I have been brainstorming and honestly I didnt search the forum on this one, but I am interested in everyones experience and input. Especially since Im going to school right now for computer programming (forward thinking etc…)
I noticed that I have been wasting a bit of resin when I do my projects, and sometimes if I am doing something such as just doing a sealer coat on a set of 2 wood fins and I want just enough resin to cover the surface area with minimal waste…I wish I had a program hooked up to a device (kind of like when you need to go get specialty pain mixed at a hardware store… the computer has a "recipe" for the amount of drops or mL or whatnot to add to get desired color.)… Is there anything that exists for surfing?
Or anything that can be adapted?
I imagine something that youd type in your brand of resin / hardener etc which would have to account for their inidividual viscosities…then you could tell it, I want enough mixed resin (hardener+resin) to cover x inches or x feet and i need it at f:k ratio…
Probably overthinking this but I think it would be a great idea if it isnt already in use somewhere( in which case I WANT ONE!!!)
Because the surface area is different with each project.
I tend to use too little. If more is needed, I just add more resin and hardener. And keep going.
As you get more experience, less resin is required. I used to watch a rookie laminator use a popcorn sized bucket full for one side of a board. Glad I wasn't buying that resin!
I use less than one small bucket to laminate, cheater-coat and hot coat per board combined. (Shortboard) Approx 1/3 gallon.
From memory, if the board is larger, more resin. And visa-versa.
At the end of the day, less resin on the floor is a good thing. Both the landfill and the wallet.
Sometimes if i have small amounts of epoxy left i put it in the freezer. You can use it the next day after it has warmed a bit. Not for huge laminations but if you have to just fill some dings or install a leashplug. After a few days in the freezer its not useable anymore because it hardens very slowly even at these low temps.
Is anyone familiar with Solarez dual-cure polyester resin for glassing purposes? I'm getting ready to build a 11' 6" hollow-core cedar SUP. I've used 2-part expoxy from Raka in the past and was considering something different.
It depends on what you're laminating. For sealing wood fins, just eyeball it. It doesn't take very much. If using laminating poly go sparingly with amounts and do a couple of thin coats.
For a hand laminated surfboard, weigh the glass and multiply by 'X' factor to figure out your resin weight. Depending on your skill level with a squeegee, 'X' might be something like 1.5 your cloth weight. If you weigh the cloth before cutting excess (I.E. full cloth width/full length of board) you'll be somewhere in the ballpark. If you end up with too much on the floor, reduce the proportion.
Your foam is going to suck some up and it takes some extra when hand laminating with a squeegee to get your cloth saturated. If using UV polyester you can just pour a little at a time and hardly waste a drop. With catalyzed polyester you kind of have to hustle, hence more waste. Epoxy is generally slow enough to cure that you can avoid the 'splash and dash' of catalyzed poly.
Right now i am primarily focused on wooden boards (hollow)… I do a sealer coat on the bare wood and then add a coat of cloth once the sealer has been scarified with 80 grit sand paper… then i do a light sand, fill coat, then gloss coat and boom…
seems to have worked well for this last board I made but i have noticed i had a lot of waste. I also tried to glue the planks together with resin…not doing that again. the tape and titebond method will be my new norm.
…for attaching the frame i used 3m 5200 but it takes so long to dry (7 days)… I might try toglue the frame to the bottom plank using epoxy next time.
I dont measure by weight with resin right now, I do it by volume…
I wonder which method is more accurate in terms of the amount of resin (in my case a gallon) will be catalyzed bythe amount of hardener with no leftovers…