Rookie mistake with Fiberglass, advice needed

Hello and thanks for any guidance offered. 20 hours ago I layed some polyester resin on plywood decking, then layed some 1708 glass, and then rolled out more polyester resin on top. All this was done at a temp around 65 degrees Fahrenheit. The resin has Not cured as of this posting.

I realized today that there was not enough hardener added to the resin mix, the amount of hardener was shorted by a lot! I misread the label.

Side note: I have some old epoxy resin and hardener sitting around, could I use the hardener from that? Or mix up a batch of epoxy resin to go over the uncured polyester?

What should I do?

 

@Ryan99

Scrape it off.
The sooner the better.

You can polyester over the scraped surface.
No epoxy on polyester.

You won't make that mistake again.

 

If you "shorted by a lot" the hardener, there is not much to do but strip it off and start again.
Remember, experience is what you get when you don't get what you want. Take this as a learning lesson.....measure twice: cut once.

Edit: X-post with BB.

 

Ryan, just for clarity, it's catalyst not hardener when dealing with polyester.

 

Thanks for all the responses. My mistake, it is a catalyst.

Is the resin that soaked into the wood an issue?

 

No

 

It is all garbage. Wood impregnated with resin can probably be washed with solvent suitable for the resin. Be careful using solvents during the heating season as the fumes can be explosive.

 

Where did you buy the resin from? Make sure it was activated and that it is waxed. Without wax it will stay sticky until you either cover it or lay resin/gelcoat with wax over it.

 

From the manufacturer:
"While being a laminating resin it is also a FINISHING RESIN as it cures tack-free without the need for wax. Venture Pour DOES NOT CONTAIN WAX."
The job is done for now. Thank you very much for the assistance.

 

Interesting that the manufacturers tout it as curing tack free, good for laminating as well as finish coating, while definitely stating that it doesn’t contain wax.
They do not mention sanding…

 

This is probably the stuff . . .

.
FWIW - Don't tell anybody, but I recently did the same with my fillet work . . . Math error and was at about 50% of the catalyst needed (1/2%) . . . I scraped it all off into a container, added more catalyst and re-applied it. Since you were using cloth, etc., there was no good way to add catalyst.

Also, I often work at colder temperatures (60-65˚F) . . . I go with 2% catalyst and apply heat when I can.