I have a problem, I bought some resin from a surfboard repair guy, he says its teccel resin.
The thing is that it cures so slowly, I called him and he told me that although its accelerated its only midly accelerated, so if I want it to cure faster to add a few drops of cobalt (accelerator) so I did that and after eventually escalating to add much more cobalt than he said to its still pretty slow, for instance I can only laminate one side in a day, possibly 2 if im in the workshop early. Also touch ups are painfully slow to cure even when adding a lot of catalyst.
Does anyone have any knowledge or experience with teccel resin, and is this snail like curing time normal.
P. S with all other resin I have used im used to laminating both sides PLUS both sides of the hotcoat in one day.
I think someone from the East Coast will have to help you on this. I almost never see anything by Teccel out here on the West Coast. You didn’t mention it. but I am assuming you are referring to Polyester Resin and not Epoxy. If he doesn’t chime in here, you might PM Jim Dunlop. He posts here from time to time and shapes alot of Teccel Blanks… Maybe he knows something of their resin. Always stick to what works the best for you. Smart shapers and glassers stick to what they are used to as long as they are getting the results they want. Not always the most innpovative attitude, but very consistent. Lowel
Yes its polyester, I have had a nightmare trying to find surfboard resin around here, I even ended up experimenting with normal ISO resin adding just a tiny amount of cobalt for added clarity, almost worked but again cure time was an issue and clarity was borderline.
I ended up doing a bit of work in the workshop this afternoon with the teccel resin, I have to admit its great to work with, very low viscosity and wets out great with great clarity. Catalysed at 2% still pretty slow, but a warmer day today so there is hope. I asked the guys I bought it off if they had thinned it with styrene or anything they said that that is just how it comes snd that they havnt added anything, they seem pretty cool and decent people so I have no reason to disbelieve them.
I was so desperate for surfboard resin last month that I bought some extremely expensive silmar stuff, it cost a fortune but I had to get things started - almost 300 dollars for 20kg. At least the teccel stuff is clear and workable, just slow - im thinking about trying to fit another glassing stand in my glassing room but space is tight. I guess I’ll just have to try and organise my timings better and try and keep busy by working in multiple boards at a time instead of 2 at a time.
Sounds as though you should be using UV Poly Resin. If you buy the powder separate you could use it with any Polyester lam resin. If you buy Silmar Lam resin, buy Silmar 249… With UV you could just hang an eight foot UV light above your glassing stands and turn it on when your’e done with the Lam. Flip the blank and give the rails a shot. Done deal. UV is killer in cold climes where Poly and catalyst set times depend on warmer temps. Lowel