Have been having some trouble with laminating. I would like to share some of my experiences to see if they are normal.
With UV resin
When I use UV I take an hour with the lam mucking around trying to make it good and fiddling with the laps, however it as it’s clear resin it normally turns out worse than pigmented lams I complete in 20min.
First wet out of the deck is easy, however once I remove the excess, then muck around wetting out the laps. The deck becomes really sticky, even slightly (only slightly over wet areas it is hard to remove the resin. It feels like it is almost setting.
Question 1: Is this due to my lam taking ages and all the styrene evaporating?
Question 2: Anyone else have sticky ness issues with UC resin?
With normal catalyst.
I seem to have less trouble with normal cat I use 0.75% and heat the room up. I still experience stickyness with the deck but this is normally close to the 15-20 min mark (assume this is normal) but also a little sticker after I have pulled the extra.
With norm cat I poor out 60-70% onto the deck and work it in with 4-5 passes per side. I then leave it semi pooling on the deck and move onto the laps. I lift up the laps using a large piece of cardboard with baking paper taped onto it and squeegee the resin on.
Question 3: Should I change this process and pull all the excess off the deck before saturating the laps?
Question 4: should o completely finish the deck before starting the laps.
Question 5: is 1 hour to do a lam too long?
Question 6: what are your thoughts on my experience / lam methods.
Question 7 should I uses an old board sand it smooth and just repeatedly lam it for practice?
…hello, so with UV resin do you put the board under Sun after the lamination? Is not clearly.
You always have a sticky lamination anyway; then you put the hot coat to have a non sticky surface. The wax in the hot coat resin prevent the exothermic reaction to never cured to cure.
Lift the laps is a very difficult technique from the times where heavier glass was used. Do not use it now because is not easy to prevent 100% free of tiny bubbles that way.
In my opinion, you need to use more resin; then after you have all the technique set right, use less. This way you do not have a dry lamination, all the laps saturated fast and a faster overall lamination.
If your UV resin is setting while you work there might be stray sunlight getting in or whatever lights you have are giving off UV rays. 1 hour is way too long to lam a board. Watch the video below very closely. This is the method I have been using for a couple of years. A shortboard takes me about 10 minutes to saturate the cloth and lap the rails. Might not even take that long. Takes longer to prep. Once I have the resin bucket and squeegie in hand it goes real quick.
Regarding the deck/rail sequence and how ‘finished’ to get the deck before doing the rails… I generally pour out a generous puddle of resin in the center of the board and spread it out quickly. I’ve found that working out from the center is the way to proceed with that. I go for getting the glass saturated and pulling excess resin towards the edges but don’t waste a lot of time trying to finish it off just yet. Next I get the laps saturated - either by flipping them up on to the deck (or bottom) and pouring out most of the remaining resin or by holding the flaps out with one hand, pouring resin out, and spreading resin with the squeegee to saturate them. Starting in the middle of the board’s length, I work towards each end and tuck the laps until I’m within a foot or so from the tips. I keep a pair of metal scissors to snip any hanging strands as I go. I leave the flaps at each end for now. Next I double check the flat area on top and pour any remaining resin to get any leftover dry areas fully saturated. This is when I try to pull everything pretty tight. I pull out any excess resin going from the stringer to each side and from the center towards each end. This is a good time to squeegee out any drips along the rails and check the underside for any loose strands and flaps. Next I do the final flips at each end. If I have time left, this is when I really ‘babysit’ the whole thing. I make sure no laps fall down, squeegee out any drips or wrinkles, and basically tidy up. If the resin hasn’t gelled by now it will soon, so clean up your squeegee and scissors with acetone. If the light is right and you find any signs of pin air, this might be a good time to do a hard squeegee with a fresh batch of resin - a ‘cheater coat’ to fill in any dry areas. The video that mako224 has posted is among the best online tutorial you will find so watch that too.
a1) yes
a2) no
a3) not really your problem, can work either way
a4) same answer as 3
a5) yes way way too long. 10 minutes
a6) throw away the cardboard and paper. Just Use a squeegee and a resin bucket and your gloved hands
a7) no, just do another blank.
