I only use pe resin for finish coat on epoxy. I use mostly silmar 249bb (and better iso resin) with 3% styrene paraffine and 1.5% to 2% cata, at least 20°C, it work nice. Only buy pe in small metalic containers and use it quick.
hello, i have some questions mr. OSS1
for lets say 600 mililiters resim how much acetone would you use more or less?
also please can you enlighten me on the difrence between a hot-coat and a gloss coat,also in terms of resin preparation/ quantity and the need for both?
i am gratefull for the help and the time you waste.
i am no professional and where i am from its easy to get most of the materials.
i just find out i really enjoy to make the surfboards for myself and friends…i am really thankfull to swaylocks users that helped me im the past year.
i do a lot of mistakes but swaylocks has helped me to avoid a lot other mistakes and helped to correct a lot of them.
cheers and good waves
10-4 on small containers and use it fast. I buy and sell quarts of Reichold only. You’ll save money in the long run. I have had gallons go hard on me because I didn’t use them soon enough
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Like resinhead said; The two resins are different. Hot coat resin is usually Silmar 249A or 249OB. Styrene Wax solution is added. A cap full or two per quart. I can’t think in metric. Most glassers use straight styrene to thin the resin if needed. I experimented with Acetone years ago for thinning and it works for me. Pour off a quart and thin before you catalyze. You don’t need much. Couple of caps full. Stir with a paint stick and hold it up. You can tell by the way it runs off the stick. If you over did it, add some more resin to thicken. Gloss Resin is usually Reichold brand and is pink/purple in color. You can do the same Acetone thin with it. If you get it right; The resin is about the thickness of Pancake syrup. It lays off easy. Doesn’t take as much effort to sand.
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ok, friends.
like resinhead and OSS1 told me and with info from other posts things came out good.
i think i will try to mix the acetone on the resin next time.
so meanwhile i sanded the hot coat like resinhead said, progressive sanding from 200 grt ro 2500 grt and ot turned out great. (pearly white)
chears and good waves.
Ok put wax in styrene in laminate resin for hotcoat is what i do for 30 years. It work.
I try some monomer styrene for thining, it work too but i like my finish coat on thick side to have something to sand flat. Add a bit more of wax in styrene if you want a runny resin, somewhere between 3 to 6 %.
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hello mr. lemat,
Not on the hot coat but on the lamination part if i would want to use 5% styren on laminate resin that would be ok also?
it would be thiner and save me some resin i guess?
cheers and good waves.
Yes exactly, for hot coat, finish coat you add 3 to 6% of wax in styrene, it do the job.
and what about for the lamination can i add also 5% styren to the resin?
cheers and good waves.
Why do you want to do that? We add wax in styrene to close surface so it not stay tacky and we can sand it. Tacky is good for lam because you can cover without sand
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ok thank you
Getting to hot coating my first board. Should I sand through to the futures finbox tape (I installed them pre-glass) now and re-tape, or should I hotcoat then sand through to them at the end?
maybe there is another easier way but for me works like this.
sand the paper and flat down the boxes before the hot coat.
put another piece of tape for the hot coat.
I find it easier this way, you can even cut the paper out with a razor blade when the resin gels, before curing.
cheers and good waves
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The problem with sanding before the hotcoat is that you get granules and sanding dust in the weave of the cloth. If your boxes are black you could wind up with black or white specks, tape particles etc in your finished board. I know that some guys do it pre-hotcoat, but that is not the standard broadly accepted method. If you grind your boxes before, you better have an air compressor and a good air nozzle to blow off the laminated blank.
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Okay. Fair enough. Thank you!
Could you give some advice/steps for grinding them down properly post-hotcoat? Thanks a ton
first i am no professional shaper but i will tell how i do it.
most pads will be larger then the area you want to grind.
So use what you have like a 5 inch hard pad with 100grt sandpaper, use the sander/grinder machine.
At first angle the pad at 45 degrees or the angle that you need to only sand over the edges of where you taped. (trough the midlle not arround the edges)
the tape will fall and then you can sand with the pad flat to lower the edges.
don’t over do it, don’t stay too long on the same place, keep on passing over it as you start sanding the hot-coat.
keep cleaning the plastic that comes out
it will come out good.
i have seen in factories where they have all the pro tools shapers use a compressed air pistol with a small round 1 inch pad to sand of the fin boxes.
cheers and good waves
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I peel the tape off. Cut it off with a knife or razor. I don’t like to grind it off because it gums up my disk sometimes. Grind the slot flat with a hard pad first. You don’t need to turn the grinder or sander on edge. Keep it flat. When you put it on edge, you are more likely to burn through. Then sand the flange. You may want to switch to a softer pad when you start sanding the flange and the general area around the fins. It’s safer. There is a fair amount of variety in what kind of grinder people use. Some sanders use their standard variable speed Sander/Polisher. Milwaukee, Makita, Dewalt or Harbor Freight variable speed. A hard pad to flatten the boxes. Then a soft pad and sand the whole board. I have used a Die Grinder with a Roloc disk just to flatten the fin boxes and leash plug. I also have a five inch Makita with a hard disk that works really well on the boxes. I then go to my sander/polisher with a Flex Pad to sand the rest of the hotcoat, sanding rails and detailing with handheld sandpaper. The nicer the hotcoat that you have laid down, the finer the grit you can start with.
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well i guess there is a thousand ways to skin a cat.
if you are unsure about using the grinder/ polisher you can do it by hand with a bit of sanding paper in a piece of rectangular wood.
just sand it untill the tape is soft and then you can finish while you sand the hotcoat.
i did it before and it took time but worked well.
cheers and good waves.
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Basic random orbital sander is an happy medium between hand and agressive rotative sander/polisher.
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