Guys, I read below the issues your having with epoxy wet out. The problem is that your still thinking polyester technique. Epoxy doesn’t need to be pushed into the fabric. If you do this it will get frothy. The first thing to do after mixing is to pour all the resin on the board and spread it around so the entire surface is covered. Then wet your laps by pulling resin off the flats onto the lap. This gives the resin time to soak into the flats. Also, use a stiff sqeegee that moves the resin more effectivly. I use one of those plastic spreaders, the yellow ones. After you wet and tuck the laps, the resin should have sufficietly soaked into the flats with no elbow grease. Now simply remove the excess while flattening the fabric and clean your laps. It’s that simple. Also by pouring all the resin out immediatly you reduce exotherm and lengthen work time. Using the above technique I laminated a 12 foot board with a 3 layer 6 oz deck the other day with our new fast hardener in 85º with time to spare.
Hey Greg, Great info~~~ regards Crabie
Greg, Thanks for the good info. I haven’t done that many boards, but that’s mostly how I did them. I went with 3-6’s on bottom and 3 2/3-6’s on top with all of them. Epoxy was pretty expensive until about a year ago, so I planned epoxy amounts closely. I’ve been using 1 1/2 oz of epoxy mix per layer foot. I think that’s the problem, not enough spare epoxy mix. I couldn’t spread it without raking the glass. That’s where the frothing happened. With cheaper epoxy I’ll probably go to 2 oz per layer foot, and throw away the excess.
First pass is mearly spreading the resin out over the cloth leaving it very wet. Then let it soak. Move the resin from the middle towards the ends. Don’t push towards the middle. That way you won’t rake the glass. This is the really hard part to explain to people that are used to polyester. Letting the resin soak in instead of pushing. Noodle, what are you making? Three layers of 6 oz. on the bottom. You sure you aren’t making some kind of anti-aircraft armorment? I hope you know your great grand kids will still be riding your boards well into the next century.
“Noodle, what are you making? Three layers of 6 oz. on the bottom. You sure you aren’t making some kind of anti-aircraft armorment? I hope you know your great grand kids will still be riding your boards well into the next century.” Greg, I’m prepping for surf wars. They’ll get my board when they pry it out of my cold dead hands. I’m using EPS blanks, and I don’t want to get the EPS wet. I also want a strong board. It surprises me how little the extra glass layer weighs with epoxy. These babies are almost bullet proof, but they still perform well. I’m probably a little over-cautious. I always store and transport in muslin drawstring socks. My only ding came at the beach. Pulling the sock off, the wind blew the board onto a piece of sharp concreto. Ouch!.. so much for using protection.
Hey Noodle, I have same problem too. The epoxy here is too expensive. I used to mix 10 oz for glassing a 6’ board. Since the viscousity is thick, I hoted the resin before glassing. The potlife thereafter shortened. I m thinking to buy another kind of low viscousity epoxy thought it kicks slowly. Regards, Crabie
Noodle, Your right about successive layers with epoxy. Only 1/2 lb. for a layer of 4 oz on a shortboard. 3/4 of a lb for a layer of 6 oz. I have done 3 layer bottoms and 4 layer decks with 6 oz on langboards and they come out with very acceptable weight and strong as hell. Problem I’ve had with those is that’s the last time I see those customers. By the way Additive F reduces resin use by about 20% in laminates.
Hey Greg & Noodle, I 've done a 5’10" shortboard with 2 layers of 6 oz fabrics on both deck. Its kinda old school board that weight around 9 lbs before gloss coat ( possible I 've not spackled enough the resin soaked into the eps blank). I can’t accept such weight it’ll end up in 10 lbs with gloss coat. But I can see the board is much much stronger than the poly board. I 'll keep this as standard or just a 1 layer of 3 oz fabric + 1 layer of 6 oz fabric on the both deck for my coming summer board. Regards, Crabie
What is in additive F? I’m trying to work out what would be a similar product or chemical to substitute it …here in Australia, additive F is not available.
20% lighter sounds great.