I think I may have found the answer : the product is called “G4”. It’s manufactured by SOLOPLAST and is said to allow for the perfect bond of wood and polyester lamination. A distributor even invites the clients to try it on a piece of plywood, let it cure, boil it for two hours and then try to destroy it with a hammer or peel off the laminate. It then says it’s impossible to separate the laminate from the wood because the bond is stronger than wood itself and that you may either destroy the wood or the laminate but the contact area will remain. Normally polyester doesn’t stick well to wood for the following reasons : - wood contains 10-20% of moisture (sometimes even more) - wood contains several chemicals (such as phenol, lignite, salts …). These prevent the resin to cure inside wood pores. - Wood pores absorbs the styrene from the resin (styrene is required for curing) therefore the contact area has less styrene and will cure in poor conditions. These three reasons have been the cause for laminating failures. Most of the time delam will not occur right away but only after several weeks, for the following reasons : - polyester resin keeps on curing for a while (weeks) and tensions and shrinkage only occur then. - Wood moves widthwise due to difference in moist level. Even Plywood takes or give back some moisture Polyester laminates are rather rigid , they have little elasticity. Therefore this two materials will tend to separate unless the bond is stronger than the wood itself. This can be done using a “glue” liquid enough to penetrate the wood pores, anchor itself to the wood like tree roots, then cure staying this way. Neither polyester nor epoxy will do that : they’re too thick. The G4 product is supposed to achieve this strong binding. It then has a strong chemical bond with polyester if lamination occurs 30 minutes to 3 hours after priming with G4. A drop of G4 will dry on your skin within 20 minutes. Once cured, it’s impossible to take it of your skin : G4 resist water, soap and almost any solvent… It is as flexible as is your skin. Neither chlorine, nor pumice stone will take it off. You’ll just have to wait 4 weeks until you skin dries out and get replaced by new skin. Better wear gloves …. Pierre
I forgot to mention : The product is transparent (varnish like). It’s polyurethane based. Pierre
Please, you have to tell us more, Where we can get it, a link to their page, something.
Soloplast is a French/German Manufacturer. Over here (in France)you’ll find the products at any Castorama (it’s like Home Depot)and boatbuilding shops. Information about the product was found (in French) at : http://www.soloplast-vosschemie.com I do not know wether these products are available overseas. There’s a contact e-mail address on the web site. Pierre
Pierre… WAY TO GO…!!!.. Now find out how I can get some… …PaulJensen http://www.hollowsurfboards.com
Howzit Pierre, I’ve found that UV resin works pretty good with wood since it sets up so fast. I have a balsa gun I’m restoring and had problems glassing over areas that I had to replace the old balsa with new balsa. 2 times I glassed it, the resin delammed both times. Used UV resin the 3rd time and had no problem. I think that the fast cure doesn’t give the oils and other chems time to rise to the surface. Another trick I used to use was to coat the area with uncatalyzed resin, let it set for a couple of weeks and then laminate it. With this process there’s no heat generated which draws the impurities to the surface of the wood.Aloha, Kokua
That sounds good Kokua.When we primed raw wood with lam resin we thinned it with styrene and set it off super slow…took maybe 10 hours to gell.If dry spots appeared we would hit em again.We were using the old formula Dion Iso. resin.I wonder if that made a difference?Did you ever clean up the resin mountain under your lam racks Kokua?Funny as hell I thought,remove with a crane? R.B.
Howzit Mr. Clean, Yeah I cleaned it up. I hooked a rope to it and tried to pull it out of the shop with my car, but that didn’t work. I had to break off the the resin on 1 end before it would even move. Think it was my biggest mound ever, but next to some I’ve seen at BASA’s shop it was a mole hill instead of a mountain. When I got it out in the sun any unhard UV resin that was trapped between layers was oozing out and kicking off. Remember all the roach clips that were made from those mounds.Aloha,Kokua
Paul, Try Duratec 823A for sealing wood. www.duratec1.com. The 823A is the same as the 800A, just clearer. You can get a quart sample fairly easy and it goes a long way. Sluggo