ok I’ve been using mekp now to get my glassing time quicker then when I use uv, only because I know I’ve got plenty of time before I kick it with uv. But I would like to know what is the usual kicking time for poly on a 6’ long, 19 wide board and how much resin are you guys using for deck of 4 + 4 oz and 4oz bottom. The deck that I just tried was the first time I tried to flow the resin over the rails to wet them out and I found that it’s so muchquicker that way, that I had the boardwith laps tucked under in 8mins but had the resin kicking for 20mins, and was using too much resin I think for 4+4oz top with laps wrapped 3inchs and a 4oz quad axial tail patch, used 700ml with plenty left over. Pretty much don’t want much to soak into the foam and make it heavy
If it kicked in 20 … Add more hardener or reduce the resin.
Also, you flood the board and pull the excess off so your board weight will have nothing to do with how much resin you have left in your bucket.
Nor will a 10 minute dry time over a 20… It’s all the same amount of resin.
if you want a super fast cure just stick with the uv or add catalyst to your uv resin and if it’s not kicking fast enough just stick it in the sun for a minute.
Ok I’ll try again since I wasn’t clear and writing via the phone is a bit of a mission sometimes.
I have a glassing room with air conditioning, room set at a constaint 23 degrees C, and I know that If I add 1% MEKP it will kick in 10 - 12min. 0.70% gets it kicking @ 20 - 23min.
I aim for 20min when glassing to give myself a little time.
{Not relevant to my question: My usual glassing techneque is to wet out the deck, then go around wetting out the laps by dipping my hand in the bucket and applying by hand. I tried adding 200ml more (700ml in total for a 6’ long board, 19" wide with 4+4+4 E cloth and a extra 4oz quad axial cloth tail patch) resin to try wetting out the laps by pouring it over the rails using the squeegee and it work out well, I had some resin left in the bucket and a lot that dripped on the table, I find using the hand dipping technique uses a lot of resin}.
My question are related to a polyurethane blank that roughly measures 6’ long -19" wide, using polyester resin with a glassing Job of 4oz + 4oz E cloth for the deck and 4oz E cloth for the bottom:
On a board similar to this, how long should it take to glass the deck and bottom seperatly (I want to know a time that I can work up to trying to achieve) ?
Rougthly how much resin do you guys use in achieving this?
Will 25min make the board heavier vs 10min due to resin soaking into the blank?
If I completly wet out the lam say on the deck, can I then use a slightly harder squeegee to apply more pressure and pull any excess resin off that I missed with the softer squeegee?
I’ve heard shapers gripe because the glassers are in such a hurry that they don’t give resin enough time to soak in. Giving it a few extra minutes is likely going to give you a better bond. After seeing a few deck delaminations you might agree that a better bond is a good thing even if it means a few extra grams of weight.
Beware of a heavy hand when using a your squeegee - especially when laminating two or more layers of cloth. It’s pretty easy to get pin air. On a single layer of glass, a cheater coat will usually fill in the bubbles but with 2 or more layers they can get trapped in the laminate.
A good light water-tight glass job with no pin air takes a bit of practice for most of us. I’d be more concerned with a nice tight glass job with clean laps, nose and corner flaps, bubbles, etc. If you think you used too much resin, cut back a bit. I think it’s easier to squeegee off a bit than to have to stretch it to get everything fully saturated.
Thanks, so I’ll stick with 20min. The reason I was asking is because the first time I used UV resin I macked around with it for 40min getting absolutely every bubble out and lap perfect, but the board came out quite heavy.
Ok so supposably they have three types and I’ve been getting the most dense which they say is bit over 200g more. the guy says to save on weight just glass 4oz on deck with 3/4 4oz patch and no carbon tail patch opposed to the 200g light board with 2x 4 top with 4oz tail patch and 4 bottom.
I’m thinking that extra 200g would go to extra glass for strength, would that be correct?
I think you need to rethink what you actually want to ask.
If you put 20 lbs of resin on your board and it sits for 10 minutes or 10 hours it’s still the same amount of resin.
Your resin soaking into the blank is a totally different question.
Skim the blank with uv and flash it. Then glass and you won’t have any resin soaking in…
If you pull all the resin off so your weave is super dry you are just going to fill it back in with a hotcoat… What’s the point?
Are you gonna wax this thing up? I love when someone tells me about their super ultra light weight board ( get a lot of them around here) and then have five bars of wax caked on em.
Don’t be afraid by resin, even poly one. Resin is your friend, resin keep each fiber glue each other and glue on blank. That’s what give skin most of his buckling strengh. Resin waterproof your board. A lighter glass job is not a resin poor one but a flat one. Sand your blank flat, lay your glass flat, squegge your resin flat, uniform layer, sand flat.
WideAWAKE- if I pour 20lbs of resin on my board then depending on amount of mekp “hardener” used most of it will drip off before setting, so I don’t think I’ll be left with 20lb.
The resin soaking into the blank was my main question…
I actually do skim the tail area with a bit of resin and mekp, let it go sticky then lay the carbon down so it doesn’t move. That’s a good tip you have.
Well pulling all the excess off I thought, that is if it does take 40min before setting, then not as much soak in compared to as filling it back in after.
I’m going to try the other two blank densitys from this same company and see how they go. Was talking with them today and the guy there says that the green blanks are manly used for guns and mals, yellow mostly shortboards and blue is just team rider boards. I’m currently glassing a different brand blank and it’s noticeable lighter with a slightly heavier glass job, that was the original concern that I had acidentally soaked too much resin in when in fact it was that I had two different density blanks.
If you’re going to resin skin it before laminating the least you could do is add qcell or micro balloons…you’ll keep the resin weight down with a lighter seal coat and your lamination can be squeegeed really tight and flat with no fear of drain out…unless you overpressure the squeegee.
“if you want a super fast cure just stick with the uv or add catalyst to your uv resin and if it’s not kicking fast enough just stick it in the sun for a minute.”
I use UV poly and lam alot a night.
And I’ll measure out my resin depending on how many layers ( Me? never more than two).
At night about 6 drops MEKP. EZ 20min. my lights will set it off.
Piece of cake laps, then UV lights.
Durning the day, today amost 90! 2 drops in 18oz.
Started to set right @ 20min.
(for once) out to the sun.
Back in flip finish laps.
And back out…
Beats the heck outta the old days when 20 was all you got.
Ah sometimes…
“If you put 20 lbs of resin on your board and it sits for 10 minutes or 10 hours it’s still the same amount of resin.”
johnmellor also hates delams…
soak it, work it out and listen for “the buzz” of your squegee
I got alot of really bad info from the internet when I was first learning to glass. A bunch of bullshit about 7 min lams and blanks sucking resin…
Mix up your resin…lam it tight… it’s that simple…
I use Resin Research Epoxy Resin now… With the KK I have about 30 min to lam the board… Work in the resin…Squeege it out. nice and tight …very light…blank sucking is not real…and I always mix up more resin than I really need… because pulling resin off is much better than mixing more resin.
Back yard… One at a time… I’m not a glassing factory…some will disagree…I’m OK with that…Ray