Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue_Heron
Ok, I'm confused. Why would you thin the resin?
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I usually thin my Vinyl ester with styrene and do a good hot coat of thinned resin on the wood so it will soak up the resin better. The end grain especially. Once that is done and kicked a bit then I do the several layers of glass on both sides. If you dont hot coat the wood first the wood can pull (absorb) the resin out of you first layer of cloth and leave some air voids on the face of the wood and not bond as well. Wood will soak up a good bit and if you dont feed it first it will draw in from your lambent. You dont have to thin it but it helps. Just make sure you hot coat it first before you try to lay fiber down on it.
It is just like when you paint wood, the first coat usually soaks into the wood and gets adsorbed by it. The following coats will cover much better due to the wood is now saturated with paint from the first coat. Same with resin, the first coat will get adsorbed by the wood and even better if it is thinned. This helps for 1) to protect the wood against rot 2) to pre-saturate the wood so the resin used on the first layer of cloth dose not get pulled into the wood and out of the cloth. Wood will adsorb nearly anything - water, resin, paint ect. Better with a good coat of thinned resin deep in the wood pours to close off a path for water to get into latter.