I’m new to the forum but have been spying on it for a few years. I’m branching out in to epoxy resin as it just seems to hold up better than poly. Will i be able to laminate, sanding coat, and top coat a 5’10-6’0 tomo MPH type board with 1.5L of epoxy. I have found this, which looks a good deal, but I don’t want to spent too much and then watch a load of money go to waste on a shelf in my basement.
Do you trust everything you read on the internet? Did you read the post at the top of the General Dicussion for new people? Do you really think you can use some off brand resin and pull off a glass job with 1.5 liters......I say go for it!
and rollers.........not for me.....maybe for you.....not for me....I tried ....they suck resin in my book......You better belive it I always have extra resin....just in case...ha,ha........Ray
I have had good luck with foam rollers for sanding/fill coats with epoxy less resin use, problem is they are expensive here 6 bucks each. Laminateing with one would be interesting why don’t you like them ray?
Its nice to have extra resin makes it much lower stress. Every time I get a 1.5l kit I do a couple of repairs then end up with not enough to finish the board I bought it for. Bad planing really.
In my opinion it is worth the extra expense of a resin like Resin Research Epoxy that is specifically formulated for surfboards. Seabase have it on their on line shop for £5 more than your link if correct. Looks like the ECF stuff is yellow. Also look at the safety data and compare the two.
I tried rollers and did not like them. That's all, just one man's opinion. A good glasser will use much less resin than someone that has never glassed. Epoxy is thick when it's cold. Hard to mix up a small batch and have it flow out when it's cold, might want to make a larger batch to save a little stress....ohh wait.... you can nuke the stuff.....and that can be a life saver or a deal breaker if you don't know what you are doing.
If I run out of resin when I'm glassing....well...that's going to cost me more than starting with extra resin. If you think resin is expensive go out and get a price on lipstick or perfume.
ok...plenty of people can beat these numbers......I'm talking about "surfboard resin".....Not so good glasser.......This is a simple example....don't trust everything you read on the internet....... I do not care WTF a 6' tomo MPH ???
bottom lam 15 oz...top lam 15 oz...bottom hot coat 12 oz...top hot coat 12 oz...fin boxes 6 oz...gloss top 9 oz...gloss bottom 9 oz........that's 78 ounces...convert to metric.....2.3 liters......see where I'm going........
get rid of the gloss coat......strech out your lams and hot coats....sure, you can do it.....................
buy the extra liter.. build a quality surfboard with no stress....post photos, have fun
Stingray.....
Look at this stuff....not what I do but worth looking at...
Sorry, but a 6 foot board doen’t take close to that much. 40 oz. does it. Half of what your quoting. It’s done everyday. But yeah, a rookie might struggle to stay under those numbers.
I've had pretty good luck weighing my glass and calculating resin amounts from that... I didn't read where you've specified your lamination schedule. That would be an important first step as you will need to know cloth weight to calculate enough resin to saturate your cloth.
As an example - 2 layers of untrimmed 6 oz cloth (deck) for your 6 ft (2 yards) board will weigh about 24 ounces. 1 layer of 6 oz cloth (bottom) will be another 12 ounces. Depending on board width and your lap widths, after trimming you'll be somewhere less than 36 ounces cloth weight.
IMO you'll be stretching it to saturate that much cloth with anything less than 36 ounces of resin. I usually give myself a bit more resin and squeegee any excess off once my cloth is saturated. A 1:1 cloth to resin ratio on a hand lamination is attainable but 'leaning' on the squeegee too much can also introduce pin air. Having to spread epoxy around to get all your cloth saturated can induce frothing... a bummer if you're glassing over dark colors especially. Give yourself a chance and use enough resin.
1.5 liters of water weighs about 53 ounces. Epoxy is probably close to that. Assuming the above lamination schedule and resin amounts, after laminating you'll have 17 ounces left for top and bottom fillcoats. That'll be close and won't allow for setting boxes, glassing on fins or a gloss coat. The Seabase guide states 8 and 10 ozs respectively for fill coating bottom and deck on a 6' board.
In the Seabase guide it is also stated that glassing a 6 foot deck with triple 4 oz layers will require 16 ozs of resin... my calcs say you'll need more. I know I would but I'm no pro. More like 24 oz and that's a straight 1:1 untrimmed cloth to resin ratio. I'd likely just mix 30 ozs or so and live with a few drops on the dropcloth. That's the deck alone with triple 4 oz cloth. Assuming double 4 on the bottom, you'd likely need at least 16 ozs. Again, my experiences say a bit more.
Again, it depends on your glassing schedule and your skill level. I think measuring your cloth by weight and calculating epoxy amount based on cloth to resin ratio is a better method than "18 ounces per side" or whatever. It really depends on board length and amount of cloth used.
I'd be interested to hear what your cloth weighs and how much resin you actually use to glass your board to completion - fins and all.
Is that a helpful tip or just more "I've got a secret" bragging/advertising that is becoming common around here?
I assume if someone has to ask, they are likely just trying to learn how to do it. Obviously a vacuum method is going to give a better ratio but I'm thinking he hasn't access to that sort of thing. I'm not a pro but I'm not exactly a rookie either. The epoxy amounts posted on Seabase (and elsewhere) have always left me short.
How much resin do you think it'll take to hand laminate 3 layers of 4 oz cloth on a 6 foot board? Not theoretical... I'm talking about actual practice in the real world by a beginner.
I agree with John. Post up something useful, or pay to advertise.
An epoxy wet out table is the simplest way to get a fully saturated cloth, with minimal resin. Wet it out, wait a little bit, so it thickens, and won’t drain into the foam. Transfer it to the blank, and put under vacuum.
Wow!Mike doesn’t have to tell when the information is already on swaylocks just do a search.He did post useful information just read his post slowly and maybe you will get it.
Lol sways sillynes Mike has given use heaps of info and helped lots of people on here. Maybe the question there is , is infusion practial for the hobbiest? Maybe it is.
As a beginer home hack I have finished a board 6ft with 1200ml of epoxy. 4x4 deck 4 bottom glass on fins fill coat no gloss. 4th board it was a PIA my others have all used more. Safe to have extra and not be worried then you have some for the next board. Of course if you try and don’t have enough its easy to get some more. How about a pic of your board?