Looks like a rainy weekend in soCal so I might finally get a chance to finish off a couple of boards.
Is it ok to laminate in high humidity?
What about laminating with RR epoxy in the garage on a 50 degree rainy night?
I laminated my last 2 late on foggy nights and have snapped them both…
Any advice?
Thanks and take it easy
Howzit slash, What you want is the blank to be nice and dry so just put the shaped blank in your nice warmnd dry house for. I a couple of days then take it right to your glassing area and go for it. I've glassed in pourung rain when my Hygrometer was registering 100%, no problems just more catalyst. Aloha,Kokua
Thanks for the good info, I’ll put it to use this weekend.
take it easy
Rainy cold days and epoxy are not the best mix. I have gotten away with it by heating the resin & board and laming, and just after it gels do the fill coat without flipping the board. Come back the next day and sand the rails -overlap and flip and repeat the lam and fill. Post cure will help.
PS: Quit busting such big airs and you will snap less boards.
Howzit Slash, My bad I didn't see that you are using epoxy and I have always been a Poly guy but the blank advise would work no matter hat you glassing with.Aloha,Kokua
"Is it ok to laminate in high humidity?
What about laminating with RR epoxy in the garage on a 50 degree rainy night?"
I have my methods.....
...50 degrees F and rainy....no way...wait for summer or heat your shop...
Ray
I just came in from doing the bottom and saw this so I’m going to stick a heater out there now.
Thanks for the info fellas
We do a very controlled process and require 70F minimum. Our cure is not exposed to air, but for hand-lam purposes humidity is much less a problem than temp. If you want optimum results, wait for optimum conditions or control the environment.
I thought it was your butt and not foggy nights that were snapping your boards, broseph?
Slash,
Ive made quick and easy hot boxes / enclosures out of cardboard, plastic sheeting and tape surrounding the board on the rack. Plugged in a small ceramic heater with a blower and monitored temps with a BBQ temp probe. Kept a regular eye on it and didnt leave it unattended without turning off the heater.
It was easier to get the smaller area around the board up to temp rather than the whole garage. I saw a picture here once where I believe an electric oil heater was placed under the glassing rack below the board - dont remember if the guy that did this made a temporary enclosure or not.
Id also consider a method to post cure. I just did a break repair - post cured the finished epoxy at 120F for 12 hours -- it sanded really nice the next day and gets the epoxy much closer to full strength than a standard ambient cure.
yoyo
Yeah your going to get mixed results with this weather. The times I have had brain farts and decided to epoxy in the cold wet weather, I've regreted it. What usually happen is the epoxy take 2-3 time longer to kick.
I've even done some repairs where the board is out in the sun....but the epoxy bucket is in the trash can in the cold garage. The repair on the board will kick off in 2 hrs in the sun, but the cold garage bucket will take 2 days to kick off to sandable state.
Super hard to get a garage up to 75 degrees with all the drafts, no insulation, etc. Best to wait for a sunny day. Also a rising temp in the garage will make volcano fisheyes in you eps lamination
Volcano fisheyes, yikes. What about XPS?
I’m hurting for a new board and short on time so I rigged this up from the rocker table, off cuts of XPS, and old bag. I have the hot air rising into the box and had a little fan for circulation but it just took a shit on me. I have it at 83 degrees. I’m not sure how the XPS will do with post cure temps (110-120? 10hrs?). Any thoughts on the XPS in post cure? It’s the 1” DOW sheets from Lowes.
[img_assist|nid=1048888|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]
Volcano fisheyes, yikes. What about XPS?
I’m hurting for a new board and short on time so I rigged this up from the rocker table, off cuts of XPS, and old bag. I have the hot air rising into the box and had a little fan for circulation but it just took a shit on me. I have it at 83 degrees. I’m not sure how the XPS will do with post cure temps (110-120? 10hrs?). Any thoughts on the XPS in post cure? It’s the 1” DOW sheets from Lowes.
[img_assist|nid=1048888|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]
Sorry for the double banger