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[xylem]

New to this forum and I'm still learning, but I thought I'd post this question hoping that someone might have some guidance on this. The hws boards I've built I've never applied a sealer coat prior to lamination and have had some issues with dry lamination and pinholes.

On my next board (compsand) I'd like to apply a penetrating epoxy to seal the wood skins prior to lamination to prevent these issues. Does anyone know how to make penetrating epoxy? I believe xylene is added to thin the epoxy but beyond that I'm clueless.

How much xylene is added?

Is the xylene added to the resin before or after the hardner is mixed?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

CD

[Fernando Mattos]

Hey man,

I'm new too, so may be better wait more opinions. But I already had some experiences like yours with dry laminations, luckyly was with a skimboard I made for testing the lamination process.

Well, I haven't mixed any xylene (maybe because I don't even know what is that). My epoxy suplier told me something that is true: I don't want epoxy penetrating my wood. That would make it heavier than I want. What we need is a thin sealing coat well bonded to the wood.

For that, with his orientation, I used my lamination epoxy resin, in a coat spread with brush. I still waited until half the pot-life time before start to work with the resin, to avoid it hardening too slow and this way reducing the absorbtion of the resin by the wood.

Well, that was in my 1th and unique HWS, there surely have guys more capacitated for saying what to do.

Good vibes (as vibes are waves too!!)

Fernando Mattos

[Kit Sidwell]

I agree with Fernando,just let the resin seal the surface.
I apply resin with a squeegee, you can really scrape it on thin so it doesn't take much. 30 grams for one side of a shortboard, 60 for a longboard.

But if you do need to thin resin for whatever reason, then xylene is the right stuff. Isopropyl alcohol is ok too, but use both sparingly, more than 10% and you'll have problems, 5% you shouldn't be able to notice and change in properties.

I microwave my mixed resin for a few seconds to get it to kick quicker. (people say you should microwave before you mix, but I live dangerously). It does thin it, but it cools as soon as it touches the board.

[soulvoid]

I made a mess spilling some epoxy some time ago on a board when doing a repair. I quickly found some scrap glass and some denatured alcohol and cleaned it off. Didn't think of it until I noticed the thin glossy epoxy layer in that area. Been thinking about thinning epoxy heavily and applying a 'gloss' with a lint free cloth ever since. This might be possible to use to seal wood too, wipe on/wipe off.

That said, a little thinner goes a long way when thinning epoxy. There is some good info here about it http://www.seqair.com/skunkworks/Glues/WestSystem/Thinning/Thinning.html

[lemat]

Additif F, who is xylene with a bit of wax (and ?), thin resin well with only about 1%. So i thinck you don't need à lot of xylene so it's not a problem. I find it works better than alcool (xylene is more volatile) . If you want to thicken use colloïdale silice. For balsa i find that: paint resin on wood then put fiber and let it soak then add resin where need and squegge lite then put a cheater coat when resin is gelled is a good way to laminate with no bubble no delam and good weight.

Soory for my frenglish 

[xylem]

Hey guys -

Thanks for the advice. Based on your recommendations I think I'm going to do a sealer coat with un-thinned epoxy. I don't want to add unnecessary weight.

But I think penetrating epoxy may be a good go for hollow wood boards if you don't want to laminate the board. Might be a way to save weight for a hws.

cd