hi im using uv cure p/u resin for the first time and im curious about the cure time
i haven’t seen any step by step posts of people glassing with uv cure.
im wondering were i should glass it ,what type of weather i should glass in , time of day etc.
You need to glass in as dark a space as possible. Either a garage or shed with all windows covered up. There is even a small amount of UV in fluorescent bulbs that will slowly start to cure it after an hour or two. I tried to glass a board in a carport with tarps covering most of the light. Didn’t work, and the thing kicked in less than 10 minutes. Fastest I’ve ever lammed a board, believe me. The longest working time I’ve gotten with UV was 1 1/2 hours.
It’s perfect with freelaps. Cutlaps are a little more difficult because they need to be done before the resin completely hardens (which takes around 3 minutes on a sunny day). I would glass it in the middle of the day, that way you have the most sunlight to work with. Sunny weather definitely. Some clouds are okay, but make sure there’s a fairly sunny spot in your yard to put this thing while it’s curing.
There should be more info in the archives, or just keep asking questions.
thanks for the help
if i dont have a shed to glass in could i laminate at sunrise in the shade?
Hmm, never tried it before, but I suppose if you started right before sunrise you could have enough time to work. You just don’t want to give the board a lot of time for the resin to soak into the foam, because it dries out the cloth and makes the board a lot heavier. You can also get a sunshade type of tent and UV blocking tarps (the silver/gray ones, they have a bunch of different sizes at harbor freight).
I just lammed my first UV cure poly board today, so keep in mind I am almost completely ignorant about everything. I can tell you what I found out, but like Rachel said, you should probably search around for replies by other knowledgeable people.
I’m using the pre-mix from FGH, so I dunno if any of this applies to any other UV stuff.
First, it stinks like poly, so respirators and ventilation and all that.
Second, some indirect light (OK, it’s winter here in California) didn’t cause any drama. Might have thickened the consistency, but I had to take my leftover resin out into the direct sun before it actually gelled. I was lamming the deck in the garage with the doors open for about 10 minutes before I remembered to close them. I closed them, and kept going for another 20 minutes (I’m slow) – never a hint of a problem.
Third, it cures to a state more cured than tacky REALLY fast – just a couple minutes. After that, it took me a full hour in today’s noon sun to get a real rock-hard cure, and I didn’t get a full cure on the deck lam after 45 minutes in the afternoon sun.
Fourth, thicker layers of the resin take longer to cure, so keep in mind that the nose and tail will need to be pointed at the sun for longer than the nice, dry lam of the flats. Same if your rails aren’t squeegeed dry enough.
Warming it for a minute or two in a warm-water bath made it flow nicely.
Colors and finboxes I didn’t even try, since they’re supposed to prevent UV transmission which would inhibit the cure.
Overall, I thought it was really good for beginners, and I’ll definitely be using it again, although I doubt it will replace epoxy as my goop of preference.
The poly stink part sucks, and the acetone cleanup sucks, and it’s not as cheap as regular poly, but not having to worry about catalyst or hardener or ratios or rising / falling temperatures or mixing or even working time RULES. Also, getting the bottom lammed, the laps ground, the deck lammed, and the whole board prep-sanded for hotcoating in 5 hours (and I’m slow, ignorant and incompetent) RULES. If I was halfway competent and had summer sun, I could have easily done the whole board in that same time.
Good luck!
Ive done 4 boards now with UV cat, the stuff is the coolest.
Heres some things I have encountered
I have only used the crystal type , comes in a brown plastic pouch 1 bag for 1 gal
you can divide it for smaller quantities if you want
mix it the night before you use it so its completely disolved and roll the can around a wile before you use it
I leave the side door of my garage open and shut the big door
apply as normal, no surfacing agent for laming, get it lamed open the big door (I have wheels on my rack) roll it in the sun for about 30 seconds, take it out of the sun for about 1 minute ,repete the drill about 5 or 6 times, you may speed it up after it starts to firm up. eventualy you will have to flip the board to get the bottom rails kicked.
This keeps the blank from gassing, if it gets too hot you will get pinholes (trust me on this)
if its cloudy out you can let it kick all the way cause the blank wont get hot enough.
some say falling temps will be the best time to glass with UV cat. I agree
For sand coats just add surfacing agent and do the drill
Gloss same same but use glossing resin Its better stuff
Colors, I use UV cat and long as the resin is a light to medium tint and it will work, if the colors are dark like black, blue ,red, green or if its opeque color you must use regular catalyst
I usually add about 1/2 the recomended amount of regular cat to the uv cat resin mix when doing tints. that
way Im sure it will eventualy kick off just in case !
with opeques I use the appropriate amout of cat.
now mind you Ive done 4 boards with uv cat and two of those were with colors opeque and tints
thats it from me
God bless UV cat
My advice is this. You don’t want ANY sunlight hitting the board when your laminating. No shade, early morning light, etc. I would do the uv blocking tarps if you don’t have a space. I did most of my lams in an open carport and learned the hard way. I would hang tarps and it will still start to thicken if wind lifted a corner. Heck, I think light reflecting off my white truck got it going once. I’m not sure if uv waves reflect like that,but I sware that was the only way. No sunlight until you’re ready to set it off. Mike
No sunlight when glassing. Black trash bags and masking tape work well for the windows. A little MEKP for the drips that get on the floor is good too. If it’s nice and sunny you should be looking at about four minutes to cure your lam. General rule of thumb, if it’s still pretty tacky to the touch, it’s not cured.