laminating schedule

[sidewinder585]

I am getting ready to decode a large portion of my deck. What kind of fiberglass should I use? 10 oz woven or chopped strand or both? Thanks - john

[mitiempo]

You mean recore the deck I guess.

The best choice would be biaxial roving. 1708 biax is a thick roving with epoxy compatible mat on one side. The roving is stitched and not woven and has more strength than woven. You should use epoxy as polyester doesn't have good bonding strength after the previous layers have cured.
Some chopped strand - mat - is not compatible with epoxy as only polyester resin will dissolve the binders in it.

[sidewinder585]

Ok thanks, yes I mean recore.

[sidewinder585]

How many layers should I use?

[mitiempo]

How thick is the skin to start with? I think with 1708 2 or maybe 3 layers should do it. Make sure you grind the edges to a good taper.

[sidewinder585]

Thanks again, I have done reading on the subject, but they always seem to leave those details out.

[Greenflash35]

We have an unfinished deck repair, with uncured Polyester Laminating Resin. With an urgent splash schedule, there's no time for decks. My question is will the UVs break the bond or something over the next 6 months?

[WDS123]

Re: recore deck - why not send a note to OEM ? You can then make an informed decision about what to use


Re: Uncured Polyester Resin left exposed for 6 mths - Perhaps I misunderstood the poster's description, but a few questions come to mind:

a) uncured resin generally means soft or sticky in the boat builder world. if the resin is soft or sticky after 24 hours, then the resin did not cure and likely never will. time to get out the grinder.

b) Best way to check if the Resin is cured is to use a Barcol hardness tester. For DIY repairs, one can get by with any reading above 25-30 with GP resins. (our min is 40, with typical more in line with 45 for GP resin parts)

c) Where is this exposed resin located ? Interior ? Deck ? Hull ? Above/below Waterline ?

d) dry climate ? wet climate ? for the next 6 months

[Greenflash35]

Maybe I used bad terminology. I used laminating polyester resin to glass new high density foam core into a couple sections of deck. The intent is to repeat this for additional sections until the entire deck is re-cored, then gelcoat at the end. This is being done outdoors in South Carolina, and I'm doing small sections to take advantage of "weather windows" of dry conditions.

My understanding is that the gelcoat would provide the final curing layer for the laminating resin. Due to the boatyard closing in a few months, I had to switch gears back to bottom of boat so we can splash and move to a different boatyard at year-end. The existing deck repair sections, about 2 feet by 4 feet each, still need a couple additional layers of glass before final gelcoat. Given the interruption, my concern is whether I can leave them as-is and pick up where I left off in several months, or if I need to do anything else in the meantime. The resin is hard to the touch -- nothing sticky. I just don't want UV or anything else to degrade the partial repair prior to resuming early next year.

Really appreciate your reply, and will investigate Barcol hardness testers. We have a moisture meter, but were unfamiliar with the Barcol device.

By the way, I've always admired the Santana 20 by W.D. Schock!

[WDS123]

Don't know - the resin should be fine is sun

However, since all you have is resin witn no fabric o top of a foam core, I'd be concerned about water penetration.