thicken up gel coat

how would you do this to spray a random nonskid deck finish

 

i have never seen a non slip pattern done with sprayed gelcoat BUT i have seen it done using a short haired roller !
if you spray and wait for just the right moment as it thickens and begins to gel and very lightly run the roller over the top it will stick to and pick up the gel and make a non slip type patern . its hit and miss and ok for a small area !!,if the pick up is a little harsh then lightly sand it back a little .

On a transom exstension i did a while back i used a polyproperlyne boat carpet cut to shape and stuck it down with clear bathroom grade silicone . It looks good ,easy to clean ,soft under foot and if gets damaged simply use a shape knife cut the silicone and replace it !
Its been in use for over 5 years and still as good as the day it was done !

 

What about Kiwigrip?

 

Or Gibco Flexmold: www.gibcoflexmold.com. With some thinned down gelcoat you can make nice patterns. If you are near Kentucky, visit them on the IBEX

 

I've often thought that if I needed to spray a non-skid I'd use one of my texture guns to give it a try. These are inexpensive ceiling texture spray guns designed to handle this sort of material. For the most part I use mine to spray straight (unthinned) gelcoat, and I see no reason why they wouldn't work just as well if I added a little non-skid to the mix.

A suitable non-skid surface can be achieved in a simplier fashion.

Tape off the area, apply a thin even layer of gelcoat, lightly sprinkle your non-skid over the area, and hit it with your roller to even out the texture.

You can alter the surface texture by working the gelcoat with the roller as it begins to thicken creating small peaks, or conversely soften the non-skid by adding a bit more gelcoat during the initial rollout and then leaving it alone to flow out somewhat before it cures.

Another method is to tape off the area, apply a layer of gelcoat, cover the area with non-skid, and let cure. After the gelcoat has cured, brush or vacumn the excess non-skid off leaving behind only those particles that are embedded in the gelcoat, then apply a second coat (with wax) over the top to seal in the non-skid. This takes a lot more non-skid initially, but you recover most of the excess material before you apply your second coat.

MM

 

I made non slip a few times by mixing flowcoat and cabosil (aerosil, fumed silica) to peanut butter consistency and applying it with a roller

 

One way i have used, Vinyl wallpaper stuck onto the plug with contact adhesive, i have also used vinyl floor covering with non skid pattern, When waxed & pva'd both worked as good as expensive systems.
Another way i have heard of but not have not used!
Paint or spray the gelcoat on and as soon as possible scatter epsom salts onto the wet surface. Once its cured wash the epsom salts away leaving a random non skid. Could be worth an experiment?

 

Non Skid

Instead of the salt just use the gelcoat non skid additives on the market. Many people either add it to the last coat or use the scatter technique. A plus is you can choose fine, medium, or course depending on how that section of the boat is used. Not too expensive from what I found.

 

this is what I was planning but I thought I had added gycerin?? spelling in your top paragraph

 

Sprinkle sugar from a suitable container with perforations as a "salt-shaker".

You can sprinkle it on pretty thick. The resin / gelcoat will dissolve the sugar and you can hose it off when cured.

Don't do this in your lounge - the resulting syrup is gooey.

The resulting finish has a more interesting texture than sand etc and makes a good long-lasting non-skid.

Harry

 

one non slip we used to do was two pot paint and sprinkled silica sand completely over the surface till it was completely covered with a tin layer of drysand then let it harden and lightly vac clean off then spray more two pot till it was to the texture you wanted and then let harden . has the best non slip surface ever !! could kneel on it!! stand on it all with bare skin and would never slip its what we used in surfboats as everyone had bare skin no shoes or what ever . I never saw one graze! never saw anyone ever get hurt in any way!! , i did this job for 4 years without one single misshape ever !!,Then we found a new material 6mm thick closed cell foam called gorilla grip with a peel off backing and we stick that down because it was the closes stuff we could find that did what we were using . :!:

 

I'm just curious...what method did you choose for your job?

MM