Old sun cure

I was re-reading the Yater interview in TSJ recently and picked-up on a reference to him using UV cured resin way back (I think about 1950 something). Wondering why the UV curing resin did not catch on then…? What drawbacks did they find, if any? Will the same problems come up again? Maybe this was the cobalt resin that required sanding between lam layers? Anyone know the story here? Also, I end up reading that interview over and over. I love the Yater stories, and how he has so many tidbits about those days and Hobie, Velzy, G.Clark, etc. Very interesting to me. Yater seems like a meat and potatos type. Hobie and Clark - more Wall Street/business types. Velzy - the showman, slap-on-the-back floor-salesman. Obviously there is more depth to them all in reality, but it’s still an interesting bunch of personalities to all be in the same pot. Eric J

Grubby Clark a wall street type, that is funny. That would be like calling Flippy Hoffman a wall street type. The curing agents back then were UV, although I believe they were a complete different technology. That is what was available at the time. Prbbably can’t compare the two. One of the main differences with the current UV curing agent compared to MEKP initiated ortho resins is you get a higher level of cross linking with the UV cure resin. Instead of having only 88 to 92 % of the resin to crosslink, you get around 98% crosslinking. The only way to achieve a similar crosslinking with a MEKP promoted ortho is to do a specific heat cure at a specific time. Some people have translated the higher level of crosslinking to slightly stiffer surfboards. Especially the guys that rip riding potato chips. These guys seem very sensitive to adding stiffness to their boards. Most people probably would not notice. Sluggo

Thanks for the info Sluggo. It’s good to hear about the different properties of the new UV resin as well. I really liked using it over the waiting and checking of regular MEKP, what a pleasure. Expose it, wait a few minutes and flip it. After doing that it seemed like MEKP took all day. My arm chair analysis of Clark and the others was only that. A perception based on a little reading. Clark seems driven to do it right and make his money. I can appreciate that. And take it from a native NYer - not all of Wall Street is understood by Oliver Stone. He only captured the worst of it. There are plenty of brokers who are decent, and who surf (though I’m not a broker either). EJ>>> Grubby Clark a wall street type, that is funny. That would be like calling > Flippy Hoffman a wall street type.>>> The curing agents back then were UV, although I believe they were a > complete different technology. That is what was available at the time. > Prbbably can’t compare the two.>>> One of the main differences with the current UV curing agent compared to > MEKP initiated ortho resins is you get a higher level of cross linking > with the UV cure resin. Instead of having only 88 to 92 % of the resin to > crosslink, you get around 98% crosslinking. The only way to achieve a > similar crosslinking with a MEKP promoted ortho is to do a specific heat > cure at a specific time.>>> Some people have translated the higher level of crosslinking to slightly > stiffer surfboards. Especially the guys that rip riding potato chips. > These guys seem very sensitive to adding stiffness to their boards. Most > people probably would not notice. Sluggo

EJ, Grubby is one of those interesting guys who does not trust most of the surf media outlets, so unless you know him, you don’t know a lot about him. Funny thing is most of his freinds call him Gordon, not Grubby. Currently the guy owns and lives on the Hay Creek Ranch in Oregon. This is a huge ranch he bought for cheap, several former owners I think went bankrupt. From what I’m told it was basically a steal. It is a full on working ranch. He is the personality type that needs only a couple of hours sleep a night, and running the ranch and Clark Foam keep him occupied most of his awake time. I have seen a lot of guys, especially small surfboard guys, work like dogs, but I have never met anyone who works harder than Gordon. Sluggo

…I mix the two catalysts together in my glue.Mostly MEKP but enough UV cat. to kick it hard when put in sunlight. This reduces the crosslink stiffeness problem with the UV CAT.,thus being flexable,like normal MEKP catalyzed resin.Herb

Herb - I’ll keep that in mind if I’m ever trying to get more flex out of a lam job. I’m a 6’2" 215 person so I’m more likely to look for ways to strengthen the lam and control the flex. I have not yet met a board yet that felt too stiff for me to flex. I rented a bic for a day a few summers ago - that felt stiff, but it was only surprising to me because it was not a thick board. A year or two earlier I rented a 9 foot morey/doyle for a test ride. When I brought it back the salesman asked me what I thought and got mad when I told him it was ‘not a surfboard’… way too flexible and floppy. The guy just did not appreciate my honesty - I guess he expected me to say it was a ‘bitchen board!’ Sluggo - Clark sounds like an interesting guy, driven, untiring, and smart. thanks for the insight. Eric J ?x?? …I mix the two catalysts together in my glue.Mostly MEKP but enough > UV cat. to kick it hard when put in sunlight.>>> This reduces the crosslink stiffeness problem with the UV CAT.,thus being > flexable,like normal MEKP catalyzed resin.Herb