10% Styrene, el-cheapo roller sleeves. Nice!! 1st update on Hurst-link

[rebuilt]

After my first taste of laminating a decent area, with a chip brush, and unthinned poly, I decided to ditch that method and try rolling it out. The Elmers resin from Lowe's kicked pretty quick at 2% mekp, so I cut that back to about 1.25% at about 60 degrees outside. Mark, from US Composites, told me poly resin is 40% styrene anyway, so styrene mixes very well with poly resin, thins great, rolls nice, with a plain el-cheapo 3/8" nap roller and disposable tray liners. I'm tickled. It behaved like a good oil based exterior paint, gave me plenty of pot life, wetted out 5 layers of 18oz fabric nicely, and kicked like it's supposed to. I couldn't find any in my area, I ordered it from US Composites. Glad I did. It sure helped. Hope someone can benefit from this. It sure simplified my job, and gave me a lot of confidence as I approach glassing the deck in. The deck will be a one shot, 7 layer, slow kick, layup. 18oz, then chopped strand, another 18oz, another chopped strand , with one more 18oz, the last chopped strand, then a 4 oz finish. She'll be solid as a rock. The original deck had between 1/4 and 3/8" of glass on it. It was some kind of thick. I've finally taken the time to put this one on a link. I apologize up front for the low resolution pics. Moved to the country and dial-up is the only option. She's comin along.
http://www.shareaproject.com/pages/projectThumbs/p/428/
Thanks, KR

 

[ondarvr]

Re: 10% Styrene, el-cheapo roller sleeves. Nice!! 1st update on Hurst-link

Why are you using so much glass, it's over kill. Over the plywood you normally only need one layer of mat and roving. To connect it to the hull, you only need to double it or two mat and two roving. Some resins are very thick and hard to work with, so try to stay away from ones that say no drip on the can. Adding styrene will thin it, but it also degrades the resin, making it more brittle and reducing it's water resistance, so always add as little as possible, or none at all. Most resins will still cure well catalyzed at 1%, so you can even go with a little less catalyst.

 

[rebuilt]

Re: 10% Styrene, el-cheapo roller sleeves. Nice!! 1st update on Hurst-link

I've read quite a few of your posts by now, get a kick out it when you and Bill discuss. The 10% thinned stuff was used to lay up 2 layers of 18 oz roving over the new transom exterior plywood. It was a little cool out, and I was trying to get it to flow well. It went down to 38 that night and still cured well at 1% mekp.So even if it makes it a little brittle, it's not a stand alone structure that relies entirely on the strength of the glass-resin laminate. It's got 2 layers of 3/4" plywood under it. But I appreciate the heads up, and will stay away from anthing more than a 5% styrene thin. I really shouldn't need to thin at all.

On the overkill thing. The original decking glasswork was very thick in most places. Up to 3/8" from the factory. It looked like they just laid on the chopper gun trigger to fill low places. Then a layer of roving was applied over that.I was attempting to mimic that with multiple layers of roving and mat till I got about 3/8" thick. I got a deal on a big roll of 18oz roving, about 25 yds, and will have plenty to play with. So I was thinking, why not? But if it's really overkill, I'll cut back on a couple of the layers I was planning to lay up. I still plan to do at least 2 layers of roving, with mat 1st, roving, mat, roving. I think the mat is 6oz, maybe thinner than that. Maybe that in itself is overkill, but I joke about that propensity of mine. I was a concrete bridge builder for years, the more, the merrier. Don't ask me to build you a bird house, you might need a flatbed truck to haul it away. Anyway, thanks for the reply. KR

 

[ondarvr]

Re: 10% Styrene, el-cheapo roller sleeves. Nice!! 1st update on Hurst-link

You're most likely right about them just leveling the floor with chop, not the plan of the designer, but of the guy holding the gun wanting to take a break or go to lunch. Many floors only have thin layer of chop on them, those typically fail, but if a layer of roving or cloth is also used, they hold up fine. I wouldn't cover the plywood with more than one layer of each, it will be plenty strong and much lighter. Try the squeegee method on the roving and see what you think, it will take a few minutes to get the hang of it, but after that it goes fast.