glassing when its cold !

[oops!]

a how to guide......


i have recived a ton of pm's on the same subject.......

this is how to do it......

you have to fool the resin into reacting as it should in an optimum situation.


when its colder out....and you are mixing resin.....its viscosity is a lot lower, so it takes you far more resin to saturate the glass.

one trick i used......was to pre mix the resin only....stir that stuff well.
use a mixer thingy in your drill.....get a vortex going for about 5 minits.....just hang the drill over the edge of the bucket ...turn it on and walk away.......

just before glassing........warm the resin.........75 deg when you add the cat....

(store the resin cooler .....but not cold )

pre heat the substraight and glass with lights.... thouroughly warm but not hot !

if the resin is at room temp...(75 deg) as well as the substraight,
the resin will go a lot farther.....(2x farther) than if the resin ( and substraight) are cold....(50 deg)

dont get the resin hot..(90 deg or over) .....when you add the cat....if you do it will kick immead and cure in 5 mins.


if your are wondering about a set ratio for gallon of resin to how many sq feet of glass.....yes there is ....but it depends on the thickness of glass you are using.

the optimum ratio for resin to glass is 60 % glass and 40 percent resin......(really tough to get).........a 60 /40 ratio

i. have heard of infusion or vac bagging being done with a 70-30 ratio.

however......if you can get 50-50 you are doing really good.

the rule of thumb is saturate the glass....no more....no less.

i hope that helps us cold weather boat nut people.....

cheers
oops

 

[kandil]

Re: glassing when its cold !

Hi oops! nice post how about repairing Gelcoat scratches?

 

[Matrex]

Re: glassing when its cold !

pre heat the substraight and glass with lights.... thouroughly warm but not hot !

if the resin is at room temp...(75 deg) as well as the substraight,
the resin will go a lot farther.....(2x farther) than if the resin ( and substraight) are cold....(50 deg)

I tabbed in my transom today. It was 3C (37 F) outside the workshop. I set up 3 worklights inside the boat for 1500W of light energy and a significant amount of heat energy around the transom area. I had the same setup earlier in the week when I started the job. The difference today was that today I followed the suggestion to pre-heat the fabric. It really made a difference in how much I needed.

 

[83ProLine]

Re: glassing when its cold !

I was one of the idiot's pm'ing Oops this week about my increased resin usage. I blew through an entire gallon last time just tabbing three sheets of my transom to the hull.

I followed the above and it worked like a charm!

This time I set up halogens to warm my transom up and mixed the resin up with a drill attachment for a couple minutes before adding the cat. - you can really see the difference in the resin once its warm - it pours like broth instead of sludge.

End result - I was able to work in 30% more glass with only half a gallon!

After all - the stuff isnt cheap!

 

[Stoutcat]

Re: glassing when its cold !

The last time the wife and I glassed a boat (16' FRP peapod homebuilt) it was 13 degrees F in an uninsulated garage. We basically made a tent using a mast as a ridgepole supported by a step ladder and the stairs to the 2nd floor of the garage. After that we hung tarps, old blankets, old carpet, and whatever we could find along with ropes, clamps, and sawhorses to keep the shape and enclose the boat. It looked like the Salvation Army had blown up, but it held heat. For heat, we put in two or three incandescent 100W lights with no shades, along with a couple of those little ceramic heaters. I hung a thermometer and watched and waited for a few hours... Sure enough, the outside temp was 13 and the boat temp was a toasty 70. So all we did was mix the epoxy and hardener (obviously this would work with poly too) inside the house where it was nice and warm, move out to our tent, and enter back into a 70F environment. Obviously, the working conditions were tight, and we had to be careful of the extension cords etc., but it worked extremely well.

One note of caution! However you choose to warm up your work surface, do not leave a jury-rigged heat source unattended! Even a common light bulb can start a fire!

$.02

Alan

 

[jonesg]

Re: glassing when its cold !

a heat gun for when all else fails or you have to get to bed.