Hey everybody,
I live in a freezing country and I would like to know how low can the temperature be, to store and work with Poly Resin. My Shaperoom and Storage for Blanks and Chemicals is a container that is exposed to the freezing Temperatures we get here during winter.
Thanks for any help!
We have snow on the ground this morning
I don’t now the lowest that you can glass, but I know that its not a good idea to expose your chemicals to freezing conditions.
I don’t do any glassing during the winter due to the cold and bring my chemicals indoors and store them in the loft during the winter, if you have a shed and want to glass get a heater and turn it on an hour or so before you glass and heat up the resin in the microwave for a few seconds or in a bath of hot water for a few minits so it flows.
An old refrigerator (not plugged in) will maintain a nice even temperature inside - whether your shed is too hot or too cold.
It’ll also stop a small shed fire from turning into a catastrophe if it gets your resin.
Benny1 I like your idea of the old refrigerator. I have never tried this but i’m sure it would work. What if he takes a hotwater heater and hooks it to the old refrigerator and makes a captive system, you could set the temp at what ever you want and keep the resin at the correct temp. You could pick up one of those real little hotwater heaters from a RV you would not need much more then that. What do you think? You could even keep your RR epoxy good and hot so it would apply easier.
Hi EuroTrash,
I’ve been glassing all day and its snowing…plus the heating has packed up, my hands have packed in to!.
The trick is to keep you resin cool and away from the freezing…and warm some up before use.
An electric blanket around your barrels will work well as long as they are out of the damp to. You don’t want to get to warm!
I poor off what I need for the day and warm it up for use as and when. If you don’t warm it you will find it a bastard to wet the cloth.
A touch more catalyst and some styrene can help! go easy on the styrene.
The worst…the fridge idea is perfect.!!
Good luck…don’t let the cold put you off!
TM
Bagman, I like the heat idea. I have a dehumidifier in my shop fridge, like from a gun safe. It keeps everything nice & dry and adds a tiny bit of heat, but we never really get to freezing anyway.
I think all a fridge would need to stay quite warm is a 100 watt bulb left on inside. Drill a little hole way down near the bottom, take apart a drop light & push the cord through the hole & reconnect it. 100 watts is a lot of output, a thermometer inside might even indicate that going down to 75 or 60 would be fine. I think you’d want everything to stabilize right around 70*F.
Thanks a lot Guys!As always good advice here on Swaylock’s! I have a little heater, that keeps the place somewhat warm and I think I’ll go with the Resin Canister in hot water before glassing and just try! Have a nice finished Shortboard sitting there! It’s for a friend, so I want it to be good!
Ok this might be stupid, but is the refrigerator thing a joke, because I don’t get it! What does an old unplugged fridge do?? How does that work?
Its not a joke. Its just a well-insulated box. Insulation works in any direction…if its freezing outside the insulation, you can keep the temperature much more moderate inside. A burning light bulb would be just the trick - energy in, heat & light out. Much cheaper to run then a space heater for the whole place.
And refrigerators are usually decently fireproof, especially if you put a locking hasp on the door. Say you have an electrical short, or a rag fire, or drop a smoke in your shop. If your resin, MEKP, and Acetone are sitting on a shelf, the tiniest bit of heat will puff fumes out of the bottle caps, then the fumes ignite, and your shop is toast. By keeping the volatiles closed & insulated away from potential heat/flame sources, you buy yourself time to solve the problems. No kaboom.
Best of all, you can probably get a used 'fridge for free. Check your local craigslist.org - there are many local craigslists in Europe.
An old firdge will not only keep things cold through insullation and coolent when turned on. But also when switched off it will keep things/resin at a steady temp inside (cool)…protecting them from extreme cold outside.
It sort of works in reverse.
AAAAHA got it! Thanks Mason and Benny! I’m gonna get myself an old fridge, that should be easy! If I heat up my shed, warm up the resin and the open the door for more fresh air while glassing and close it after and keep the heater on, would that be ok? What do you think?
You live in a cold part of the world, my friend 
The space heater is good while you’re working - maybe 4 hours before you glass & keep it on until you’re done.
Inside the fridge, I’d still recommend something like this :
Drill a hole the size of the cord way down low on your fridge, cut the cord of the light, feed it through the hole & splice it back together (with the splice outside the firdge). Keeping the bulb on inside the fridge will keep your resin warm enough to use all winter long. If it gets too cold, it can settle out funny and the different chemicals separate (epoxy too). Then, even if you give it a good shake, when you pour some off to heat it up, you don’t get all the right stuff. So you have to heat the whole container which takes a long time and still can produce lumpy resin. Better to never let it condense to begin with.
Believe me, I’ve learned the hard way
Thanks for the cool tip! Sounds perfect and easy!I’ll do that! Hooray for the winter Boardbuilders!
Greets
Henning
Light bulb will work only problem being if the light breaks then fumes will cause a real blast. That is why I was thing hot water, you can keep your resin hot and keep ignition sorce away from the flammables.
Yeah - good point Bagman. Its rare, but incandescent lights do sometimes burst. Big kaboom.
So a recirc pump with some of the tubing used for radiant floor systems in & out…that’s not too tough either. Even one of those instant-hot water pumps mounted under a sink, you could give it a crank once a day or so & fill your water pipes. Those things are relatively cheap too.
OK Benny1 where do we apply for the Patten? Safe, easy and cheap resin warming and storage system for surfboard builds. Between the two of us we should be able to make at least $10 each. Or we could just give it to our buddys. I vote just give it to our bubbys. Maybe they will name it after us. The BaB warmer.
Its unanimous
I tried something last winter that worked very well and very safely. Storing and heating flammable items doesnt need to be any more dangerous than it is already.
A good way to keep your resin warm is by purchasing a home brew beer heating pad. These are designed to keep your home brew at a constant temperature (around 28 i think) for extended periods of time. If you simply keep a pale of resin and put it on the pad it will keep it warm and less viscous. Glassing boards with viscous resin makes them heavy as well.
This works pretty well and as the heating elements only heat to a moderate temp and are encased in plastic you can drip resin and whatever else on them without fear of ignition.
Works for me anyway.
How the heck did you come up with that? I guess you’re making your own brew! Cool idea! Where can I get something like that (in Germany) and how expensive are they?
I’m still gonna get an old fridge, but breaking lightbulbs are a good point, I don’t want the worry all the time and I definitely don’t want Big Kaboom!
Cheers