I am about to shape my 7th board and want to use Epoxy Resin on a standard PU blank mainly just to try. Up until now i have gone for standard PU blank/ Poyester resin. I have read a lot about it, BUT, before i go ahead with glassing is there anything that i need to watch out for that i wont have come across before? Thanks
thats a wide open ques. - can you post some pictures of your board and glassing room?
also helpful if you outline the details of your glassing plan - glassing schedule, laps, tints, lams, working temp, resin brand, etc. Epoxy can be finicky, good to have a solid game plan in place.
I will post some pictures tomorrow. It’s a 6’3" shortboard and I am going for a 4x4x4 schedule. Normal laps and no tint - keeping it simple for my first go.
The room isn’t temperature controlled unfortunately so the temperature is between roughly 16C and 24C (60f-75f) at the moment. I can obviously use the early morning and evenings when it’s cooler if that is needed.
The brand in going to get is Kinetix - would you recommend a slow or fast hardener in these temps?
Thanks for the advice
go with slow hardener on your first one. with PE, laminators seem to flood the cloth with resin and allow it to “waterfall” over the edge. seems wasteful to me. by contrast, with epoxy, you pour out the epoxy lengthwise (I do two equal pours lengthwise ) then spread on the flats while making a long slender puddle near to the rails. when the flats are done pull the resin puddle from the rails over the edge with one hand/squeegee and with the other lift the hanging cloth mostly horizontal and lightly pull the resin to the cloth in a gentle patting motion. if you are careful, only a minimal amount of resin will drip. you may have to squeegee up a little resin from areas with excess and bring it to areas that are short. the goal is to minimize the drips to the floor/tray. BTW, use gloves.
Good Luck and all the best
Maybe someone that knows how can post the link to stingray’s tutorial. Mike
Epoxies are much more sensitive to environmental factors. Dust, temp etc… Precise mixture and techniques are a must. If you can’t work within any of these parameters I would recommend skipping epoxy. If you have a good clean, temp controlled workspace and are a meticulous person and do your homework ahead of time you will be just fine.
Taking notes!!!
I have never shaped a PU blank or glassed with PE. Epoxy just seems so straight forward. No respirator, no wax to add, no screwing up the catylist. I’m sure the PE guys feel the same about PE. But of course they are biased and I am not. Ha.
I glass in an uncontrolled environment. It shouldn’t be a problem if this is a personal board. If you are making something for someone else, maybe you might want to think about it. Dust is a problem. I’ve glassed in an open air space under my house for years when it was raining, and when it was crazy hot.
Use slow hardener. I use autobody paint mixing cups with the markings to get a volume mix. I have a scale and used to do it by weight, but I got lazy so I just use the markings for volume. Mix it good, I try to scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing cup a lot when I mix. Don’t mix it too fast. I wait a while for the lam to set then add a thickened fill coat with a squeegee push it in hard, then smooth it out. I sand the laps and areas that will be covered before doing the other side. I like to get the fill nice and thick to end up with a really clean smooth finish. Rough grits and a hard pad, then work though to whatever you want. The last board I did I went to 220, then wet sanded to 1200. If you don’t let it cure enough you will gum up the sand paper.
Personally, I’d use PE on PU because it’s easier and there’s no need for epoxy. The lams will be the same, but the sanding and finishing is easier with PU. I tend to get a softer lam with epoxy over PU foam, not sure if it’s my technique or just the way epoxy is.
Epoxy won’t smell so bad, but be very careful about covering up to keep from contact. If you develop an allergy, it’s game over.
Thanks for the help how long would you expect it to take to go off using a slow hardener in 20C (70F)?
I would be using my garage (fairly dust free but not temp controlled) , i have glassed all my other boards there (PE) without much of a problem. Would you recommend sticking to PE in that case?
The manufacturer of the resin should have a technical data sheet that explains the pot life and flip time of the resin+hardener choices at a given temperature.
something like http://atlcomposites.com.au/icart/products/26/images/main/KINETIX%20R104.pdf
I’ve tried it all and it doesn’t get any easier than UV Cure polyester resin for glassing. Its fast and easy. There is so much more that can go wrong with epoxy especially if you are working in less than perfect conditions. With UV your work time is nearly endless, it wands easily, cures in minutes. Night and day versus epoxy.
you might want to look up one of those glassing threads by Stingray… the guy seems to know what he’s talking about…
Not 4x4x4… Epoxy likes 6 ounce cloth…
UV Poly is not Better or EZ er… …
… Chemicals can make you sick…drinking 6 gallons of water in 1 day can make you sick too.