Hi Guys. I’m looking for a bit of general help. I have been working on hot coating my first board. So far so good. I am having a bit of a learning curve on the hot coat, however. Laid my first hot coat down on the deck and had an issue of drying hard enough to sand. Didnt panic, and used the wax paper trick. Worked pretty well with some time and patience. Was able to sand it down and get it looking right. I thought I crossed all my I’s and dotted all mt T’s when mixing and prepping as well as with still warm air and free of debris. Cleaned the board with denatured alcohol and everything. Chalked it up to a first timers error.
Went for the bottom hot coat and double checked everything from ratios and shaking the surfacing agent to mixing very thoroughly. Got the hot coat on and brushed it minimally, and walked away. I can definitely see the surfacing agent sitting on the surface, but still very tacky or liquidy in most all spots. The dam in the tail has a little too much in it, but did not overflow(first tail dam ever) What the heck am I doing wrong? I mixed everything right on from what I can tell and followed the book to a T
Used Silmar 249B 12OZ
Mixed with .19 OZ(well shaken) of surfacing agent, mixed thoroughly with resin
…hello, I make boards for a living but it s honest to say that from time to time I had a problem (I live in a cold-windy-humid weather) with some hot coats; but always on the bottom¿?
Still, I do not know where s the problem.
In your case; check for the MEKP quantity; for example: for a 220cc use 10cc.
Not need to use that Alcohol.
Other problem, normally when you see kind of sticky “stripes” is due to acetone in the brush.
Check for the right amount of wax in the monomere.
Other problems are: old resin (6 months is the shelf limit time); too cold the resin (but seems that is not your case); different surfaces temperatures; not proper wax quantity.
Did you forget hardener?.. If still liquid my guess is yes. (I always use uv resin for this reason - I’ve done it, as most have - one of those mistakes we all hopefully only do once)
If it was my board and still liquid I’d scrape it off as best as possible, then mix a hot batch and do a thin hotcoat, let it kick - sand that thing super flat and smooth, then hotcoat like normal and you should be able to lightly sand and get in the water.
249B is Silmar Optibright Polyester Resin. Optibright does not mean it is UV Resin. If you catalyzed; you did not use enough. According to your “Book” ; You did not use Catalyst or UV Resin/ UV Powder
Thanks all for the help. As you already can tell, I forgot the MEKP. I dont know what I was thinking, and to be able to to it twice if plain old embarassing. Well, I will not make that mistake again. I’m just not good at reading charts and such I guess. I never claimed to be a scholar, but rather more like a go getter.
it will happen again, it does for all of us, I was in the start of an epoxy lam and the phone rang, knew I had plenty of time, took the call and had a hard time getting rid of who was on the other end. Went back to the batch and as it moved in the tray it had ripples in it, I thought oh crap it’s getting ready to go and spread it out on the board as quick as possible. I had plenty of time, channels and all.
The next day when I came in the shop it was still very wet in many places, mixed up another batch and squeegeed it on and off over and over, I had never mixed the 2 components together, it was 2 separate portions of part A and Part B in the tray, that was why it looked so strange.
I alos did a sealer coat on an EPS blank with 2 parts activator and one part resin, the deck delam’d the first day and they call me a genius !!!
…hello Jim; the problem is when the shapes are commissioned; like when you are working in a glass shop; if I ruin my own boards; well, I can lose the money but can make other again to replace…