Hi gang. I have nothing but good things to say about Resin Research. The additive F is still new for me and seems to work fine on clear or opaque light color glass jobs. My big problem is with Non-opaque high color glass jobs, ie Red, Black, Blue... I just ruined a whole batch of epoxy boards because I used Additive F. Actually, I am fixing all of them, but what a pain in the ###!.
I found that I can use a bit of additive F on the bottom lam, not the entire recommended ammount though. BUT, if I use ANY at all on the top lam, it turns milky. Same with the hotcoats. The only thing I can think of to do is to go back to the old pre-Additive F way of glassing colored boards. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please clue me in to them. I have tried everything from the recommended dosages to a fraction of what I should be using. Even 1cc to 8oz of hardener will cause blush. It’s a bit frustrating. In fact today, I just finished up a batch of poly boards. It went SO easy! No problems at all. At this point, I am all for the epoxy glass jobs, as I hate wearing my mask as much as the next guy, but I have to say I do look forward to my Polyester days! If there is already an old post on this topic, someone please guide me to it. My brain is far too fried to search for it!
i’ve done lams with RR in green, blue, yellow…always used 2cc Add.F / oz. hardener…sometimes a bit more…NEVER had this problem. used it in colored lams, clear lams, clear lams over colored lams, hotcoats, glosses… resin gets milky when you add the Add.F while liquid, but it clears itself out as it cures.
maybe you got a bad batch of something? – resin??, Add.F???
I think it's ighly unlikely that I got a bad batch, although I wish I could blame it on that. As per instructions, I use 1cc per ounce of hardener. I double it for hotcoats..on clear boards anyways. The resin turns milky when mixing and stays that way. Here is a thought though. I do have my resin and hardner sitting next to one of those oil heaters so when I go to use it, it's not like karo syrup. It sure spreads nice! Think the additive F may not like mating with warm resin? I suppose I should try mixing it in with cold resin. That really is the only thing I can think of that I do any different than anyone else. It is quite humbling for an experienced glasser to turn out an entire batch of botched boards!
I would say that most of us should be turning to you for advice. I know I have.
I’ll take a couple of guesses until somebody who knows what they’re doing can chime in… Any chance of moisture contamination of the cloth, foam, resin, mixing sticks?
What temperatures are you glassing in? It’s rarely within recommend temperatures for duration of the cure where I live and I’m south of you.
Have you tried test panels with and without Additive F just to make sure that’s it? Maybe the Additive somehow picked up some moisture?
I do have my resin and hardner sitting next to one of those oil heaters so when I go to use it, it’s not like karo syrup.
I think you may have given the clue… if you heater is pumpin’ fumes this can have a real adverse effect on your curing and cause severe blushing. I dunno if this is your case but the minute I see OIL HEATER and EPOXY my alarm bells ring.
I do have my resin and hardner sitting next to one of those oil heaters so when I go to use it, it’s not like karo syrup.
I think you may have given the clue… if you heater is pumpin’ fumes this can have a real adverse effect on your curing and cause severe blushing. I dunno if this is your case but the minute I see OIL HEATER and EPOXY my alarm bells ring.
If you want to warm your resin for better flow then a bain-marie setup is safer, alternatly you could build a cabinet about the size of a small fridge and hang a 60watt lightbulb in it, the light will actually give a lot of heat and keep the resin flowing, also a good technique if you are working in cold conditions and get crystals in your resin…
I dunno about additives… I worry they may hamper the chemical bonds, industry (yachtbuilding) uses xylene, tolueen, acetone, even MEK to get flow… but that all results in dangerous working environment and weakened chemistry… I wouldn’t advise any of that… I guess I am lucky that the resin I have flows nicely just the way it is (as of 20 degrees C) I just have the standard solvent-free stuff from a company here polyservice.nl, we don’t have RR here but boy I would love to have a go with it after all the stories here on sways!!
Fumes?? Like I could smell them?<LOL>!! Yikes! I live to smell fumes just like every other glasser, BUT, this heater has absolutely no fumes, to my utter dismay!<lol> In fact, when I'm not feeling well, probably due to an occasional deprivation of fumes, I have been known to place a steaming hot towel over my head and hang over a bucket of hot resin, just to get my fix!<LOL>! Hey, I'm just kidding. No sarcasim intended. But really, there are no fumes. Temps here have been mild. The heater is not that close to the curing boards as to have much affect directly. I do have two more epoxy boards to do and I am going to go back to the old school way like before additive F. My cloth hangs on easy to access racks just like most glass shops, so I don't really see any problem there, although I surly don't go through a roll as fast as a multi employee shop would. Gotta say I'm stumped, especially since no one else seems to be having a problem. Maybe I'm just old.
Maybe Greg will chime in on this? I think I will go feed the chickens and stop thinking about it for a few hours! I attached several pictures of my chemical kitchen.(I think) Note the oil heater.
your observations are not out of line. I’ve experienced the same thing and while mixes with additive F do tend to turn out much clearer than they would appear to on initial layout (right after mixing), they don’t go totally dead glass clear like the resin would without the Ad F in it. Greg has acknowledged that this is the case before. I’m super diligent about contamination, and it’s happened with a couple of different kinds of glass; there really isn’t any way around it; you load the Ad F high enough to have a desired material effect, it will affect visual properties. No prollem for your boring white shortie; problems for colour work for sure.
Your options are to not use it in the hotcoat, which will sadly make sanding your hotcoat more difficult, or to not use it in anything other than your initial coloured lam. Let’s say you’re tinting the bottom; do the tint with AdF, then do your cutlap. Next layer (deck), gets no Ad F. Use the cheater coat on the deck and rails after the deck lam has gone off (1-2h). Let that cure. Sand a bit, do a wipe on the bottom and hotcoat the bottom (bottom had Ad F, so it’s okay that it cured a while longer; you should still get a decent bond). You should end up with a pretty sharp, clear lam this way.
Just to be clear, hmm, let me rephrase that. Just so understand completely, is it milky in the mix before lamming, or milking after lam and after drying? It will be a bit milky in the mix after Add F, but, (and I have not done color in months, so I might not remember acurately) I don’t think I had the problem after it hardened. I was doing red and black. I think it just cleared up.
