Question with heaters for fiberglasss work

[ltfella]

Hello I will be redoing my transom and stuff and see they don’t recommend propane or kerosene heaters since the chemical reaction can screw up the curing. Would that be the same for the newer infrayered propane tanks or should I stick with the electric. Thanx

 

[JASinIL2006]

Hello I will be redoing my transom and stuff and see they don’t recommend propane or kerosene heaters since the chemical reaction can screw up the curing. Would that be the same for the newer infrayered propane tanks or should I stick with the electric. Thanx

I heated my garage with standard propane heaters while fiberglassing my boat over the winter. I was using polyester resin, and the propane heat posed no problems. MEKP, the catalyst, is very flammable, but once it's mixed in the resin, there is no problem*. You just have to be careful when handling the MEKP by itself (never near a flame; I briefly went outside when I needed to pour MEKP).

Not sure what you heard about propane heat and curing of resin; I didn't come across that when I was researching it and as I said, I had no problems with curing, with polyester resin, anyway.

* This may not be true in a really high volume fiberglassing operating, like running a chopper gun, but for standard layups like we do when DIYing, I would not worry about it.

 

[ltfella]

I heated my garage with standard propane heaters while fiberglassing my boat over the winter. I was using polyester resin, and the propane heat posed no problems. MEKP, the catalyst, is very flammable, but once it's mixed in the resin, there is no problem*. You just have to be careful when handling the MEKP by itself (never near a flame; I briefly went outside when I needed to pour MEKP).

Not sure what you heard about propane heat and curing of resin; I didn't come across that when I was researching it and as I said, I had no problems with curing, with polyester resin, anyway.

* This may not be true in a really high volume fiberglassing operating, like running a chopper gun, but for standard layups like we do when DIYing, I would not worry about it.

Thanx

 

[Chris1956]

Gee, I have always heard that poly resin was flammable. I never found out, thank goodness. It's fumes would suggest that it is volatile, and a lot of volatile things go boom, when ignited.

 

[JASinIL2006]

Gee, I have always heard that poly resin was flammable. I never found out, thank goodness. It's fumes would suggest that it is volatile, and a lot of volatile things go boom, when ignited.

From all that I read, it was only when poly is used in really, really large volume that there is a problem. I was concerned about it, because I had planned to restore my boat in a garage with open flame propane heaters. I researched it quite a bit, and pretty consistently found that it is mostly the MEKP that is a problem.

 

[Chris1956]

Well, one could put a capful into a dish and see if it will ignite.....

 

[JASinIL2006]

Don't conflate volatility/smelliness and flammability.