I laminated my first board today…the bottom of the board went ok but I screwed up the resin/cat ratio on the deck(rushing!). Three quarters of the way into the lam of the deck and my resin starts to gel superfast, I didnt relize it untill I had poured the rest of the resin onto the board. I was temporarily crushed but pulled together to refocus on the problem . I was able to remove a few of the bigger clumps off of the deck but there is still numerous little clumps all over the deck as well as a few spots that i didnt get a chance to fully wet out. What is going to be the best approach to this nightmare? relam then sand the mess out of it ? Any input will be greatly appreciated!
my suggestion is that you’ll have to tool off the chunks and lam the deck patch over it. Tool of choice would be a cutting tool, like a surform. If that’s too slow, and the resin too hard, then hot coat it all, sand it smooth, and proceed to lam the deck patch.
We all get caught by fast resin now and then. A hot day makes a big difference in how fast the resin sets. If no one told you, about 0.8 percent catalyst yields a 20 minute pot life here in Honolulu. That’s enough for an experienced backyard maker to do a good job, but beginners are always real slow (I’ve seen a lot of 'em). So, measure the resin and catalyst. I suggest you get old glass bottles, run a strip of masking tape up the side, fill with one cup water, make a mark on the tape, fill with 2 cups water, make a mark. Do the unit conversions to make a catalyst chart for 0.5%, 0.75%, 1.0% resin. Measure your catalyst using a syringe or graduated cylinder from the drugstore.
Science to the rescue: sun-cure resin. The guys up the street tell me they take up to 45 minutes to get a lam just right, then carefully pull the rack out into the sun and twenty minutes later they can trim if needed, and lam the other side. You should consider using sun-cure, unless you have an experienced guy around.
mahalo…Honolulu! I have two 4oz. layers and a deck patch on the board, after I attack it with my surform and sandpaper should I use straight lam resin or should I just proceed with a hot coat to try and level the deck out .
Get the big stuff off with a surform or 40 grit white paper, then a thin hotcoat (use styrene to thin), then sand with 80 or 100 to level it. While brushing on that thin hotcoat, use a small art brush to apply straight styrene on the dry areas to rewet. Do this immediately before you apply the resin. Rebrush with resin to make sure the styrene didn’t thin the first coat too much. After you sand this thin coat, apply another only slightly thicker and proceed as normal.
sounds like my first try…i never got the dry spots to wet out…and the big clumps dissappear when you hotcoat and sand…dont worry you probally wont have to do that next time
Thanks for that tip, Pete C. I had some dry spots on the lap underneath the last board I glassed. I just hotcoated over the top and those dry spots remained to haunt me. I’ve set my lights up better now to avoid the problem, but if it occurs, I know what to do.