How fast the resin hardens depends on the temp., humidity, how much catalyst you add, many things. In the summer it's going to go fast. I like to use Suncure resin, it gives me as much time as I need to glass and then hardens in minutes in the sun. Sanding the board after glassing takes a lot of time, in my opinion.
yeah depends on the temperature and what kind of resin you are using. For polyester resin, you can usually work if for about 20 minutes then it gels and your done. Its sandable in 2-3 hours The kind of epoxy resin i use (resin research fast sure) is usually workable for about 30-35 minutes, gels slower so you can finish up and isnt really sandable for a least 4 hours. Then there's sun cure, as the guy said above, which is basically sandable less than an hour after exposing the resin to UV. Completely glassing a board (laminating both sides, and hot coating both sides) is basically a two day affair.
Thanks you really helped me. Because im getting a fishcuit shaped from my freind. And I was hoping it would be done before monday cause i go to hatteras then for a week. He already shaped it last night he started glassing.
I was talking about how long it actually takes to glass it. AFTER its glassed, the board needs to cure a week to 10 days before riding it, unless you want to risk destroying the board with pressure dings all over the deck. Seriously...dont take the board to hatty the day after its glassed.
Yea i know it has to cure i was giving it time to cure. As long as it is done before the end of this week it will cure. I just want to be able to bring it cause it will cure there. Then i can surf a little towards the end.
You can glass an entire board in one day with Resin Research Epoxy and X-55 (accelerator). Starting in the morning, lam the bottom and let it cure for 2 hours. Then lam the top, cure for 2 hrs, hotcoat top - cure 2-3 hours, hotcoat bottom - cure 2-3 hours. Post cure in a large box with a portable heater a few hours or put the board in a car on a hot day. Postcuring increases the strength of epoxy considerably and you don't have to wait a full week for the resin to reach full cure. Then install fin boxes and leash plug and sand the board. Feel free to email me if you have questions about this process. info@greenlightsurfsupply.com ~Brian www.greenlightsurfsupply.com
Mitchell: So, it sounds like you like the Epoxy Resin... My shaper made me a couple of EPS epoxy boards a few years back. It was kind of when the whole trend started, so the application of the materials was a little more questionable back then,... But to make a long story short, the boards all proved to be extremely durable, but I always reported back to my shaper about the models he would float me, and most of my 5'11-6'1 epoxies had almost no flex to them. Sharp turning on reef/point waves is a lot more difficult. Easy to bury you rails in a big top turn. And I had a little hybrid fish thruster thing that he made with epoxy, and it had this weird response to sharp cutting and bottom turns. rather than cutting into the flats like butter, sometimes that board would slip out and flatter out on the turn.... So, after using and riding these materials, what is your over all opinion of the epoxy applications??? like I said, I was trying them out while my shaper was winging it, so with more research and testing, a lot of my issues may have been resolved... Just wondering what your opinion is.
Green Room makes nice micro-brewed epoxy that they use on their boards, check out their website: http://www.greenroomboardsports.com
i just like using epoxy resin because its easier to glass with since it sets up more predictably and is less hectic than poly. I still like riding poly boards glassed with poly resin because that combo feels livelier to me. EPS/epoxy boards are durable, but they usually feel stiff and less flexible to me and dont seem to have the same projection out of turns and pumps.
I have the same problems...catching rails and funky response off the bottom. Coils are the only non-traditional PU constructed board I have found that feels right. Then again, I was riding a 6'0" 2 1/8 in winter with all that rubber and extra lazy man fat....I could have probably made a cinderblock flex.
EPS / Epoxy boards are actually more lively - performance wise - than standard PUPE construction when they are designed correctly. Normally you'd ride an EPS board 1/8" - 1/4" thinner than your normal board of the same size. Or go shorter with the same thickness. It's all about foam volume management to get the most out of your board. EPS / Epoxy boards have come a long long was since the Surftech popouts of a few years ago. Most shapers now understand the buoyancy and flex characteristics and design accordingly. Ever ride a Stretch? That's a guy who knows how to shape EPS boards. Then you have the vacuum bagged composite group of EPS / Epoxy construction: Sunova, Coil, Firewire... notice how thin they are and all are very high performance and super durable. ~Brian www.greenlightsurfsupply.com
Why do you think they can be more lively than PU/PE? The EPS Foam, different stringer, or the epoxy resin? Agree with you about having to account for the EPS foam in your design. The 5'11" x 2 1/4" thick EPS fish i'm riding now feels equivalent to the 6'0" x 2 1/2" thick PU/PE fish i rode for a long time. I have found that rail thickness seems to affects flex...thicker boxier rails make the board stiffer than a thinned out rail.
Hey Mitchell, 2 key reasons why EPS/epoxy feels more lively when designed correctly. EPS is more flexible than PU and rebounds (let's call it spring back) stronger. The millions of little EPS beads packed together in the blank each independently compress up to their physical limit and transfer the energy to the next bead touching it. The energy stored in the compressed beads is tranferred back when unloaded. PU is more of a solid, cellular structure with less potential energy. PU degrades over time and thousands of flex cycles accelerates the breakdown. Same thing with Polyester resin....gets old and loses it's original pop. Second reason is what we call bouyant acceleration. EPS foam wants to shoot up out of the water when, for instance you sink your rail on a bottom turn. The bouyant acceleration of EPS is more than PU, tests have been done to show this. That is why it's important to design the board so you can sink it and not ride on top of the wave's energy. Also the stringer materials, epoxy modulus, and construction methods all have bearing on how a board performs and how long it will maintain performance before breaking dowm. ~Brian www.greenlightsurfsupply.com
Resin curing hey i just got a board made for me and my frined just finished it last tuesday, would the resin have cured enough for me to surf it this sunday coming up
No wonder I destroy all my boards, I have taken newly glassed boards out less than 24 hours after glassing!
Epoxy or PE? If Epoxy, was it post cured? If it's PE, you're good to go. If it's epoxy, the full cure cycle is longer. IMO, 5 days at ambient temp is iffy. Two weeks is better. Four weeks is best. BUT... if you post cure, even in a blank box with a space heater, you can accelerate the process and be pretty confident you're going to be OK.
