Never having used polyester resin could someone explain why everyone seems to hate the stuff. I Have glassed 4 Boards with epoxy and all turned out great, but its just to dammned expensive, not to mention a complete pain in the arse to work with.
So far all my boards have been EPS and balsa, so my latest grand plan is to laminate balsa with Epoxy and then to do hotcoat and fins with poly, how does this sound or am i mental…Any wisdom, would be most grateful
Howzit tommo, I don’t think it’s that they hate it, just more toxic and smellier than epoxy. I ceratinly don’t hate it, in fact I love it and it’s all I ever use. It’s easier to use and faster too.Aloha,Kokua
sounds reasonable to me
except id prolly do the whole board outside the balsa skin in poly and not just the gloss coat
cant beat those flip times and price
on a balsa/foam skin, the extra strength of epoxy is prolly not neccsary
im assuming that epoxys biggest benefits is low VOCs and added waterproofing (doesnt micro crack)
water proofing is a big thing for balsa over eps
You shouldn’t have a problem doing a poly hotcoat over an epoxy lamination. I do that often, and as long as the surface is well prepped (ie., very well scratched with 100g) the bonding is fine. I just knock down my laps and prepsand the lamination, then hotcoat as per a normal board. We have had zero separation issues using this technique over the past two years.
All-poly laminations over sandwich boards go just fine too. They are not as strong, there is no question of that, but faster. Just those little day-to-day knocks that may crunch your exterior glass while not violating the woodskin… they do happen more often with the poly. One thing, we always do a filler coat on the poly lams, just a very slightly thinned coat of uv laminating resin. That seems to assure the adhesion between the wood and the lamination, and eliminates a lot of bubbles.
Mahalo.
hi, polyester is fine over balsa wood , i have done a couple all polyester outside with no problems or hassle at all,or as jeffery said poly over epoxy is ok as long as its well keyed,
i see from your avitor you are from the isle of man , i have often wondered whether there is surf there,can you tell me what the surf is like and post any pics, pete
dont let the “if it dosnt smell its not bad” get to you epoxy still deserves the proper protection gloves eye and respirator…proper safty and handling of both epoxy and poly goes a long way in the health department
i agree on the gloves
but i cant see the need for a respirator
unless you are using solvents which is a bit of a no no
most epoxy are zero VOCs so a respirator isnt necesary while glassing
I actually like the smell of Aluzine. RR smells ok too. I think that the surfacing agent gives off some vapors though.