Currently making some cosmetic motorcycle products using alutex silver color E glass. We are hand laminating these items, using poly gel, and resin sytems.
Having problems with the fact that we dont seem to be able to find any poly gel coat clear enough not to detract from the appearnce of the E glass on some of the parts.
Have tried spraying marbling gel, but seem to be having difficulty with adhesion on the mould surface, which results in fish eyes in the sprayed gel coat.
Wonder if anyone out there has been using E glass sucessfully, and if so what resin/gel worked for you? (epoxy not really an option, due to cost, and time factors)
Ive only done this with Texalium and Im not sure if you are talking about the same stuff. Silver E glass?
I dont have problems with the texallium so much but I do have a problem when I use black. I get the worst airbubbles in it. I dont have problems with my marble clear gelcoat though. Im not doing to much with the Texallium though, its a huge pain in the ass so I am interested in seeing what you have going one.
Texalium is I imagine a brand name for aluminiumized E glass, as is Alutex, the product we have been using.
When I started looking at these E glass products, I had a few different samples of various colors, but found the Alutex was the only one that could be used sucessfully for anything other than flat lay ups, as the other samples seemed to be very stiff and difficult to work with.
Really the only problem with the Italian made Alutex product has to do with what we have been using for gel coat, and I would be interested to hear how you are applying your marbling gel coat, and what resin system you are using to laminate with after applying gel coat?
What we use in the classroom for PER Gel clear coating is the standard dump gel coat guns…unless it is a small part and then I have found several places to buy cheap (under $20.00) HVLP spray guns. As you know, students love to spray something, then stand around watching it cure and the gun doesn’t get washed out…
But let’s keep this thread going on the forum instead of behind PM’s as then more people will beniffit!
Classicbike, can you post pictures of your molds for us to get a better idea of what you are doing as the shapes can influence things too…
Ive not heard of the Alutex but if its as nice looking as Texallium and has much better draping qualities (tex does not conform to shit, I want to pull my hair out most times I try it)Id like to try it.
I use poly marblizing gelcoat. I mix at 2-3% catalyst and let it B stage…this is where it gets tricky. If you dont have it just right with the B stage and its not sticky enough, the Tex wont stay down in your mold. If its just a bit too wet…you know what happens. So the timing is critical for it.
I use a CCW infusion resin for all my parts, Ive not mastered the infusion set up yet…my new robinair pump hasnt been used as I dont have a clue how Im supposed to use it yet. Anyways thats off point.
With the infusion resin, I can wet out without the tex wanting to bridge on me for some parts. I then lay 4-6 layers of regular old uni E glass for back up and thats about it. My infusion resin is poly as well.
I really need to get my vacuum set up working. I think it will help me to keep the Texallium in my molds better.
Oh and Ive tried the infuzene glue…that stuff is pretty good. You have to time that perfectly as well, if you wait too long its hard as a rock and not sticky and too soon and it wont do anything for you.
Got pics of the silver you use? Im a motorcycle guy as well so we might be able to help one another.
From what we have tried the laminating resin system you are using also needs to be as clear as possible, so I think Silmar is the way to go with this.
In terms of infusion or bagging the costs of this in relation to small numbers of parts does not make economic sense, so we are looking towards perfecting a hand laminating process, which will work with the silver E glass.
As to problems with cloth not sticking to gel coat, these would probably be improved by using a thicker product, as RTM resins seem to me a little too thin to work properly in this application. The other alternative is a 2 piece mould, which can be weighted or clamped, to hold everything in place.
Have several small cheap HVLP touch up guns, but wonder if the material nozzle is big enough to properly atomise something like a marbling gel coat? Gun I have here, has a 1mm material nozzle…will that work or do I need bigger?
