Help with ding repair - bubbles won't stop!

[macca202]

I've got a small ding on the underside of my board about 15mm in diameter that has fractured through to foam.
i went to get it repaired and was told that it'd be fine to just use solarez on it.

I've used solarez before no problems, but this time, not so.

Whenever i fill the area with the sun cure resin, air bubbles come out from the foam (i think)
I've tried to time it so that i cure it in the sun before the air bubble gets time to develop, but when i sand it back the air bubble creates a void back down to the foam. I simply cannot seal this ding!
I've been at it for hours today. after a few attemps i then tried drilling a small hole so i could start over and give me more of a hole to fill and hence more time/distance for the bubble to travel before being trapped by the cured resin, but no such luck.
Ive had to stop for my own sanity and my boards protection.

It's a webber afterburner slx board by the way if that affects anything.
i was wondering whether it's some chemcial reaction with the foam and the resin, or perhaps i've got some animal living inside that only breaths out...


any advice?

cheers

[speedneedle]

Hi Macca,

Your problem is precisely the solarez...not the resin itself, but the sun.

Your board is an EPS core. The foam has a high air content, and when you warm it up, the air wants to get out. When you stick it in the sun, the air warms up and seeks any way out. So it bubbles out through the ding before the resin can cure.

What you need to do is avoid warming up the board in the sun while the resin is wet.

Here's how - Warm the board up first, either with a blow heater in a big box or out in the sun. Then take it somewhere cooler. The temperature change back to cool will mean that the air inside the foam is contracting rather than expanding.

In that cooling atmosphere, apply 5 min Araldite to the bubbly spot. Stay with it, pushing it in til the Araldite is too firm for any blowing.

When thats fully hard, sand the shine off the Araldite. You have sealed the ding and prepped it for re-glassing. That's the time to use solarez.

This is prettymuch standard issue stuff for a ding guy who knows epoxy. Solarez straight onto epoxy will frustrate you every time.

Good luck...

JD

[macca202]

beautiful, i thought it may be the change in temps, but was unsure how i could get around that if i needed the sun to cure it!
thanks for that.

Strange thing is though, i had the board inside for about 20 minutes with the solarez on it and it continued to bubble. maybe it was just heating up with the ambient air temp...

i've actually got some 5min areldite infront of me right now for something unrelated i was about to repair, so will get right on it

edit: i had a quick go then, put it in the sun for 5, then brought in inside. tested to see if it was still breathing out by putting a bit of spit over the hole, and yep, still breathing. if only i had a giant freezer or something, this is a PITA!

[speedneedle]

Now you're going to need to wait til your spit dries!

OK...trick No2...

Thicken up your Araldite mix with some talcum powder. It becomes almost a putty - take your time so as its actually already just hardening as you paste it on, then put some wide tape over it. Presses it flat and traps air.

The bubblestop thing sometimes takes a couple shots...Sometimes I've had to hang there with my thumb over it while the 5min hardens...such fun!

JD

[macca202]

i actually tried putting tape over it when i was using the solarez in the sun!
problem was that the bubble still came up, it just stopped at the surface of the tape, and so there was still a void all the way to the foam.
the other problem was that i squashed out solarez to parts of the board that didn't need it, and now my board is starting to become a mess.

i'll do the spit test later tonight when hopefully the board stops breathing... but no doubt it will start sucking in, and it will just be the same problem, only in reverse (but at least that way the tape trick would work!)

and if still not working, i'll try your talcum powder trick

[speedneedle]

Yeah mate, just spoon it in when its colder and stay with it. There will be a point where the goop is thick enough as it hardens that no air can blow through. This thing has seen some of my most ridiculous professional moments...cussing like the best...

The temperature factor is profound...I laminate my boards in a loft, where it can get stinking...thats great for fast gel time, but with the timber bottoms the porous wood will blow holes through the glass, so I carry them downstairs sometimes, still wet - watch those blow-throughs disappear.

The reverse thing, the suck, should'nt be an issue. You have a thicker stuff with 5min anyway.


JD

[macca202]

few hours on and it's still blowing bubbles, stooopid board!
i wonder if i surfed it with this hole, and some mouldy crap is growing inside, producing gases.
in which case talcom powder and araldite sounds like my only option

i'm regretting now not getting leaving it at the shop to be done by someone who knows what their doing, ah well a learning experience i suppose!
(though at some stage today, likely while trying to fix this board, i've stuffed up my knee and it clicks and hurts like hell, great!)

[dUg]

Is Solarez an epoxy based thing? If it's a Polyster based product that would be very bad for an EPS core, surely? Pour polyester resin on some EPS packing foam and watch what happens... ooooh lordy... you'll see bubbles alright... just before it turns into a pile of formless goop.

One thing I'll say about 5 minute Araldite, well, two actually. Yes.. it's quick... but it goes yellow after only a few hours of UV exposure. Within a month it will look like a bird has crapped on your board... sanded smooth and shiny or not.

If you can, use the normal Araldite or better still, get a small quantity of some higer quality Epoxy like Josh would use on boards. Chop up some 2 or 4 oz fibreglass cloth and stir some of that in too if you need a bit of fill and strength, q-cell if it's just a little hole. Dam it up with masking tape, let it go hard before you try to peel it off or else it might just pull out all your hard work with it. If you are desperate to surf it and can't just leave it a few days it'll be OK to sand it after 2 or 3 days when it's gone super hard.

[macca202]

actually at one stage (like the 5th attempt of sealing the hole) i did put a couple bits of a foam cup in the hole as fill, and i did notice that some of it turned into a white goop

but the pack says "epoxy resin" and "contains acrylates"...

it was pretty much all repaired, so didn't need any fill as all the problem i now had was that there was a pin hole that was releasing gas/air. I did a spit test this morning and it STILL was brething out, but only very slowly.

So i got the drill out, drilled a ~6mm hole through the pin hole. then i masked off all around the hole with some clear tape. i used the masked off area on the board to mix the 5 min araldite so i could easily push it into the hole so save any transfer hassels. So once it was mixed, i pushed it into the hole. A few bubbles started coming out again, so i kept popping them, then as the mix started to harded, i could see the bubbles were slowing down. so when one last bubble was popped, i got another bit of clear tape out, and sealed the hole off shut, and kept pressure on it to prevent the bubbles "seeing" an escape route. and i think it worked!!!
now just need to sand it down, and put a little bit of solarez over the top.

thanks for the help

unfortunately i woke up and my knee is still unsteady, and occasionally clicks and hurts like hell
anyone want a free recently repaired board?

[mustkillmulloway]

sounds like thev resin has a pin hole in the mix

suggest u stick ya dick in there

that plug it

just