Vycom Celtec expanded PVC sheet material

Discussion in 'Materials' started by Steve W, Jan 14, 2017.

  1. Steve W
    Joined: Jul 2004
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    Steve W Senior Member

    I was just down in Florida working on my sons catamaran and was introduced to this material which I have not used before. We used it as a replacement for plywood with glass on one side for a small non critical repair of just a couple of ft2. I was wondering if anyone here has used it and for what purpose. We bought it at Fiberglass supply depot in Ft Pierce. I think it may have potential but would like to see who is using it and for what.

    Steve.
     
  2. ondarvr
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    Location: Monroe WA

    ondarvr Senior Member

    For specific applications products like this can work well, the down side is they offer little strength on their own, can move a great deal as the temperature changes and have a high cost.

    The up side is they don't rot, are easy to work with, will hold a screw, and depending on the exact product can be lighter than some other options.

    The cost and lack of strength are the major reasons why it isn't used more often.
     
  3. Steve W
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    Steve W Senior Member

    This stuff is pvc like many of the foam cores we use such as klegcell, divinycell etc which of course are much weaker in every way until you glass both sides. It is much more dense so might be useful in some applications where that would be an advantage. I am curious as to how well it bonds when used with glass on both sides. I will do some tests at some point. The guy who sold it to us had samples with biax on each side with ve and it looked good. I don't think I would necessarily build a hull out of it but there are many less critical parts where it may be useful.

    Steve.
     
  4. ondarvr
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    ondarvr Senior Member

    The bond is very good, I tested it with similar products.
     
  5. Steve W
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    Steve W Senior Member

    That's good news, I weighed a piece of the material I got from fiberglass supply depot and it seems to extrapolate out to about 15lb/ft3 so lighter than coosa and ilk but of course nowhere near as stiff until it is glassed both sides. I think it will have its applications, very nice to work with.

    Steve.
     
  6. ondarvr
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    ondarvr Senior Member

    Sand the surface with 36grit or something similar, that's what I did in my testing. A lesser grit may work well too, but I only tried one. No other cleaning was done.
     
  7. Steve W
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    Steve W Senior Member

    Yes, that's what we did with the small area of about 4ft2 that we did, 80grit I think. It seemed like it glued ok but we didn't try to peel it. We will watch it and see. I will do some testing at some point using a glassed piece of plywood as a control.

    Steve.
     

  8. ondarvr
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    ondarvr Senior Member

    I used 4 layers of 1.5oz CSM as a test laminate, the failure point was always in the laminate, the bond to the PVC never failed.
     
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