to skill. Though maybe that’s just the home-brewer in me talking. It’s a major milestone in homebrewing when you can make two batches of beer, all-grain, and have them taste the same – but getting there is half the fun.
I live in SoCal, and only make a board every month or so… so I just wait to be safe. I’m sure those Hawaiian boys will have some info for you.
Thanks for your reply. I have only done about 14 boards over a 3 year period and it is very hard to monitor and most importantly remeber all the different conditions that may effect the laminateing process. I would think with all the rain in Florida you would never get any work done if you had to wait for clear day.