Hey all. Got a little crunch on a rail. Wanted to get it water tight. Sun cure epoxy, massaged in with a glove, excess wiped off then put in the sun. Stays wet? I put a 1/8" bead next to the board and it kicked in minutes. Ended up wiping the thin smear off with acetone. Is there a trick to getting a thin smear to kick?

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Hmmmmmmmmm, , , , , , , thin or thick, it should all cure with proper exposure to UV radiation.

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Ya ding, that's what I though?!? I left it out for an hour in the sun, should take 10 mins. I'll get some real resin and catalyst to fix I guess, had the suncure lying around. Just wondering if anyone else had this situation and knew a fix. Thaks!

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Ask Cole .

Is it really old? also did you massage/mix the resin in the tube before applying? I had the same problem once and ended up just getting a fresh tube.

Maybe there was a little moisture inside the board, working its way out?

If the separate bead kicked right away but the smear on the board didn't, maybe there was a significant enough temperature difference between the board and ambient that you need to let the board heat up a little bit first? (Or pre-heat it?)

Putting a blow-drier on it first could address the potential moisture and the temperature issues.

Like oipaul says, could also be an old batch. In the thicker bead, maybe you got a better distribution/mix of the resin and hardener.

Beyond the call of duty for this one, but in cloudy climates, maybe add a separate UV lamp?

Epoxy won't kick at all if the temperature is under 55 degrees, but your bead kicked, so that rules out too cold, and too old. It has to be an outside issue like water, as mentioned, or oils entrenched into the board itself, and perhaps a bad mix. If the stuff is still good, let the crack dry, rough it up to remove any oils and then apply.

I used to cheat some of these with Suncure poly. Sand it, remove the splintered glass, fill with Elmer's (a buffer between polystyrene foam and polyester resin), let glue dry, then coat with Suncure.



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Edited: 01/03/2023 at 03:10 PM by Cole

LMAO DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT ASK cOlE. His hands are soft as charmin toilet paper, lives on 2ndlight forums, prob never touched glass resin in his life. Id listen to Ding over the clowns

Thanks all, messed with this a little. I can get a 1/16" approx layer to kick, thicker layers easy. For thin smear, expose, bring in, wait (cool), expose again, repeat a couple times. Still sticky when you go to sand but wet sand with 400 does the job. Dunno, could be age of the resin but always kept in the freezer when not in use, to Mrs. tom's distress.

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Tom ..... it sounds like that your Suncure is just old .... like us ;-) The freezer is a good trick (also works with caulk. especially silicone caulk) but even that will not stop eventual aging.

As a side note ...... the whole "Ding All" thing started as a college biz class project for founder, Dale Christenson. It started with kits of resin&catalysis, stir stick, mixing cup and a piece of cloth. It really took off when he introduced "SunCure" into the kit ,,,,, making it far more user friendly. The whole thing eventually evolving into Surf Source. Dale is a good guy, or was back in the day when I knew him in JBX .... and he made a butt load of money on his little college project.

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"Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do." - Bertrand Russell


"Morality is doing what is right, regardless of what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, regardless of what is right.


If I do not answer you .... nothing personal, I just have you on ignore.

Tom, did it come with clear plastic sheets, and did you put a clear plastic sheet over it? If not, in my experience that top layer will not kick. Something about the air/oxygen keeping it from kicking which is why they give you the clear, plastic sheet which shields the goo from the air while the UV allows it to kick. Packing tape works well in place of the clear plastic sheet -- so, I've heard -- easier to wrap rails and such. (Not sure why the test bead worked if my theory is correct).

30 some thousand repairs later. lol

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Have not tried plastic sheets. Oxygen reacting with resin to inhibit catalyzation? Hmmm. Interesting.

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I always found that it was easier to fix it for real than to cheat it. I would dig out the bad parts, fill it and then glass it with a patch of cloth.

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Affirm! ^^^ Just keeping it dry for the moment, which, I am embarrassed to say, might last months or even years.

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I use metal tape (the duct tape that looks like aluminum foil and has a peel-off backing, as opposed to the duct tape with cloth/fiber) for those quick/temporary repairs, especially when traveling.

It's easy enough to fold 24" twice into a nice 6-inch "bill" that can lie flat in your wallet. Takes up zero space in luggage, can cover eight 3-inch dings watertight, and also serve as butterfly sutures (with appropriate cautions) for small lacerations.

It also peels off later without leaving the gooey residue like cloth duct-tape does.

The only disadvantage I can think of it that it looks like a nice, shiny lure to the fish below.

sure

Edited: 01/11/2023 at 01:33 PM by waterlizard25

FYI : Cole was THE Ding Repair man for Q.F. --for over 25 Years plus ( so 30,000 repairs is probably being very modest in the least ) ----9

True. My log books show more than 60,000.

I handed it over to ET.

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