Vinylester

I have been trying to find Vinylester resin locally and not having much luck. What sort of places should I be looking to in order to find it. I have looked at the plastics shops and the folks that supply paint to the auto body shops. I suspect I am barking up the wrong trees. Any advice as to where I should let my fingers do the wallking in the yellow pages?

If I can't find Vinylester resin how much worse off will I be using polyester resin?

Adrio

Try the web. Do a Google search.

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Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

I order my Vinylester from Mertons fiberglass . Just google them. Not sure about shipping to Canada. Depends on what you are doing ,but most laminating repairs will be fine with polyester.

I bought my laminating resin at Boaters World in Lewisville. The ONLY place I could find it in less than a 5 gallon bucket in the entire metroplex! Composite 1 had the 5 gallon jugs. I opted for the quart size from BW. lol

Adrio, You can call the supplier I've used for years and have them ship you some Vinylester resin & catalyst. Have them send you some "Surfacing Agent" also, as this is the additive needed to turn the resin from a laminating finish (sticky) to a finish coat (ready to sand). Here's their info.. DMC.....Diversified Materials Co. (San Diego) Phone # is 1 (619) 464-4111 (ask for the sales desk). They have the resin by the quart or gallons. It's about $25.00 / quart, and I believe they ship via UPS right to your door. A quart will go a long way.

actually, I'm done with the resin I just bought, and Rick is right, it goes a long way. I bought a quart, and used maybe an ouce and a half for my crack repair... It seems regular hardener works just fine, too. If you're anywhere around 76039 area or close, you're welcome to use mine. I don't imagine I'm going to use any more any time soon. Rich is right, though, it was about $30/qt. including hardner at Boaters World. Hopefully I'll be up to Hobie point this weekend if I get this finished. FINALLY! AJ

I need some education, What is the Vinylester resin used for? I thought fiberglass Hobies were made with Polyester resin. (also, I never understood people making delam repairs using Epoxy)

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Alan
'86 H16, Sail #89057

Alan, Vinylester resin is a polyester resin...just a high grade type. It's a bit thinner than the store bought "boatyard" types which helps in wetting out your fiberglass cloth, fabric, matt, or tape. It also bonds better (and more expensive) . As for using epoxy resin on a Hobie...I don't, & wouldn't recommend it, with the exception of parts originally made with epoxy by the factory like EPO blades and comp tips.
As for repairing a delam of glass from the foam sandwich in a Hobie...The fix is only going to be as strong as the foam in the repair area. It isn't going to be a stronger fix by using epoxy over polyester because of the foam's structural strength.

Thanks. I am familiar with polyester (as a teen built surfboards, etc.) and epoxy (built a fiberglass-foam-fiberglass sandwich, two-place, homebuilt, aircraft) but heard little about vinylester (I think one production experimental aircraft in the 80's, the Glassair, was made using vinylester).

It also puzzled me reading posts here and elsewhere about people using epoxy to repair Hobie delams.

As far as a delam repair- you are right, it is only as strong as separated foam surface, AND the resin bond to it and the delaminated section of (Hobie polyester-based?) fiberglass. I suppose in this case Epoxy is as good as anything else. A technique we used to aid wetting out large wing laminations with epoxy was to heat it which made it much runnier. It was much easier to wet out the glass cloth and remove any excess with a squeegy (important for weight sensitive aircraft) than cold or room temp epoxy. We used a slow setting epoxy (SafetyPoxy or Racca) which wouldn't kick-off from this warming. I don't think that is possible with polyester or vinylester. This might be a useful technique for delam repairs.

For areas that would eventually need another lamination or another piece bonded (like a bulkhead to the fuselage) once the layup was complete we covered the (bulkhead or other part) layup with "peel ply" fabric which did not bond, but partially absorbed the resin. When the resin had cured and the peel ply was removed, it would leave a textured surface to improve the joint with another piece and did not need sanding which could damage the glass weave.

Below is a link to a canoe site that I found that explains the difference between all three resins. Interesting what they say in the last paragraphs about polyester and vinylester and their (limited) bonding strengths, especially new resin to old, cured resin.

Epoxy vs vinylester vs polyester

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Alan
'86 H16, Sail #89057