Micarta making question

[Sasquatch-1]

What resin, for use in making micarta, has the longest working time? My wife sews and I just wanted to try making micarta out of her throw away scraps as an experiment.

[country gent]

Seems like a longer working time would be better to allow it to permeate the cloth and or air bubbles to work out. Also a thinner seems to have advantages for the same reasons.

Maybe something like the system 3s epoxies used for wood finishes, worked in good then warmed to release air would do. Another place that may offer information is alumina cast, they offer many polyurethane and casting materials to the public.

An uncle wanted a small row boat and being a DIYer and resourceful he borrowed a neighbors row boat coated it with a thin layer of Vaseline then using fiberglass mat and fiberglass layered over the out side. letting it cure between layers. It made pretty much a 1 piece hull the way he did it, When the hull was done He popped it of the boat and formed stiffening ribs inside and seats using Styrofoam for forms. No rivets or nails. Other than what held the wood transom in. It was heavy but It never leaked. The fiberglass resins working time was his biggest problem doing it. When you had the mat coated it had to go on and be rolled down quickly in place.

[pete501]

I used Spring Bolt Epoxy for making scales out of fabric and butcher paper for the liner. The set time is slow, fully cures in 24 hours with maybe 1/2 hour of working time.
I used plastic wrap laid down in a shallow wood framed "basin". Then coated and piled layers of the cloth. I found that squishing the pile was like trying to smash 2 bars of soap together. Slippery.

[myg30]

Going by my old memories, I think there was a few you tube videos I watched about making them. I was going to try with denim pieces I had after turning old jeans into shorts.
Never got to finish it after cutting cloth.
Please post your results so we can follow it.

Mike

[SciFiJim]

I had to look up what micarta was to find out. One thing I might suggest is using a vacuum chamber after combining the epoxy and cloth to get the bubbles out.

[Sasquatch-1]

After doing a little research (very little) Unicone Art Masterclass (4-6-hour worktime 48-hour cure time) and Unicone Art Epoxy Resin Kit (40-to-60-minute work time) seem to be the longest work times I can find. The Masterclass is only sold in a large quantity that is $140.00. The Art Epoxy comes in smaller quantities that would be much more affordable for what I want to try. Has anyone used either of these products?

I have watched several of the videos on YouTube. The process seems fairly straight forward.

[pete501]

Squatch, If you want a to try some Spring Bolt, I will send you some for the price of shipping. I bought a case some time ago for just this purpose, the containers are 2 x 12 ounces. Yes I know that it is not the intended use for this product but it is a slow set epoxy. Reading the label, it has a 3-4 hour set time at room temp with full cure time at 24 hours. Seemed to work, the red was from canvas and the blue were old jeans.

[Noah Zark]

The resin in Micarta is phenolic.

Noah