UV Resin Questions

General Discussion
1

Thinking of glassing my board(s) with UV Resin.

PU foam, polyester resin.

 

Questions

  1. I have two fluorescent side lights and an overhead 100 watt lightbulb in an otherwise dark garage.

Will this affect my kick time?

Will leaving the garage door open(standard wall sized door) , with no direct sunlight coming in(garage door faces North) affect this situation with the lights etc.?

 

  1. When it comes to the sanding coat, mixing wax(styrene) to the laminating resin is there a certain prescribed

wait time to let the wax rise to the surface before setting the board out in the sun.

 

  1. when doing the sanding coat and maybe filling in a bottom concave a bit, are there any issues,problems, caveats

with moving a board some 10-30ft out to the sun? Or is it real easy to have a resin stream slide on me towards the nose or tail.

 

  1. Sanding the sanding coat. With typical resin & catalyst there is prudent time window where sanding the sanding coat is a bit smoother and easier than 12 or more hours later.

Does something similar happen with UV resin whereby I’m going to want to sand it before 6 or 12 hours elapses.

 

2

Pour out a tiny bit of resin into a cup. Leave it in the area you are going to glass with the lights on. Come back and check it every few minutes to see if it has kicked.

3

  1. I have a similar lighting setup, and I’ve never felt that they’ve affected my UV resin (assuming you’re laminating in < 10 min and hotcoating in < 5 min). Do you need to have the side flourescent lights on when glassing? I usually turn 'em off.

  2. Good question. Don’t know - I used to finish the hot coat and take it out immediately to the sun, but I nicked the side of the door a couple of times on the way out and decided to change things. I got the idea from someone on Sways (Kokua I think?) to use MEKP in my UV resin, let it relax for around 20 minutes or so, and then bring it out to the sun for a final and complete kick. That’s my MO now.

  3. I’ve never had the resin “slide” - either on flats, vees or concaves - but bumping things on the way out of the glassing room is a known danger that can be mitigated by the method in #2. 

  4.  Good question. Don’t know - I’ve sanded everywhere from within 15 minutes of laying down the bottom hotcoat (i.e., 5-min to finish the hot coat, 5-min in the sun, 5-min to prep the sanding pad), and 5 months after laying it down. Didn’t notice much of a difference beyond the fact that there was a lot of dust on the 5-month old one! :slight_smile:

4

otis,

don't risk it with the sun light. indirect light can be a problem by kicking your resin too soon. For sanding, I put a tad extra surfacing agent into the mix with uv and let my hotcoat sit in the room for 5 min. then go out side and flash it to the sun for 10 sec and bring it back in side for another couple min. finally you can go out side and let it fully cure. UV kicks FAST, so be aware. You can sand it about 5-10 min after it has been in the sunlight. also, make sure there are no paraffin chunks in your SA. good luck

5

One of the vendors who sells UV resins told me some years ago that a UV resin reaches 90% of its full cure when it kicks.  Because there is no evaporating catalyst it doesn’t get that much harder over time the way MEKP-catalyzed resin does.  He also told me that you can get even drier finishes without surfacing agents if you deprive the resin of oxygen during the kick, such as using a light box and filling it with an inert gas to displace the oxygen.   I’ve never tried it so I don’t know how true it is, but that’s what he said.  

6

i like to add 120 cc’s per gallon to the lam resin to make sanding resin

7

[quote="$1"]

Thinking of glassing my board(s) with UV Resin.

PU foam, polyester resin.

 

Questions

1) I have two fluorescent side lights and an overhead 100 watt lightbulb in an otherwise dark garage.

Will this affect my kick time? NO

Will leaving the garage door open(standard wall sized door) , with no direct sunlight coming in(garage door faces North) affect this situation with the lights etc.? Yes, indirect light will kick it slowly

 

2) When it comes to the sanding coat, mixing wax(styrene) to the laminating resin is there a certain prescribed

wait time to let the wax rise to the surface before setting the board out in the sun. After it levels out flash it in the sun for ten seconds (as mentioned) that will get the wax to rise, let it cool down inside then back out to kick, or the good way is to add MEKP and after gell then cure it in the sun (also mentioned)

 

3) when doing the sanding coat and maybe filling in a bottom concave a bit, are there any issues,problems, caveats

with moving a board some 10-30ft out to the sun? Or is it real easy to have a resin stream slide on me towards the nose or tail. Let it level out, it will also drain excess resin off the board. Walk smoothly you will be ok. or use MEKP and let it gell first.

 

4) Sanding the sanding coat. With typical resin & catalyst there is prudent time window where sanding the sanding coat is a bit smoother and easier than 12 or more hours later.

Does something similar happen with UV resin whereby I'm going to want to sand it before 6 or 12 hours elapses. Keep the board cool by going in and out of the sun till its kicked solid.Like 2 minutes out then 5 in and repeat, dont sun it too fast, you should be sanding within the hour, if you want.

 

[/quote]

 

thats my 2cnts

8

Thanks to all, this has been really helpful to me. I will be using UV resin. Seems the way to go.

I think this answers all the questions. Will probably review later.

9

…the real thing is that UV resin full cure in around 12 hours not “instantly”

so if you have time better to pre cure the board before sanding and/or surfing.

10

Another question: Since UV Resin ‘seems’ to kick and set so instantly.

It would appear that one could accomplish laminating both sides of the board, and apply sanding coats to both sides

of the board within 2-3 hours.

 

Correct?

 

 

 

 

 

 

11

Or even in under 1 hour if you go balls to the walls. 

12

I guess my only concern is unfurling some fiberglass over the top hoping it doesnt tack or snag over the rails of the bottom that had been laminated/glassed 15 minutes earlier?

13

12 hours? huh. I should probably be waiting a little longer and not be in such a rush to sand so soon. It might make my sandpaper go a little farther. I'll wait longer next time.

14

If you’re worried about tacking or snagging due to still-wet resin, then rest assured that won’t happen if you put it out in the hot sun for long enough (in my experience it’s 1-2 minutes in hot, direct sunlight - remembering to flip the board and expose both sides of course). Then that sucker is kicked - totally kicked. No tackiness, no wetness - totally hard and dry.

If you’re worried about tacking or snagging due to little bits of kicked fiberglass strings sticking out, then it’s no different than in a non-UV situation.

15

Thanks much.

This helps me establish my glassing gameplan with this stuff.

16

UV will change your life. :slight_smile:

Post pics!

17

I usually glass a board in one moring- lam both sides and hotcoats. Sunny summer days here in Hawaii I make sure to finish by noon-1PM it gets too hot in my shed over 90 degrees, the heat even without sunlight can start gelling up resin

Assuming you have experience laminating I would advise to always add some catalyst to your UV batches-

-avoid sticky resin drips or spills in your shop that never cure

-IMO it’s good thing to have the laps getting nice n sticky-gell-y by the time you’re tucking laps

 

.02 from backyarder

18

I'm with Bud on the adding MEKP, even if it's only a little bit, helps keep the floor from having gobs of resin that stick to your shoes and get tracked around. As for timing, as already stated, you can definitely be fully glassed in 3 hours.

Also, I've said it before on UV related threads, but try to glass it like you've added catalyst for a non-UV resin glass job. That is, get the resin spread and squeegeed out in a timely manner (shoot for 10 minutes or less) or your foam will start soaking resin, making for a heavier glass job.

19

foamez sells this by the quart : called UV Cure Resin  $18 quart (would like to buy by the gallon??, but not listed on website)

http://www.foamez.com/glassing-surfboards-poly-surfboard-resin-c-3_33.html?page=1&amp;sort=20a

 

fiberglasssupply sells this by quart, gallon: called Solarez laminating resin. $17 quart/ $48 gallon

http://www.fiberglasssupply.com/Product_Catalog/Polyester_Resins/polyester_resins.html

 

Is Solarrez any different quality wise than the UV Cure Resin offered by FoamEZ.

I have never been overly impressed by the quality of the Solarez ding repair stuff.

 

There is also Crystaliner in Costa Mesa,CA, they sell bulk boat & surfboard supplies, I’ll check them out later.

 

Anyone know any other bulk supply sellers in the Orange County, CA  area?

20

hey Otis

just give foamez a call

they should have the premixed stuff in gallons

if not get lam resin and get the uv powder and add it to the lam resin