Why And How You Should Cure Your Resins When Working With Fiberglass

[@camden7488]

Yay another sunday video. Thanks man. Hope you had a great Independence Day 🎆

[@jehines3]

Slowly getting back to work. Glad you are healing nicely and getting some boat content going again. Can’t wait to see some sort of boat show up in the shop.

[@markgallagher1376]

Great info, Andy!!!

[@TotalBoat]

Another great and informative video, Andy!

[@RenanGa]

Hey Andy I first want to say glad to see you moving around. When it comes to gelcoat I have use this trick in a pinch. Add a little extra gelcoat then come back the next day and wipe surface down with acetone. a little wasteful but it does work in a pinch.

[@johnnylightning1491]

Good stuff to know. i don't have a boat but I've got an RV with LOTS of fiberglass. Keep the good stuff coming.

[@shawnholton5182]

This is fantastic by the way. We recently had a gel coat that we simply couldn’t get to cure, gonna rerun the experiment. Thank you.

[@FoamCrusher]

A tip when using PVA on a smooth surface: PVA will often bead up rather than flowing smoothly requiring several coats that must each must be allowed to dry before the next coat is applied, adding time to the job. If you add several drops of dishwasher sheeting liquid (Finish or Jet Dry) before spraying, it cuts the surface tension of the water carrier of the PVA and it will allow it flow out to a thin smooth surface. I have done this for years making small parts in molds using the PVA to keep fresh resin from sticking to the gelcoated mold surface (like using wax but without the work of polishing). I haven’t encountered any issues with the sheeting liquid and the resin and since the sheeting chemicals are water soluble, they will wash right off if you used the PVA to get laminating resins to cure.

[@XSAILOR65]

Great tip, thanks!

[@Canter4x4]

You failed to mention that there is yet another option Andy, that being to use peel ply. In many situations, I find this to be a much simpler solution, and peel ply is pretty cheap too.

[@XSAILOR65]

I hav the impression that peel ply can replace sanding in epoxy, but not sure about in polyester. With polyester have only used it in the final layer.

[@deaconyates2671]

Yah, I’d like to know more about peel ply. It be nice to see use cases. I’m working on my swim deck’s rotten core, I’m a live aboard and an 8-5er, so I have forced pauses between lay ups. Been using coosa and Totalboat 5:1 epoxy.

[@Canter4x4]

I use vinylester pretty much exclusively and use peel ply quite a bit. I find it very useful when doing tabbing of panels with CSM, as it gives me a nice flat surface and also fills in the majority of the gaps. To get the surface smooth I use a small fin roller over the top of the peel ply. If sanding is required afterwards there is never an issue with pinning of the sandpaper.

[@svlamancha9877]

Great video Andy. How can you be 100% sure that you have removed the wax before you continue with subsequent layers👍

[@boatworkstoday]

A couple wipes with a de-waxer / surface cleaner and you're good to go. If there's still wax on the surface it will feel different compared to areas where it's been removed :-)

[@bryandouros1474]

Wish I’d seen this video a week ago, I kept redoing the last layer of resin a couple times because I thought I wasn’t mixing the hardener well enough! I know you just posted this 😢

[@2-4outdooradventure53]

you learned the difference between laminating resin and finish resin today. I did the same thing as you thinking I mixed incorrectly

[@countryracer69]

29.57 or 29.75? You said one thing. Calculator said the other! Lol. But this was perfect timing for me. I am gonna attempt to do a multi layer gelcoat setup with flake. Trying not to use paint that I know well!

[@ckvasnic1]

Yet another great video! Thank you for sharing your time and many talents! Can you use paint to cure polyester resin…?

[@boatworkstoday]

thank you! paint not a good idea to cure poly material :-/

[@usmmatrip03]

Thanks for all the videos. Glad you are back. Finishing a coosa transom using laminating resin and for the last layer of csm i used a waxed resin. Is this acceptable to fully cure everything?

[@moonhand8311]

In a hot climate, like Southern Spain, where temps are 30C, I am finding that gelcoat with wax in styrene is still not curing. I've tried everything from 1 to 3 percent catalyst, and even adding more wax. I think it is because the chemical curing action happens too quickly, thus the wax doesn't get time to come to the surface, so it doesn't get to keep air out, and so doesn't cure....get that horrible tacky, dirt collecting surface. What to do? Can the uncured be recovered? I think not - have just had to acetone the lot off. What's the solution to gel coating/ top coating/ flowcoating where it's hot? PVA as well? What about covering in cling film wrap? Epoxy is so much easier to work with !

[@danktronboof]

Does wax paper over wet resin work?

[@tonyguldbrand6049]

Yes it will, l often use glad pack to seal the gelcoat, you just need to keep the oxygen out.

[@greghorne8678]

I painted my boat a few years ago with interlux after doing extensive epoxy repairs and fairing. After a year or so it all broke out in tiny bubbles, many have which had some brown residue between the primer and the paint. Do you know what I did wrong?

[@mikescalise3913]

What would have to be done to fiberglass using just epoxy? Must I paint it with a non gel coat paint?

[@conniemuller2064]

Thank you for that. I am experienced with polyester products but replacing the soft core and deck of my 47' Vagabond I started working with epoxies (recommended by friends) but find this very difficult to get the right information. I used clear laminating epoxy and all is good but now I find it discolors in the sun. Can't find what to put over the job, like for polyester, a finishing gel coat or topcoat. When working with polyester I used to mix some pigment into the working resin to make it easier for the final gel coat. What do I do now? Or can I just finish the job with finishing gel coat over the epoxy? Please do an episode on that please!

[@boatworkstoday]

Overtop epoxy your best bet will be using a topside primer and paint :-)

[@XSAILOR65]

Out of memory, west systems hav a PDF file on this, they said topcoat will adhere good enough, but I would use a epoxy primer and 2k PU topcoat

[@johnq.public2621]

😃👍👏👏👏

[@peterniblic8344]

Can you put two coats a gel coat with added wax

[@tonyguldbrand6049]

Yes if you let it cure and sand in between.

[@fish2reelaxfishing662]

“Mechanical Properties” Nice Video

[@Island-Gypsy]

Hi Andy, I have a question for you or anyone experienced working with polyester resins. Here in Florida, it gets a little hot and humid in the summertime. I heard that you can put your resin in the fridge to cool it overnight and use it the next morning and that will give you more working time when mixed with 1% hardener. is that ok to do? is this TRUE !!!

[@boatworkstoday]

Yes you can do that. I would let it somewhat come up to temp (from 35F up to maybe 50F) then catalyze and go ;-)

[@Island-Gypsy]

@@boatworkstoday awesome, Thank you for your response and the additional information.

[@moonhand8311]

In a hot climate, like Southern Spain, where temps are 30C, I am finding that gelcoat with wax in styrene is still not curing. I've tried everything from 1 to 3 percent catalyst, and even adding more wax. I think it is because the chemical curing action happens too quickly, thus the wax doesn't get time to come to the surface, so it doesn't get to keep air out, and so doesn't cure....get that horrible tacky, dirt collecting surface. What to do? Can the uncured be recovered? I think not - have just had to acetone the lot off. What's the solution to gel coating/ top coating/ flowcoating where it's hot? PVA as well? What about covering in cling film wrap? Epoxy is so much easier to work with !

[@jedwilliams6410]

I noticed thst you said 29.57 but showed 29.75 on the calculator for the CC conversion.???

[@boatworkstoday]

Dyslexic moment :-)

[@boatworkstoday]

the difference isn't enough to make a bit of difference, but the correct number is 29.57 :-)

[@kennethhargreaves9407]

Being a noob, does the gel coat without wax ever cure? It had been there for a few days and it still had problems with the sanding and cleaning with solvents.

[@boatworkstoday]

Not really. It may "dry" more but the chemical properties will not have developed :-/

[@davemall1]

I have seen some people use sheets of plastic to cure laminating resin. Is that an acceptable method? I experimented with rattle can paint in my bilge to cure laminating resin...It seamed to cure OK with paint and the paint appears to be almost like a thin coat of gelcoat. What do you think? Am I an idiot?

[@freefallfool66]

Can you tint epoxy?

[@moonhand8311]

Yes. West systems do a whole range of colours.

[@Kroiznacher]

So to make calculations easier convert into metric The irony considering the holiday Greetings from continental Europe

[@doradosurfcharters]

Unless you reach the hdt it will never be fully cured

[@moonhand8311]

What is hdt

[@Darkheonix]

Hello Andy, im messaging to ask if you, or any in your community, had any advice for a project that has come up. Ive been given a red baeon catamaran, and its got a large hole on the front end of its left hull. It appears that the previous owner dropped it off their trailer, as the hole is roughly a foot square. At the moment im thinking that i have to either cut open the hull from the inside to build a frame to fibreglass against, but i dont want to do any unnecessary damage to it.