LAMINATING/CATALYZING

General Discussion
1

Alright boys (and girls) heres goes. I started on a board for my daughter. 8'4" spooned, sq. tail, etc...i was going to attempt my first epoxy. had a buddy pick up some apex, didn't realize it was quickset until after the cup was cooking in my hand. the plan was to pour four colors, rasta look is what she asked for, i got four colors down and i was cooked. spoke to fiberglass supply and realized that epo was way too big a bite so went back to poly...watched the guys from austin boards on youtube w/ the mexican blanket and thought out the plan of mixing the four colors etc... everything went bad to say the least... i followed the chart for catalyzing at 1% - 8oz = 2.5cc, 4oz= 1.25cc, mixed the 4 colors added mekp to black 4oz cup mixed that and added that to 8oz bottle that had been mixed w/ 2.5cc. (follow this so far?) poured the black lines across the board and did the same procedure w/ the 3 other colors. by the time i got to the big batch of clear to wet out everything things had started to gel...not sure what i did wrong. the room temp was a bone chilling 55-60 degrees doors open, i wanted to extend the work time as much as possible so i thought that would help. one thing i think we may have done wrong, let me know, we mixed the lam and cat a lot- 4oz color got mixed, 8oz bottle got mixed, then we added the two, 4oz color and 8oz bottle, and mixed that for a total of 12oz.

overall ec bottle had 12oz resin w/ roughly 3.75ccs of cat. will i saying all of this a thought, i should have mixed the color then added it to the 8oz bottle and then added the cat and only stirred a little? maybe? sorry about the long story just want to be clear.

2

Kind of hard to follow. If you mixed your big batch of clear and cat and let it sit for a while, not such a good idea. It’s not good to have catylised resin sitting in the pot, it will get warm and once it starts to, you’re off tho the races and it will just go off. Resin that is poured and spread out on the board doesn’t go off nearly as quick as it sitting in the pot.

3

Multiple colors with epoxy is way easier. Not sure what apex is but if you don’t add the epoxy hardener until you need to dump it on the board. Most surfboard epoxy resins are 2 parts resin to 1 part hardener. You add your color in your 2 parts resin and have the 1 part hardener in a disposable cup ready to go for mixing when you need it. 

Having said that, Austin surfboard manufacturers are experts at what they do with polyester resin. Hands down, polyester resin colors look way better. I would bet a longboard at austins’s shop getting multiple colors also includes an assistant helping in the process. Experts make what they do seem easy. His boards are A++++++ quality and something for PE resin users to shoot for. He put the bar way up there. 

I suggest get competent at crawling before you take up the marathon.  Short pot life epoxy gives you an easy 10-15 minutes to lay down your clear or initial color with your fiberglass lamination. An 8 foothish board is a 3-5minute lamination, so a beginer who can get the resin on the board and not have it in the bucket will have plenty of time. Then go back to your other colors that are set up and ready to go, mix and get it on your board.

Unless you do it all the time, calculating small volume of PE resin and catalyst is complicated. Epoxy is usually a 2:1 ratio no matter what the resin volume is. This means less waste also when adding colors, because you may want more color or less and have the specific volume of epoxy resin for that color with no complicated calculation for the hardener. 

Also, spaying your foam with acrylic paint or brushing with an colored epoxy resin prior to glassing is also an option.

4

hey phbit

you definetly need to add the catlyst last,,,

preperation is the key to success ,,,

get all your colors mixed

get your base and clear or flood ready,,,

no cat in any of them,,

start with your first color add less that normal amount of mekp mix it qwik and get it on the board

if your good you can do two at the same time

do the second and third or as many colors as you think you can handle the same

allways use less than normal mekp when doin stripes and patches

then do the flood bucket,,,,

use the "almost normal" amount of mekp,,, as it flows over the first colors it will help them to kick at the same time as the flood resin

pour it down the center and then lightly drag the resin from stringer to rail holding up the cloth curtain to get it wet

start in the center of the board and work to the tail then center to nose

dont push down hard on this pass you just want to flood the lam

now do the same for the other side

work dilegently

now you want to start over and do the same thing with slightly firm pressure on the sqeegee

start in the center of the board and work to the tail then center to nose, keeping the sqeegee clean after every pass

do the other side

now you got the colors locked in

you should do a second clear flood with "the normal amount" of mekp in it, this time you can go length wise wich will tighten up the lam

then wrap the rails

work dilegently

yes it takes a lot of resin to do color work

hope this helps

 

show us some pics

5

Epoxy...it can be done...like Ken says...planning is important

 

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