sun cure and tints

General Discussion
1

After moving house and a two year break, I’ve finally built myself a new shaping bay and I’m about to make myself a few new boards. I’m used to traditional PU/PE construction, however I purchased some suncure additive to try. Question is, can it be used successfully with tints? Will the UV rays be inhibited? Going to do cutlap etc, so will the lap be set too hard to cut after exposure to the sun or will it remain soft enough to cut after initial exposure.

Sorry for so many questions, but I like to make sure things will work before I start them.

By the way, my boards will be a 6’1" double wing quad with ply fins and a 5"11" Keel twin.

Many thanks,

Craig.

2

craig.

congrats on your new set up. i use sun cure resins exclusively. when i use tints or pigments i add catalyst and do not expose it to uv. i find that uv catalyzed resin has an extremely limited (read a minute or two) gel stage for cutting the laps.

brasco

3

Craig- as Brasco said, you need to add catalyst with tints and pigments. Where we differ is that I will put mine in the sun just briefly to get ready for the flip and then take it indoors for the flip and cutlap.

4

And use the suncure for the hot coat.

5

If its tints (see through) only a small ,If any mekp

opaque’s definetly use or add mekp but less than normal

6

Hey guys, many thanks.

Mahana - I presume that you are putting the bottom of the board in the sun, getting it to kick, then taking it in and cutting the laps as they are still semi soft due to little/limited exposure to UV rays. Is this correct?

Kensurf - When catalyst is added to tinted suncure, it’s only a few drops just to start an exothermic reaction that will later be enhanced by UV exposure. Is that right?

Cheers,

Craig.

7

Craig- that’s exactly what I do. Once the laps are cut I take the board outside for a bit longer (not too much as colors get hot fast).

8

Working with sun-cure I found out I used too much UV plus it was 90 degrees out, where it must have heated up too quickly it kind of messed up my paint job, and then the colors also conducted lots heat. This was a board was pre-painted before the UV sun-cure. Here is a picture:

You can see, a yellow/some coming out of the green in the center. Kind of sucks- but I just put wax on it and no-one knows, but you. Good thing it can take the heat.

9

Hey bro I work at a shop in tofino and we use uv cat. We add 1.5 % cat to all lams and hotcoats and trow it in a uv box for 5 min right after lam. Just what we do and our boards are nice and hard.

10

gill

the mekp cat is for the “it will kick eventualy” factor

meening that, the uv will kick the surface but wont cure where it cant get to

tints will kick all the way through cause the uv rays will push through

opaque colors will surface kick but the stuff in the foam wont cause theres no uv rays getting through

so you add a bit of mekp to give it the “it will kick eventualy” factor

you savy?

11

…yesterday I did 2 ding repairs

first I did a putty with UV resin+pigment+aerosil; put that in the 2 boards

in 1 board cured hard in the other never cured…

so I went with the “safety” way of put MKEP to the putty; no cured again

finally I had no time, so put again and like did no wanted to cure I sanded, slightly, the semi gummy putty and then just follow with the fiberglass etc