My first time writing to all you MasterShapers. I've been reading, and reading, and reading different threads on Epoxy on EPS. I live in a port town way north of Nicaragua, waves everywhere-materials nowhere, I grew up in Jacksonville, Florida,materials everywhere-waves...well, you get my point. I can get 2'', 3'', 4'' 4x8 sheets of EPS, but no Epoxy resin, and I have to drive 3 hours to get 4oz, 6oz fiber glass. I said all that to say, the only thing to work with is poly. I'm at the testing stages of trying to seal with white glue, and latex paint on the another one. I can get all purpose joint compound, but not lightweight spackling. I've shaped two wooden hollows and love them, but I want to go light. Please someone advise me!!!!!
you can’t use poly resin with eps…
What about sealing it? What's the differance with polyurethane resin and polyester, concerning boards? And if I can get polyurethane is there a way to use it. Sorry for ALL THE IGNORANT QUESTIONS, but I've read soooo many differant things, and I'm a bit confused and desperate to glass my boards! I shaped a 7'6'' and a 5'9'' and two paipos, if I don't glass them soon I'll go nuts, there for me and my girls. thanks for the response as well!!
Polyester is the standard resin used on polyurethane foam. Epoxy resin is typically used on styrofoam, and sometimes on polyurethane foam. Polyurethane is a type of FOAM. You are confused, it seems.
Also, many people have used polyester on styrofoam. You just have to seal the blank really well. I have never attempted such a project, but I’m sure many others here have done just that.
Give it another try to score some epoxy resin. Did you try industrial floor covering sources? The epoxy resin used to coat concrete floors the world over is basically the same stuff, (without UV inhibitors, and harder to sand), but will produce light, strong glass jobs. Seems like you could get fiberglass by mail. Good Luck & good to have you here!
sickdog
i remember a while back... say... 5 or so years ago, there was a guy talking about how he made a surfboard using EPS foam and Polyester UV cure resin.
he sealed the blank with latex house paint if i remember correctly. what this does for the bond of resin to blank i don't know. but, i remember reading about it
in several different places...
good luck...
are you SURE you can't get epoxy resin? or maybe look for some Polyurethane foam and you're set.
There are some polyurethane resins out there but getting them might be as difficult for you as getting epoxy.
Resin-X is a urethane compound and there is a guy still marketing AST brand urethane resin for surfboards. I've tested some stuff called 'StyroSpray' as an EPS primer layer under epoxy and it turned out surprisingly strong with NO fabric reinforcement whatsoever. It also bonded well to epoxy overcoats. Some Swaylockers have seen my sample chips.
It is used as-is for coating foam models in the movie and museum industry.
As sickdog mentioned, there are alternative sources for 'epoxy' and some may be more durable than surfboard specfic products.
There aren't any materials used in surfboard manufacturing that started out associated with surfboards in any way, shape or form.
I think the general consensus is this: If you can prevent polyester from meeting polystyrene by chaperoning the event with latex, elmers, whatever, go ahead and try it (with a test panel first, of course).
I can't figure out how to post a link to the thread but look up in the archives "one way a guy is making cheaper boards" He uses UV poly over EPS.
I always liked that this guy was thumbing his nose at conventional wisdom but I never tried his method -at least not yet. The method sounds like a bit of a hassle and I could see some potential problems in a tropical climate but give it a go. I've got several boards that I like that my more learned colleagues said were a bad idea.
wasn’t someone saying that it was the styrene that melted the EPS and not necessarily polyesther resin as a whole?
benito, maybe you can try some small test panels with the resin you do have handy.
in fact, I would recommend test panels no matter what you do…it will be a good way to test your sealer out before you try to glass the whole board.
here's the link Jong:
http://www2.swaylocks.com/node/1005981
also, maybe some of this "foam coat" would work:
EPS, paint it with many coats of laytex paint. let it dry...paint it again. Glass it out with poly.
It will work, but the board will soon delam and blow up...but so what, you're surfing..amd that's all that counts.
Maybe Juan or Julio at the local boat yard have some left over LP paint...2 part linear Poly urethane that tough as nails, will seal eps watertight ike a ducks ass. Also there is a 2 part boat epoxy primer by interlux..you could use that to seal the blank, it goes on thick and bonds well to EPS foam. It's used to fill small cracks in boat hulls prior to painting the LP. (LP is pretty runny) Then the trick would be to bond the glass to the Primered EPS, but if you leave the foam rough it should make a decent board.
Use that stuff and the board will not disolve. Any how see what the boat yard has.
Tell Juan hi from Resinhead.
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Chrisp
http://hotwirefoamfactory.com/home.php?cat=249
Great link, THANKS!
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you're welcome... i can't take credit tho... i got it from Oneula. just passing it along
This all is awesome!!! Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to try to seal a small paipo I shaped before I do my 7'6'', and continue my quest for epoxy. I'll also post the results as I go.
Has anyone tried to bring epoxy with them on a airplane? I'll post that next. Thanks to you all!!!!!!
Whahooo!!! Extremely Stoked, I finally scored epoxy!!! I tested sealing with latex and glue so poly would work…glue seemed to be the best, but I was still iffy on doing it to a board that I put alot of time shaping on, so I searched, searched, searched, and I found! Thanks for all the tips and wisdom in all your post it helped me tons!!!