Hey I am running out of RR fast hardener. Can I add x55 to my slow harderner and get the same results as fast?
Maybe not exactly the same but it’ll definitely speed things up. Not sure about clarity or yellowing issues down the line.
I’m sure it’s one of those “industry secrets” but I’d be curious what differentiates slow from fast hardener… maybe they just add some X-55 to the slow to get fast?
I really don’t know.
X55 won’t make fast into slow but it will make slow into faster. We only had slow for very many years and X55 is what we used to accellerate and get reasonable timing in our shop. Fast came along about six years ago and changed everything and made times reasonable without the X55. X55 won’t create yellowing or strength problems and will help you get the boards through in a pinch. Fast is still the way to go though. BTW all three of our hardeners are based on different chemistry. Wish it were easy enough just to throw in some accellerator and get different versions but accellerator is only mildly effective.
I would recomend the fast hardner, I havent had a chance to try out the x-55, but I have I’ve been getting some very good results by increasing the temprature.
Build a hot box if you can.
I mainly just do repairs, here the tempratures are freezing, the resin is almosy solid in the bottle. So I heat the resin on a raidiator for 10-15 mins before adding the harder.
I made a very simple improvised hot box to trap heat from what was laying around.
I put a small portable radiator on a chair bellow and just outside the rail, then I put 2 peiced of 2by2 either side of the ding, (at the moment I’m working on a snapped board so the area can be quite large) across the board and extenting past the rail a few inch. Cover the 2 peice of wood with a piece of ply or hard board, put some foam on top of the for insulasion, the cover the whole thing with towls. On the side with the radator I drape the towl over the chair back to form a small tent. on the other I hang it down, fold it or tape it to the bottom of the board depending on size of the ding.
It can be sub zero in the shed but I come back in 1-2 hours and its ready to sand.
shouldn’t be too more taxing to make a hotbox for a full boards.