What do you guys do to heat your polyester lay up? Epoxy is not so flamable. Its been 35f degrees here, i’m looking to speed up cure.
I put the piece in oven at about 30/70°C (86/158°F), or with resin infusion, I pre heat resin in a water bath and pre heat mold in oven. With small molds works
Fastrr,
I typically don’t deal with Polyester resin systems… but given a situation where the shop temperature is below nominal, I would heat the cure of the product. An example is if the piece is small enough (probably wouldn’t work with a larger part unless you are really fast at what you do), I would get all of the cure components ready (heat tent, vacuum bag and materials precut and kitted for quick use), then lay up the part as fast as possible, bag it, get all of the edges and detail perfect, then throw it in the heat tent at around 85-95f, and your part will be ready for demold in about an hour and a half.
The chill in the air will aid your layup and bag (extending the time by a small amount), then the heat tent cure will bring the atmosphere around the part (and the part itself) to an appropriate condition that the Polyester resins seem to work well in.
-Corban
Keep in mind that temperatures below 15 degrees C are not recommended for polyester curing, due to the peroxide misbehaving. (which leads to massive undercure of the part)
Heat up your workspace if possible.
I generally use a combination of low powered space heaters and bagging to create a warmer environment around the part.
I use Infratech medium wave lamps in shop and on field trips.
they will kick poly-epoxy, & cure paint/primer
it heats the whole surface. I keep track of temps with a digital hand held temp gun. go 220V if you can, they suck power.
Heat guns and cardboard boxes with a fluke thermocouple is a pretty cheap and easy method for cures. Cut a circle hole and a few vent flaps to control the temp. Often times if the bag is on a table I get a box big enough to cover everything.