Any of you use raka? I had never heard of it prior to this thread
I have some experience in epoxies. I began to use it in Sweden in 1970 as apprentice in a luxury yachts shipyard, I have a little experience...
Raka has been in the business since more than 25 years.
I have used plenty of Raka resin, mainly the 127. I bought it by drums. It's a very good resin for boat building, and many other uses.
The price is excellent for the very good quality. The durability is excellent as I have seen over 20 years of use.
And this resin is very easy to use with its 3 hardeners, the tropical very slow, the normal, and the super fast. The hardeners are miscible so you can adjust very precisely your working time.
A good resin for boatbuilding must comply with a lot of requisites, some structural, some for easing the work:
1/ Viscosity around 600 to 1000 centipoises to be effective in all its uses. 2/Good wetting of wood, fibers and other materials including all the charges you're going to add, like wood flour, microfibers, etc... 3/ To be really waterproof, so never being diluted except with special reactive solvents. A lot of cheap resins are diluted "wildly". 4/To have a good elongation so you get the maximal strength of the fibers glued to the wood, and not micro-fissuring under stress as did the West System 40 years ago (they have since fixed that). 5/ No fish eyes, that ruins all your work. Those who have struggled with that will understand me. 6/ Not blushing. It's a plague. 7/ Perfect adhesion between coats with minimal preparation. 8/ Easy to adjust the setting time. 9/Easy sanding. Some epoxies are total horrors to sand.
A good thing also is not too allergenic, some hardeners are horrors.
The Raka comply easily with all that.
Never buy a cheap resin without serious trials, as they are not created equal. Some boatbuilding resins are largely overpriced, but buying too cheap a non specific and unproven resin in boatbuilding is the best way to get in deep troubles.
