Does anyone have any tips for thinning my lam resin to get a more fluid consistancy. i have tryed a number of ways to keep it warm but was wondering if there was a chemical option.
…your supplier should have it.Herb
Do not add styrene to the resin, it makes it much weaker! Find a way to heat the resin to 80-85 degrees. I use a big pot full of water on a hot plate with a cooking thermometer touching the water. When the water gets to 85 turn heat to low, set a gallon jug full of resin down in the hot water. Give the resin about 15-20min to get up to temp. Much better than using styrene and you dont have to use more hardner either.
i also have a plywood box with a lid, and a slot in one end for a blowy heater .lay the board in with glass cut, and warm for ten minutes ,the heat hangs around long enough to keep it runny,if ive got 6 boards lined up on a winters day ,youve got long enough to glass a board while the next one is cooking… regards BERT
I’d be careful to go a little light on the hardener when using warmed resin; chemical reactions go faster when the stuff is heated. This is less of an issue for very experienced glassers like MKIA and Bert ( who can have the job done while many of us are still pouring resin) , but if you’re doing it a little slower you can wind up with the stuff going off in mid-lamination. hope that’s of use doc…
…I told a Friend about warming up resin in a bucket of hotwater.I told him to use thermometers in both the room and in the canned resin, but instead he shinned it.First out of the hole,the can was filled to cap.and heating it up expanded the contents,so when he open the warmed can up,SPOOLOOIE !!!..All down his arms,and splatters galore. …He called to curse me out over it,then I reminded him of expanding fluids in a warming containment.I THEN TOLD HIM to watchout for a fast chemical reaction w/ the resin warmed. …He cleaned up (1/2 assed) and re-warmed the resin.Still no temp.gauges to work with,and he proceeded to laminate with what he thought was under catalyzed warmed resin…IT WAS OVER, WAY OVER.1/2 way thru the lam it went off rock hard in the bucket,SMOKING!!!,but the resin on the board cooled and never went off. …I get another call,“PLEASE HELP ME,sob,sob,I can’t do this anymore sob”.So I drove 30+miles at night ticking off my family on a Saturday night. …When I got there it was like 10pm, 39 degrees air temp.and falling w/ the humidity at 80%.I evaluated the situation,noticing the lam on the board was still ,for the most part wet,and then proceeded to mix Lam resin w/ cat. and colbalt…I finished the bottom lamination in 10 mins .Went in his house for a hour or so. Came back out,flipped the toad,and did the topside lam and top hotcoat…I was back home before midnite…As a well known local board builder told me, “some people just don’t get it”…My friend?..buys all his boards now without question or worry about costs…because???..he’s afraid I’ll tell him to make his own board…Me?..I swore off laminating other peoples shapes…that board was so lumpy/wavy it made me sea sick! Herb
Now, just before reading that, I had been out in the shop and the yard, building a door. Come in for a cuppa coffee, figure I’ll look in on Swaylock’s and… Heeyaw - dammit, now I went and sprayed coffee all over the damn place. My own fault, I shoulda expected it. It’s amazin’, what you think somebody with any sense at all will know…and what they don’t, and you find yourself bailing them out of whatever they did. Still, what _really burns the ol’ posterior is when you go and fix it and they figure ‘oh, nothing to it’ and go on to even bigger and better mistakes. Best to ya, Herb. doc…
One of my favorites is when “they” say something like, “Can’t you just…” Whatever follows is sure to be the most impossible, idiotic, hare brained idea to ever come out of someone’s mouth.
Heeee… yes it is, John. Kinda appears everywhere. Just the other day, I’m doing a little job - a mini home office underneath some Really Badly Done stairs and doing it in a particular way. The Hovering Homeowner ( god, why do they have to watch everything over your shoulder) wants me to do it differently. I explain that if I do it her way it’s gonna look like hell now, look like hell when it’s painted and have to be ripped out completely and redone when the stair treads ( 2x6 spruce framing lumber, tilting downwards kinda dangerously) and risers ( two layers of panelling ply, not even good for template stock, almost held on with sheetrock screws) get replaced someday. What I’m doing will work very nicely when the stairs get redone. After explaining that at least three times, she says she’s never likely to have the treads and risers replaced. “Oh no?” I ask. “Howcome” “Because it will cost $20,000” she answers. Being the customer relations specialist I am, I answered "Christ, woman, for that kind of money I could replace this whole $%&^* house, let alone the stairs - try something well under a grand to do some risers and treads that’ll go with the rest of the place. What gave you THAT idea in the first place? ". I shoulda known she’d have a bright idea like that, the warning signs were all there. Home and Garden Network on the TV, House Beautiful and all kinds of home improvement type magazines on the coffee table. They get these Bright Ideas…agh. Well, labor rates for this job just went up 20%. And then there was the guy who wanted to do a hot coat and asked if he should put the resin on top of the stove burner until it was hot… it seems like the Darwin awards have lots of candidates. Would have made a lovely little fireball. But the real prize is when they start something themselves… and want you to finish it. Dinged nose? Cut off a foot or so of it and, oh yeah, then stick on another one. Then they can’t find the foam. New noses…nope, can’t buy that off the shelf at NAPA or whatever. Or, again, fixing a nose ding, and instead of either using solid filler or solid foam, nah, take some foam chunks, stuff 'em in there, make a masking tape cam around the ding and pour resin around the chunks. That was a pip. Never occurred to the guy that foam floats. And he has the local rep as the guy to go to for old board restoration. You most definitely can fool some of the people all of the time. Oh, the list goes on and on. The good side of it is that whenever I do something dumb, it’s not quite as dumb as something I’ve seen somebody else do. Best regards. doc…