#1: I am new to building and my first board has come out much better than I expected. My issues have been with the glassing. I am doing two hot coats to make sure this thing is water tight, but I have a few areas on the rales that I need to smooth out/seal. My first question is do I make a mold along the rail and smooth it out that way?
#2: Also, I am moving on to my second shape already and I am thinking about glassing it with UV cure resin AND to do a resin swirl with it. Can I still do a resin tint/swirl with UV catalyst? Do I have to add extra MEKP to get it to kick? How much?
#3: I live in the NE and its getting cold here. How low a temp can I work at? Will resin cure at below 50 degrees F?
#4: What is the lowest temp I can get epoxy to sure at?
why not do one hot coat and a gloss coat sanded(you can start sanding at 220 then move up to 320)? add some mekp for the swirl. the amount depends on how opaque your colors are. UV will start to kick and mekp will finish the rest. Tints do not require as much as pigments. Can you heat up your shop? don't know about epoxy(sorry) so I hope all the other questions you asked are regarding pe resin. good luck
yes, you can do a swirl with UV resin - poly only. I know of no quality UV epoxy suitable for laminating. You can use mekp, but you really don’t need to if you use the right amount of pigment or tint. But if you over do it, you can have problems.
you’ll have to bump up the mekp in the 50s, but below that it’s gonna get really tough to work with any thermoset resin system.
for epoxy, 60s is pretty much the limit, and even then you need an accelerator.
I am going to add a heater to my shop but the issue is I don’t want to get anything that could cause a fire. If I use a filament style space heater what is the risk of fire with the fumes from the resin?
I do epoxy all the time with a filament type space heater. Give yourself some room and you’re fine. Just don’t do anything stupid, and don’t expect the room to get toasty warm either.
Keep your resin someplace where it will stay warm. No point trying to warm it up before you use it. Immersing the container of resin in warm water will also help retain temp while in your workspace. You’ll have to find the right sized bucket so the water doesn’t rise too high, maybe 2/3 up the jug/can.
Dry the outside of your container well before pouring any resin out. Don’t want water in the mix.
Epoxy and cold make for a PIA. But it will eventually go off. I was force to do a glass job last winter without heat. It was about 40 F when I stared and got colder. I could see my breath while pouring the hotcoat. I thought it would be a total loss, but it actually worked. For reference, I used RR epoxy.
Get a heater and save yourself some time and possible grief.
I've had epoxy cure at temperatures quite a bit lower than the recommended minimum. If you microwave the resin or add accelerator it will kick faster. The possible issues will include thick working viscosity, blush (even with a 'non-blush' epoxy) and softening as it heats up in the sun during actual use. There are ways around the blush thing including the 'lam-fill-no flip' sequence of glassing. When a board is post-cured it is to enhance final hardness and resistence to softening in heat. Many epoxy resins will begin to soften when they reach a temperature too far above their cure temperature. If they are post-cured they will resist softening at higher temperatures. Try spreading some mixed epoxy on a sheet of scrap material in the temperatures you are likely to encounter. If too cold it you will find it likely cures very slowly, won't cure, or will remain semi-soft after cure. Maximum physical properties are going to be obtained when used within recommended temperature ranges and post-curing.