Seem the other posts surrounding the subject have ended in everything from speculation about the price to the old discussion about why not to use poly over epoxy.
Here's what we know: It's $90/gallon. It is only about 20% epoxy and mostly urethane. No matter how much putting poly over epoxy is like applying acrylic paint over oil, people still do it!
So, has anybody actually used the stuff other than for sealing an EPS blank? Laminating? Hotcoating? Glossing? Is the stuff clear after curing or milky looking like in the video? Is it good sanding/polishing or tacky after full cure?
I’ve formulated UV acrylates so I know some about it. The problem is that most of the decent stuff needs a lighting system that costs upwards to 100K. At that point you can begin to look at the possibilities. Just aren’t many surf factories which can go there. Interesting stuff though. Just not applicable to our industry … I tried though.
I hear you about the UV acrylates Greg. I used that stuff day in and out during an internship at a biomed laboratory and cured it with a UV generating source in less than a second - rock hard and crystal clear.
I'm curious about that Solarez Zerovoc product though. Any relation to these acrylates? Looks like they're kicking it outdoors on the website video, but make no mention of laminating, hotcoating, or glossing with the stuff . . . pourquoi?
It is an acrylate for sure. Epoxy or urethane or … probably urethane. Not sure what the deal is, how they got around some of the difficulties. Be interesting to see. Be interesting to see though.
Thanks Jamie. I saw that thread you started back in Nov.'09 and thought for sure there would have been multiple folks here who've tried it since then. It has that air of being too good to be true, but the silence here is making me wonder . . .
At any rate, I got an email back from Gary at Solarez and he says he'll clear it all up here on Sways. So, sit tight and we'll see what he says.
Great. Thanks. It still would be cool to get some objective third-party perspectives if anyone glassed with the stuff. I was interested in it because of a “secret” glassing experiment I’m working on (hint, involves pre-preg). I have talked to both Greg and Gary about it offline. Turns out I may be able to get away with just regular epoxy. But still, I am told that urethane-based acrylate resins may in fact be better than both polyester and epoxy from a performance standpoint (ie Resin X). Only problem was cost. But the $90 per gallon for zerovoc is not a deal-breaker in terms of cost.