Hello there I repair and build boards, and I work with Kick Kick Ultra I keep the stands and the board clean, gloves, new brushes, etc., but can't seem to stop fisheyes from forming. What are the optimal and minimal levels of Temperature and Humidity for working with this epoxy? Thanks
Fisheyes are pretty much always contamination. Your bare hands can not touch the board once you start glassing. Dust is also your enemy. What are you using for mixing cups? Stir sticks? The entire key with epoxy is to work as pristinely clean manner as possible. Another trick to avoid airborn contamination is before I put the blank on the glassing stands I mist the entire workspace with an ultra-fine mist of water from a spray bottle. It really clears the air of fine dust particles that are floating around.
Agree with everything CJ said. I don't think temperature and humidity levels are the issues. Fish eyes can also occur due to painted blanks affecting the resin. I've seen cases where a board had multiple colors and the fish eyes only occurred above a certain color (red). Masking tape residue, board being glassed set on a rack that has previously had a waxed board set on it. There are people who have success wiping board to be glassed/hotcoated with denatured alcohol before using epoxy resin helps.
Always use fresh clean quality tape on your glassing racks every time no matter if its poly or epoxy. I had a lot of experience working with epoxy finish coats before I ever used it to make a surfboard so I've been able to avoid the pitfalls I see others post time after time after time.
Temp as close to 70 as possible... humidity as low as possible. Once you get down into the low 60s and upper 50s, and once you get into dew points in the mid 60s you're not only talking about slow cure times, blush, haze and risk of contamination, etc. but also outgassing of the blank. Stable "room temperature" shop and dry air are your friends. But if you're talking fisheyes, you're probably talking fill, finish or hot coating... which is almost always due to contamination. The formula for a good epoxy hotcoat is laying it down right after you sand and brushed the board off until it's free of dust with a new brush. Sanding dust really doesn't cause fisheyes... it causes zits. Fisheyes are spots where the hotcoat is repelled in spots because there's something there that chemically is causing the molecular cohesion, adhesion and surface tension of the resin to fail. If you do a DNA wipe, do it with a clean paper towel, then use that paper towel to clean up later. The DNA acts as a solvent to dissolve and remove any oils. But you only have to do that if the surface gets dirty! Plan to sand and hotcoat in the same session, and by all means... handle the board with gloved hands ONLY once you've laminated the board. Grinding down laps? Do it with gloves on. Scratching up the lam pre-hotcoat? Gloves. Taping up the rail line? Gloves. And yes... some paint repels epoxy. Paint the blank pre-glass. Put paint pinlines under the top deck lam. Clearcoat art painted on the board with a spray acrylic. And if you can't do that, do a test panel with the paint and epoxy you want to use. Now show us pictures of your girlfriend's leashe knotte.
I noticed that because of their reactivity that enables them to bond well to fibers and their toughness are the thermoset resins that, combined with glass.
