I’m looking at prices for making about 5 shortboards, and I’m trying to save money by buying in quantity. I think I’ve done the math right, a gallon of resin for hot coating 5 boards? Fiberglass Supply doesn’t sell pre-made Sanding resin, but I checked with other places and it seems really expensive and gallon sizes tend to incur hazardous shipping fees.
Again, doing the math I think I’d need about 4 oz of styrene wax for a gallon. Would it be logical to just buy a gallon of lam resin and the 4 oz can of styrene and just mix the styrene straight into the gallon of resin? Or should I be mixing each batch seperately when I hot coat?
You can mix it all up if you want to. I keep smaller amounts (a pint or two) pre-mixed with wax for dings. Always have. If you know you’re going to use the resin only for sanding resin, why not wax the whole gallon.
i think the wax/styrene mix i use is one ounce per gallon of resin …
i allways just mix what i need just as i am about to hotcoat, so say if im about to use a quart or resin i just add about 1/4 ounce…and mix it then. this way i know its mixed up really well…
i wouldnt mix up a whole gallon of it personally… i would rather be able to use the resin as lam or hotcoat as needed…
anyway 4oz.wax/styrene solution should be plenty for five boards. and instructions will likely be on the wax/styrene container to tell you how much to use per gallon,…probally like i said 1oz. per gallon.
Thanks, yeah I think I’m going to get a gallon just for sanding resin. I’m looking at UV Cure resin for laminating, so it should be easy to keep the two apart. It just makes more sense to mix it all up together.
Just tacked the keels on today. It’s raining out right now, so I can’t start glassing. The temp also dropped about 20 degrees. It should hopefully be done within a week if I can find the time.
You’ll be using approx. a pint of resin per side to hot coat a short board. 2% per pint of wax solution is 2 teaspoons or 1/3 of an ounce. You can calculate from there…
I would mix it as you go and not devote gallon at a time to pre mix. I just keep a teaspoon measure handy and keep the lam resin pure in the can as you’re always going back and forth from lamming to hot coating.
It’s raining here too - hasn’t stopped for days - but have been glassing and hot-coating throughout - no problems. I worry more about glossing in high humidity - but will do that too with a hot batch.
I agree with that you should mix it as you go, otherwise you would be stirring the gallon everytime you poured some out. You should also add some styrene to the HC batches so they brush out better. Mix in the SA and styrene first and stir it really good. Personally I like pre-made HC better because the SA has additives to keep it suspended in the resin.