I’m reglassing an old gun hybrid after it sustained alot of dings post broken leash at Jocko’s. Sanded off the gloss and hotcoat, patched where I needed to, but the problem is that when I applied a new hot coat, it set waaaay too thick and inconsistently, despite going over it several times, spreading it evenly, and working as quickly as possible. So I sanded the majority of it off, and decided to give it another try with a different brand of sanding resin, but got the same results, although it set a bit more smoothly. Sanded it down with a sander/polisher, and it’s definitely ready for gloss. My worry is that the gloss will set all jacked up again. I’m not dealing with cold; I’m now in Alabama and it’s been about 80 degrees. I’ve read that I can heat the resin prior to adding hardener. Would this work to reduce viscosity? This seems to be the issue, but maybe I’m just not adding enough catalyst to heat it up chemically? I’ve been using a 10 drops to one ounce of resin ratio.
Run your resin with a brush tip to tip, then 45° side to side and 135°- then a light tip to tip once more and walk away. Should take no more than 5 minutes.
Currently using foamez’s brand poly sanding resin (wax already added) with the method you described. How much should I be using? Been keeping it around one ounce per foot of board.
This is easy…don’t over think it. First a few things to remember. a) no air circulation b) if you put it on too thick it will slab off like a glacier breaking off due to global warming from cow farts. c) too thin and the wax wont rise or even have wax in it. So what we have here is a skill that just takes time to know what the feel is…you got to feel it…feel the resin… secret squirt
So…
use a quality brush
pour resin on board in long tip to tail pour.
work resin on a cross hatch pattern rail to rail…do this twice…work fast, make sure you get tape to tape on rails
tip resin out tip to tail…do this twice.
walk away…just walk away. don’t fuss with it…walk away…walk…Did I mention walk away. Walking away will give the wax time to rise to the top of the resin and seal the air off before the resin kicks off. if you dont…you will get sticky patches. Any sticky patches can be covered with wax paper and allowed to kick until rock hard.
clean brush in non-eco friendly solvent…By the tim you are all done cleanning up, you should be ready to pull tape and let it completely kick off.
sand as usual.
By the way, a hot coat is just supposed to fill the weave so you don’t get a leaker glass job…most of the hotcoat will be sanded off. Hot coats dont add any structural value to a surfboard, they just fill the weave for air pins.
Resinhead hit it all pretty much…and with plenty of humor too. Love it. The one thing that most people forget to do before they pour out their pre-mixed resins is to shake it up so the wax mixes back in with the resin. The wax and resin will separate so you have to shake it up really well and don’t forget to walk away:)
Thanks so much for the advice everyone. I applied the gloss coat again according to your advice and it worked out great. I went light on the catalyst, about 0.75%, and also heated the resin prior to mixing by submersing the mixing container in hot water to reduce viscosity. Seemed to work out well. Will sand starting with 400 and polish up.