When doing overlays right now i’m just using a typical paint brush, i can work most the air out but i’ve gotten some bubbles in my stuff…what kinda brushes are you guys using?
and also anyone have tips on mixing the resin to minimize air bubbles?
I dont do alot of overlays so the brush thing Im not going to be great help with. although I hear alot of guys using foam brushes.
Now mixing,
If you scrape your mixing stick (popsicle stick) around the outside of the cup and slowly work into the center and back out youll be good.
Mix your resin so you have more work time and you can use a vacuum to help pull all the bubbles up. Ive never tried but I imagine a cheap “mighty-vac” for bleeding brakes would work wonders if you rigged up a cup for it.
i wouldn’t suggest doing it because it is not safe :rolleyes: but we use a butane torch about 6 inches from the overlay and that makes all the bubbles come to the surface and pop because of the heat
awesome torching never would have though of that thank you very much…and i’ll try using the foam brush on my next piece
I use a heat gun when brushing on anything. Not as much of a fire hazard as an open flame.
I’ve used foam brushes in the past and they do work good for a short time. At first they’re nice and firm and you can tap your reinforcement very easily with them. It doesn’t take too long though and they become so saturated they start seperating from the plastic insert that holds them in. Then they aren’t good for much more than wetting out the mat or fabric. Good news is they’re cheap, so you can just grab another one. Bad news is your old one you were just using is full of resin, which isn’t as cheap so use the new one and get as much resin out of the old one as you can.
I’ve always heard of people using chip brushes but I haven’t tried them yet. I’ve been using the black plastic ones from Wal-Mart lately. They sell them individually for about $.60 or so. Used to be $.50 but I guess gas made them go up too. :rolleyes: You can get them in a variety of sizes as well.
Good luck with your projects!
what are chip brushes?
They are cheap wood handle paint brushes.
You can get boxes of 36-40 of them at Harbor Frieght for 8-9 bucks.
I use the 2" wide ones for all my work.
I’ve used the plastic ones from walmart also, they’re not bad at all…
I usually mix it up between those and some plain wood handle ones from home depot, they’re $0.49 each…
plastic n wood handle are normal paint brushes? or different type of end?
(sorry not trying to be a noober i just want to be clear so that i dont waste more money and time)
I use chip brushes my self…they work good.
A couple of tips
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Cut about 1/8 to 1/4 off the end of the brush. This will make your bristles a little stiffer and increases the contact with the surface, thus applying more resin, in a shorter time. Plus tamping is a LOT easier and if you need to “nudge” the glass into a curve it’s a bit easier also. Don’t cut too much off though. Otherwise you’ll be going back into the resin bucket so many times that you’ll go mad!!! Trust me.
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Only use natural bristle brushes. Any other has the chance of melting or contaminating your resin with chemicals you might not want in there.
Hope this helps.
Pat
Suppliers of composite materials here in the UK also supply the correct brushes, at very reasonable prices.
Me too, I use chip brushes…works good.