Modifying prebuilt junk, in stages, to be less junk like.

[SternWake]

Explored some new areas the last 2 days. Some rough roads were pretty tolerable with the 107mm cyclone rubber hub sleeves.

This bridge is the highest elevation, a whole 26 meters, the Esk8 has taken us.

Hub motors were maintaining 11mph up the grade, and did not feel too hot at the apex, but stator heat had not had time to work its way to where I can feel it.

I strapped my old BAK45D 10s2p to the deck, on some yogamat foam, under some packing foam with a g10 sheet to spread load, and ran it in parallel with TenPower50xg 10s2p.

I was carrying the portacharger in the chariot with Fiona, but did not need it. Returned home after 15.2 miles at 32.2 volts.

90F/32.2C, 70% humidity

Motor paddlewheel heatsinks 172.2f max, inner bearing cap 168.4F, ESC heatsink 139f.

BAK45D 10s2p felt barely warmer than ambient when I unstrapped it.

[SternWake]

I hope this was not our last roll together tonight.

The last time I thought her time had come, and the at home euthanasia vet came, she protested loudly, acted puppy like, and we rolled again that night.

I fear we won’t be as lucky this time.

She’s been doing pretty well, but somethings up.

I fear Pyometra.

[SternWake]

I’ve pulled my mattress onto the floor by her bed.

It was indeed our last bark and roll together.

I tried to give her the best life I could. Now, I need to give her a good death.

Rolling will not be the same without her.

Such an awesome co pilot.

[glyphiks]

As good a life as any doggo could hope for mate, its been a joy to follow your adventures with her your whole time here. Dogs and skates are a match made in heaven.

Thoughts are with the both of you, you got this mate.

[SternWake]

Thanks mate.

It’s definitely Pyometra, open still, meaning discharge, as opposed to closed where the pressure builds and pain increases exponentially.

A younger dog not riddled with cancer could survive it with an emergency hysterectomy, but that would just be cruel in her condition now.

I had her pretty doped up overnight but at one point she was twitching and panting in her sleep, and I thought I was going to have to take her to the 24 hour emergency hospital, but she settled down and when she lifted her head, gladly accepted another gabapentin and a treat chaser.

I got about an hour of sleep, and she has since had plenty of treats, a can of her favorite wet food, and took a huge poo that would make a human proud, and is now resting peacefully, but looking bummed.

The At home Euthanasia vet set to arrive in 2-3 hours.

I bet I could entice her into the chariot for one last roll, but it is so hot outside, and last night’s roll was rolled knowing it could be our last together.

She made so many people smile as we rolled by barking.

I will however take her ashes on a chariot ride, barking solo.

We drove cross country no less than 10 times together and have at least 5500 miles rolling together Esk8 and chariot.

I’ve never had a friend like her. Not even close.

[SternWake]

RIP, my sweet goofball.

[rafaelinmissouri]

Hang in there dude.

[SternWake]

I went for a Solo roll yesterday, and my right hand fell into the normal chariot handle hold despite nothing there.

Since her health scare 3 months ago, I had fed her more treats and more of her favorite foods, and she was up at 60LBs, and the chariot was up near 38 lbs loaded down with no less than 6 thick heavy bath towels as shade and furry butt bolstering and water bottle and maybee some extra battery. I’m 195 Lbs, and the Esk8 is 27 So all in we were close to 325 Lbs/147KG.

Propelled by a 10s2p TenPower50XG and 2 hub motors, with the option to charge and ride with my 7s2p portacharger, or parallel more battery and ride, or both.

I took the usual morning route to the park, and just started crying at the spot she usually started barking at. I walked the park, carrying the tail and rolling the pneumies. It was much easier towing the esk8 in the chariot than walking with it, but I tried to clench the remaining rotor cuff muscles and try to keep them from deteriorating further, as I might actually seek surgery now.

6 months ago I was like no thanks, IF I get surgery I cant tow Fiona.

The neighborhood on the far side of the park, I ran into her favorite USPS mail lady. She would always stop, get out of her mail truck with a treat for Fiona and would give and receive that special dog love.

She saw me rolling solo, and I stopped and started blubbering in front of some landscapers and received a much needed hug.

I continued rolling our usual route, barking solo and crying. in between singing the Fiona song, with past tense replacing present test.

I’d Like to say a Cormorant came and flew at my side, but bird wise there were a few crows well above me which did follow me and called a few times. Fiona used to have a major thing for crows when we live in California, but Florida crows did not receive the same attention from her.

Before Fiona was mine she lived in a home with a few Pet rabbits, So it was understandable why when she’d see rabbits, she would not go after them, but I never understood why the rabbits never showed any fear of her. They’d let her get within 1 meter of them, and just keep that distance, never showing any fear of her, or me.

One section of our usual route has a pretty smooth series of turns that seldom had any other traffic, which was really fun to get up to full speed and clip some Apexes, while barking.

It was here, accelerating, that a rabbit darted out into the road, and paralleled me for a good 10 meters, about a meter away from my Kendas before darting back to the side of the road.

Out of the hundreds of times I had rolled this section of road I had never seen a rabbit, and out of the thousands of miles we rolled together, no rabbit ever ran along side us.

I continued our usual 8.4 mile morning route, Singing the Fiona song and mimicking her barks, and just crying unashamedly.

Not towing a 100Lb chariot, I found I was not really rolling any faster than would have with it, and at the one traffic circle, I found I Missed the tripod stability of the chariot handle, and did not feel comfortable cornering it at the regular speed I would when Fiona was with me.

I returned home at 36.2 volts compared to the usual 31.4 to 32 volts. The hub motors were about 12F cooler but the hanger and ESC heatsink were nearly the same temperature as when we were rolling together.

I had recharged fully for the evening roll.

Fiona would rarely go #2 in our own yard in the evening, but would always go in the park on our evening roll, maybe even twice. The gabapentin pain medication had screwed with her digestion these last three months, but the evening roll was pretty mandatory, otherwise she would just hold it all night. Had to be uncomfortable holding in loose stools in, So even If I was not in the mood to roll, we rolled. She would always eagerly climb into the chariot and off we would go for our second roll of the day. Lots of dog walkers out and about in the evening and We’d roll past them at 20MPH barking. Most would wave and smile, but there were a few cattle prod smuggling Karens.

I could not handle the evening roll without her. I did not want the Smilers to know she was gone, and I did not want the Karens to relish the missing furry goofball in her chariot.

[A-damW]

Thank you so much for sharing SternWake.

@SternWake

She saw me rolling solo, and I stopped and started blubbering in front of some landscapers and received a much needed hug.

It may not count for much, but I am sending you a hug.

The bitter sweetness of loss and memories is real.

@SternWake

I continued our usual 8.4 mile morning route, Singing the Fiona song and mimicking her barks, and just crying unashamedly.

Grief is a powerful transformational experience that cannot be explained in words.
For me, it usually involves a lot of tears.

Thank you,
Adam

[SternWake]

I picked up Fiona’s ashes today with the Guppy, and then went for a 9 mile roll with her in my backpack stopping at a few spots i know she liked.

Have not been skating much since.

Rolling solo is just not as fun or rewarding.

I did set up an inline wattmeter between my old BAK45D 10s2p strapped to my deck, and my ‘24’ Amp Puaida/Lingyi hub motor ESC.

It recorded 27.1 peak amps and 1043 peak watts.

We have been in a bad drought, but I barely made it to shelter a mile from home in soft cut, before the skies truly opened.

I put the BAK pack into my backpack next to Fiona, and returned loopkey and saw the Tenpower 50xg 10s2p was only 32.7 volts. Enough to get home.

45 minutes later I called for a ride home as it was still raining hard and not worth the risk of damaging anything.

I’d taken refuge from the rain outside at a furniture store, and a female employee came out and asked me where my dog was.

[DIY500AMP.COM]

Dude I am so sorry for your lost. She is taking care of you from dogs heaven. Thanks for sharing.

[Pecos]

So sorry for your loss, she couldn’t have had a better more caring friend and you are a kind and generous person. Im going to miss you sharing the joy you two had together during her sunset. Sending love dude, we should all be so lucky to have a friend like you when we approach the end of our journey.

[SternWake]

Thanks for the Kind words.

It has been a struggle facing life lived without her constant goofy loving presence.

Rolling solo has proven difficult.

I did not realize just how much more fun it was to Roll with her in tow in her Chariot. I can carve harder and roll faster for further on the same battery, but…..

The Guppy has since been disassembled for enclosure inspection and deck cleaning, and is now stuck in the ‘While it is apart’ Stage, and I have not been working on it nearly enough. Difficulties concentrating, easily distracted, easily annoyed.

It did stay dry inside during the ash collecting rainstorm roll, and has since got its second charge port wired up, and resealed, and is ready to go

I put the Guppy’s motor hanger and enclosure and the 107 airless rubber cyclone 107s on the front truck of midsize Kicktail, and got wheelbite after rolling 1 meter. I guess I never tried this board with urethane 105’s before and will need to go back to 90mm wheels unless I bust out new hardware and more risers. I did not feel like adding more risers.

The Mini is still working perfectly, but I have not been rolling very much, and its been 2+ weeks since I went to the park, instead of the 10+ miles and 2-3 parks a day when Fiona was still alive.

I have built a 7s2p with Murata VTC6 cells(0.25mm copper busbars) for the portacharger and have been working on improving its thermals, and ingress protection, and potential expansion options should I wish to parallel my EVE35v and DMEGC20p 7s2p’s and explore a lot further from home base in the future.

[SternWake]

The Guppy has been in drydock for a few weeks now.

Been riding the Mini a few miles most every day, locally, on the smooth stuff. Today was the first time i started pushing the limits of its traction in a while.

When I last added epoxy to the Guppy, I had drilled the baseplate holes a little bit bigger than the 10-32 hardware, and filled the holes with epoxy saturated with milled glass fibers, and after it cured I hand drilled new holes just big enough for the 10-32 hardware, but I did not get it perfectly centered.

I put a straight edge across the baseplates and don’t cinch the hardware until they are perfectly inline with each other, and this is imperfect from a hardware stress stand point since the holes are not perfect.

With the wedge risers the hardware takes on a bend and the threads on the shaft were also butted up against the thin walled epoxy column and digging in.

Anyway the deck got wet on its last ride, and when I removed the hardware I saw signs the epoxy column was compromised and the Baltic Birch plywood might have absorbed some water which got past the pan heads, or it was just dirty grey. it got scrubbed with soap and water anyway and blown dry.

Anyway this time I widened the holes a bit more and they are more hourglass shaped.

Birch is much softer than maple or bamboo, so even with wide pan head bolts they would want to sink, and on the back truck I said F it, and used washers, and no more issues in 2500 miles.

The New bolt in the picture below is a Truss head 10-32.

The epoxy columns do help against the sinking Pan heads, but this time I decided to take it a step further. There will be an integrated epoxy ‘washer’ atop the hourglass column spreading the load on the birch under the truss head hardware. The tiny drilled holes should allow the thin laminating epoxy to wick deeper into the nearby birch fibers. Getting all the little bubbles out will require some extra work with a needle, or a dental sized bottle brush, and perhaps a heat gun.

My ‘kicktail’ foot stop is just another piece of Baltic birch plywood that was epoxied and screwed at a hard angle, and the rear corner started flaking off, So I cut the screw and tried to get it flat so it can accept some Sapele that I had left over from Fiona’s kayak perch. Gonna look weird, but nothing about this board is not weird.

I first made this deck in the summer of 2003, with Biscuits and wood glue instead of epoxy, and the Mahogany stringers started splitting from the Birch plywood in some areas.

So, ThIs deck got stored until its Non stringered replacement broke. It had a longer kicktail and it broke right in front of front truck when I got off the board and stomped the kicktail to pivot the nose into my awaiting hand. That broken deck is now part of the step outside the cargo doors of my Vintage Dodge van’s cargo doors.

At that point, 2014 or so, I could not easily buy 5x5 foot sheets of the Finnish Aircraft grade Baltic birch anymore, So I pulled this deck from storage, and added some White oak butterflies to bridge the areas where the wood glue let go and the stringer seams had started to open.

Later on I added fiberglass diagonal roving on the bottom, and more recently, after electrification, I Added more diagonal and perimeter roving top and bottom, to help reduce the flex, as it is a super flexy deck, and was getting more and more so the more I rode it, and hitting a bump at speed could cause a wobble.

So today I inspected my remaining epoxy. I have very little left, and the hardener I have left has separated into a white milky sludge on the bottom with thin brown liquid on top. The hardener was put into a glass peanut butter jar, but it stopped sealing well, so Florida heat and humidity and temperature cycling destroyed it.

I have a couple of teaspoons of hardener in the original half gallon container, that has darkened only, no separation, and might be OK for not mission critical tasks.

But I obviously need more Epoxy and Why risk it, So I will just mix all the compromised epoxy together into a disposable lasagna tray and let it cure outside and toss it. It will likely cure all rubbery and cloudy.

This was APEX ‘QuikSet clear ‘ surfboard laminating epoxy.

It was far from my favorite Epoxy, but when I lived in San Diego I was able to get a 1.5 gallon kit for 89$ from a brick and mortar store 10 minutes from home.

System 3 resins, Clearcoat and SB-112, which were my favorite, shipped, were basically a bit more than double the cost. A few Marine stores a 45 minute drive one way away, carried System3 but at basically the same price as online and shipped.

I had ordered a gallon and a half kit of APEX after moving to Florida, and this separated oxidized ruined remnants are the last of the batch. Got several NON esk8 projects done with it in addition to encapsulating 3 decks and making two enclosures.

I had ordered the Apex, mostly as I was used to how it behaved, and I thought it was more than good enough, and it was, and likely is still.

I looked up another 1.5 gallon kit and the price has increased to 130$ and they wanted 40$ shipping. A 3 quart Kit was more affordable, but they still wanted 40$ shipping. I do not see needing another 1.5 gallons.

Apex Quickset CLEAR Surfboard Epoxy Resin | Fiberglass Source/Surf Supply

So I did some more online shopping, and While I dont keep up with the latest and greatest surfboard laminating epoxies anymore, I recall that Resin Research Kwik kick was the brand most often recommended by those supposedly in the know, for factory and home DIY surfboard production. Fast, little blush, little tendency to fisheye, strong, good bond strength to EPX/XPS and PU Foam…

I saw a 3 quart kit or Resin Research Bio epoxy from another supplier than when shipping was included, was the same price as the 3 quarts of Apex epoxy shipped.

Resin Research Bio-Science 2000 Clear Epoxy Resin | ECOBOARD Plant-Based...

I ordered the slow hardener version.

Looks like I could have saved some dough not buying the ‘eco’ version.

oh well, too late.

The Eco version should have even less smell as it has lower VOC’s, and claims to have the same properties as Non eco.

If I were really worried about Fisheyes I would have ordered some Additive F too, a surfacing agent designed for epoxy.

I dont know if they changed the formula since 2001, but West Systems 105 has to be, by far, the worst epoxy I have worked with. Stinky, thick, brown, Thick hard to remove amine blush and also stinky when sanded. System 3 clearcoat resin is pretty pungent (a super thin penetrating epoxy), but SB-112 has little odor. Apex epoxy also has little odor.

The Apex epoxy had the Blue resin, designed to make white surfboard blanks ‘pop’ and look less yellow as it ages, and on top of wood kind of gave an extra Green tint, more than just the Volan finish of the fiberglass I was using normally would.

There are no numbers I can find about the tensile strength or viscosity of Apex epoxy, but AI Gemini told me what I wanted to hear, that RR Bio-s 2000 is is both stronger and thinner than Apex with higher bond strength. I do not really expect that to be true, but it sounds good.

I keep my trucks super loose, but the Guppy being so narrow means my heel and toes hang over the edge, and I lose some leverage and would not mind a bit wider of a board by my back foot to further decrease the low speed turning radius.

It is still pretty flexy so I might add some more perimeter roving to widen up the deck and take some more flex out of it.

I might also incorporate a series of thick strong AF Roving bridges in that perimeter roving, so that My Velcro cinch straps do not have to cross over the top of the deck to secure the enclosure.

I never intended to only use cinch straps, but With the guppy being so flexible, and the enclosure being so rigid, and the cinch straps having some give, they are basically perfect for the task.

The Mini, I fully intended to add inserts and firmly attach enclosure with fasteners , but 3 cinch straps are out of the way of my feet and function perfectly. Once the Guppy is functional again, I will likely work on the Mini again, and give it some perimeter roving bridges too.

The enclosure I am using on the Guppy, was not made for the Guppy, it was made for my Midsize kicktail, but the guppy is a thousand times more comfortable and fun and far safer at higher speeds..

Thie newly ordered 3 quart Kit can in theory be used to make a segmented enclosure for the Guppy, but that is a shitton of work, and I would also need to make a new battery, and would likely feel the need to go to 12S 3 or 4P, and honestly as long as I live in Florida, I don’t need more power, and I have all sorts of range extension methods and can easily carry 40 miles or more of additional modular range, top mounted, if I need to.

If/when I leave Florida, a more capable mountainboard would be the call, rather than a flatland hub motor silent cruiser. I don’t really care if the Midsize’s enclosure does not fit properly

With 9” pneumatics up front pushed by 105mm hub motors, I got nothing to prove and I give less and less of a rat’s ass about others opinions anyway.

The biggest danger is if I ever get a chance to ride a real board and get drunk on having 2-12 times the power and forget I am an old Fart who hates wearing shoes.

I put the enclosure back on the midsize Kicktail, but with 107mm wheels, wheelbite is an issue and I have not gotten around to adding more risers. The mini is right there and ready to go.

If riding the Midsize regularly, I’d want to do what I did on the Mini with wedging front truck and dewedging rear and enough clearance so wheelbite could only happen at walking speed or less.

But the Mini is pretty well dialed, and lighter, and easier to carry, and a fun little carve machine that I rarely feel the need to use on level 4 power. Level 3 is currently set at 80% current and acceleration and 75% of top speed, and I might turn it down a bit more.

I didn’t really enjoy the Midsize kicktail the last time I rode it. I can have a slightly wider stance with lesser risk of unintended torque wheelie, but the super short turning radius of the Mini is addictive.

I might touch op, or completely sand off the raw sugar epoxy grip on the guppy and do it over.

When i last did it, the board fell off the racks before i added the sugar. There was a perfect iprint of the outline and the diagonal roving on the floor cardboard. I should have mixed up more epoxy before adding the sugar, as the grip is non existent on the roving diagonals and much of the perimeter.

But I never feel like I don’t have enough traction, so maybe not worth the effort. However I will have to wait a week for epoxy delivery so there is all sorts of sanding prepwork i can do until then.

[SternWake]

Quick and dirty Teak riser shockpad sandwich.

Thems 2.5” 10-32 bolts

Never rode the Midsize with wheels bigger than 90mm before.

The 107mm airless rubber wheels can still bite the front of the enclosure lip at full lean, but slow enough to not be danger bite.

Need to dial it in with different duro bushings, but it rides pretty good as is, even with misaligned baseplates.
Might add some wedge to the teak, more up front, dewedge the rear, but the midsize is only in play when the Guppy is in drydock, but moving the hanger and enclosure over takes about a minute. The front baseplate might need to move forward a bolt hole for enclosure clearance, and then I can start lowering the ride height.

I like the 107 airless rubber wheels on the Midsize, far more than I did on the Mini.

The Mini has the ESC up front and battery in the back, and the longer kicktail. The unintentional torque wheelie on the midsize is much less likely to happen with double the battery at the front of the enclosure and a longer wheelbase.

Got an 8 mile evening roll to the parks and came back with more than 50% of battery.

A suicidal squirrel tried to kill me.
Darted out in my path and was inches from my front truck at 20mph

Both Midsize baseplates got new M10 grade 10.9 Kingpins

3 quarts of ResinResearch laminating epoxy to arrive tomorrow.

Got to get back in the Composites groove.

[b264]

@SternWake

The 107mm airless rubber wheels can still bite the front of the enclosure lip at full lean, but slow enough to not be danger bite.

Take off the roadside bushing, leave the boardside bushing. Wrap the wheel with griptape. Lean the truck all the way over. Use the wheel to sand away anything that’s in the way.

Then if it gets deep enough to need it, do enclosure repairs. Then sand with wheel again.

Then fill up the enclosure. It will work beautifully.

[SternWake]

I have found that removing the roadside bushing and leaning the truck over does not have the wheel in the same exact spot, as it would be if the Bushings were still there and fully compressed centering the hanger in relation to the kingpin.

It is very close however.

I had in the past taken to using No bushings, and holding the hanger where the Bushings would have it centered if they were still there, then marking, and trial and erroring, or just removing more material than strictly needed, or just taking some and adjusting according to witness marks.

But right now the masking tape just gets schmemmied where the wheel touches the enclosure lip.

I am thinking of moving the front truck baseplate forward by one hole, and also adding some wedge to the Teak for some split angle action which will change where the wheels bite the enclosure.

This front truck on this board right now is the one which actually came with this prebuilt Deck and the hanger needed some carbide burr dremelling before it would not bind on the kingpin. which quickly became a wobbly kingpin with Beer can shims. I have some other trucks I can try as well, so at this point am not committing to modifying the enclosure to eliminate wheelbite.

Right now I have stopped the wheelbite by cupped roadside washers and bolt tightness, sacrificing some low speed turn radius.

There is a LOT of Dialing I would be committing to, if This deck was a daily driver, but it is only really reassembled as the Guppy is in drydock.

I am enjoying the extra leverage by not having my toes and heel hang well over the edge like they do on the mini. The longer wheelbase and airless rubber wheels and motor sleeves are better for rolling further away from home base, faster more comfortably, but this drivetrain / enclosure and motorized hanger installed on the Guppy is far more comfortable, fun, capable, and safe and within a KG weight wise

.,.,.,

My new Surfboard Laminating Epoxy has arrived.

A 3 quart kit for 121$US taxed and shipped arriving 8 days after ordering.
Resin Research 2000 Bio Resin and 2100 slow hardener.

Both are perfectly clear and the slow hardener is almost water like in viscosity, and both the resin and hardener are thinner than the Apex Epoxy resin I had grown used to over a decade or so.

RR epoxy should wet out cloth/roving faster and easier. It should penetrate wood deeper as well. I got the slow hardener as It is summer in Florida, and My garage workshop is rarely less than 90F/32.2C.

Gel time is 40 minutes at 77F/25C, which is slower than the Apex Quikset clear I was used to. “Set” time is 5 hours at 77F. I will see. ‘ slight Thickening’ vs ‘Gel’ is subjective.

They sell FAST and KwiKick hardeners which would be more acceptable in cooler climates and / or when production speed is a concern. Not sure of their viscosity, but I very much like the thin viscosity of hardeners, as it reduces the time until it is thoroughly mixed.

I like to wear a headlamp and my reading glasses and consider ‘fully mixed’ to be when I can see no more swirlies. Scraping the corners and sides often show the swirlies return to the otherwise homogenous mixture, so a mixing stick which can scraps both the sides and bottom of the cup at same time also reduces mixing time which then increases the working time.

The box of RR epoxy was well packed, with some extra air squeezed out of the bottles and then Electrical tape applied to tighten the caps and prevent them from backing off. No leaks. HAZmat Ground shipping only, but this package crossed the Rockies, and their minimum 5k foot pass elevations.

The lesser air pressure at altitude often causes leaks in poorly prepared bottles as the air inside expands and when the bottles are not shipped upright.

This Epoxy is a 2:1 ratio by volume, and 100:44 ratio by weight.

I refuse to mix by volume anymore, even with calibrated pumps, or using quality mixing cups with good graduations. I find I can achieve absolute perfect ratios to the 0.01 of a gram on my 300 gram scale, and to 0.1 grams on my 3000 gram scale, and the confidence in perfect ratios cannot be underestimated.

The pumps I have used would basically require a sacrificial wasteful pump as the pump would depress a certain amount before resin or hardener started dispensing, thus throwing off the ratio.

Perhaps newer pumps are much better in this regard, but I often go months between mixings and gravity can be a bitch.

I have had some Apex epoxy batches that during their cure, fell below the minimum cure temperature of 60F, and then raised back above it the next day. Even if the next day was a hot one, the batch still sanded weird and several more days were required before it seemed to sand normally, but then I could often still see when I sanded through that batch into the one under it.

I found it super important that Apex epoxy, got a full 8 hours above 60F,

I don’t see falling below the minimum working temperature to be an issue in SW florida, but humidity is a factor.

While a lot of epoxies claim to be blush free, given enough humidity, Amine Blush is still guaranteed, the variable being the amount and how hard it is to remove.

Weighing Epoxy resin and hardener, I like being able to mix up tiny batches without wasting epoxy or having to have another project ready and waiting to use the excess. Also, nearly any cup can be used as a mixing cup, as long as its sides and bottom can be scraped clean.

With the ‘good’ medicine mixing cups the smallest batch I could achieve was 7.5ML and often they did not cure as well as hoped no matter how careful I was in pouring the ratios. Is the meniscus in the middle of the line, or just above or just below? Is the cup perfectly level?

The Wax mixing cups had the bottom variable in height in relation to the graduations. I wasted so much epoxy and sandpaper and time with those damn cups.

When I first got the 300 gram digital scale and did my best to pour by volume and recorded the weight at 7.5 and 15ml , I was off by a non insignificant amount, and 30ML batches I had to be super careful to not allow any resin to dribble out the side of the cup when mixing slowly..

I know a lot of people are vociferous about mixing epoxy by volume only, but I feel it is too error prone. if an epoxy does not list a ratio by weight, I dismiss it.

I weigh my blobs of JB Weld original. It is a 1:1 ratio by both volume and weight, and if one believes they are a magician at dispensing equal size blobs of parts A and B, then a digital scale will reveal one’s delusions.

Just because imperfect ratios still harden does not mean it has achieved its maximum adhesion or tensile and flexural strengths.

The same is true for laminating epoxies.

I will report back my impressions after working with this epoxy.

[glyphiks]

Yeah i always prefer mixing by weight as well, feels way more precise

[b264]

@SternWake

I have found that removing the roadside bushing and leaning the truck over does not have the wheel in the same exact spot as it would be if the Bushings were still there and fully compressed centering the hanger in relation to the kingpin.

Yes, it’s not exact. But it is close enough to be very helpful. If you want it exact, leave the bushings on and use a rope or clamp to hold the bushing lean, but that’s far more difficult for a very similar result.

[SternWake]

I’ve only mixed one batch of the Resin Research laminating Bio resin with slow hardener, and wanted to give my initial impressions.

This stuff is THIN. Especially in a Hot Florida garage in summer The hardener is so thin it just wants to stick to the still full bottle lip and run down the sides and fill the edges of the digital scale weight plate, and cause me to curse up a storm.

There is almost no smell whatsoever. The least stink of Any epoxy I have ever worked with, and the slight smell there is, is not unpleasant.

I am used to seeing swirlies in the mixing cup when the mixing stick starts scraping sides and bottom of cup, and these disappear way faster than any other epoxy I have used.

I still mixed for longer as both the resin and hardener are so clear and similar viscosity and I don’t want to take risks with either improper ratio or unthorough mixing. It really seemed like this resin and hardener mixed together much faster with far less effort.

The Pot life with the slow hardener, even in a 90F garage is at least 35 minutes.

I was filling screw holes in my baltic birch deck, so there is some thermal mass exothermic heating expected, and I came back about 40 minutes later and this stuff had barely thickened, at 50 minutes I sprinkled some refined sugar on top of the holes to give it a grip tape texture, but the sugar seemed to be saturated and dissolved in the epoxy. it turned mostly clear. usually i use coarse brown sugar, and when water dissolves it leaves a coarse surface.

The much more fine white sugar did leave a 120 grit finish after being rinsed, whereas the raw brown “turbinado’ sugar is more like 36 to 50 grit.

The resin is so thin that the Birch really drank deep, and by the time I finished topping up hole 8, hole 1, which was heaping over, had drained to 2/3 full. This is with Milled glass fibers mixed in which does not really thicken the epoxy, but does make it greenish with whiter clumps.

Topping up the holes again and they largely stayed at that height.

I also spread the Epoxy on my Bubinga wedge risers bottom side, and filled their 16 overdrilled hardware holes.
Bubinga is a very dense hardwood, and I was again surprised at how much resin the wood sucked up.

The wedge riser hardware holes needed a second fill as the mound I left was about 2mm below flush by the time I finished filling the 16th hole and I had to mix up another batch of resin to finish and overtop the holes. The Bubinga had some micro cracks and The underside of the application, I can see where i the resin wicked deep and through the thin edges of the wedge and propagated along a crack on the thicker side. One crack was visible pre epoxy but a few smaller ones revealed themselves.

I had used System3 Clear coat resin for laminating in the past, and this stuff is also thin and considered a ‘penetrating’ epoxy, and I have to say this RR epoxy seemed to pull itself deeply into any voids and cracks in both the Birch and the Bubinga, far more than its thin viscosity would have me expect.
System3 clear coat is also quite stinky, Like a penetrating oil like kroil or Pbblaster. The CC epoxy is thinner than RR, but not by much.

ASYS3 CC epoxy has a really sweet smell that is pungent and eye watering in an enclosed space with poor ventilation.

The RR epoxy I was not even able to smell it when working with it in my garage. I had to stick my nose upto the epoxy.

It cures super glossy as most epoxies do, and far far harder than the Apex epoxy I had grown so used to. No obvious Blush despite humidity in teh 70% range and actually some rain about 90 minutes after application.

The overfilled holes on wedge risers needed to be sanded and scraped flat and it resisted this process to a much higher degree than Apex epoxy, and perhaps each and every other epoxy I have ever used.

I am not sure whether I would want to ‘fill the weave’ with this epoxy and have to sand it on a large area like a surfboard hull. I definitely would want the fast or Quikkick hardeners for that task as the slow nature of the slow hardener and low viscosity would have the self levelling allow too much to drip off the perimeter off the tape onto the floor but for actual laminating there is plenty of time to saturate and work the laps.

Resin research’s Additive F is supposed to make sanding easier( and prevent fisheyes). I wish I added it to my order. I have no experience using it. Some surfboard builders swear by it, others say it is completely unnecessary.

I did not spread the epoxy on a surface where fisheyes would be even close to a concern, yet, but I did not see any areas on the wedge riser that indicated it wanted to separate. So far so Good on Fisheye resistance, but I cannot say for sure at this point.

I also have two 0.5mm G10 sheets for my portacharger’s lid, that I wanted to epoxy together, and keep flat. I just spread the epoxy on one side of the G10 sheet with gloved finger and laid the second piece of G10 on top. These two sheets were sandwiched in between two pieces of Waxed glass. I used some sort of Meguires car wax as the ‘mold release agent’. I forget the exact label.

I have a lot of experience using epoxy on waxed glass, and was always surprised at how well the Apex epoxy still wanted to adhere. it would resist lifting with a Razor blade and then pop off without too much effort. The Apex epoxy was ALWAYS more difficult than other epoxies in this regard. By no means impossible to remove, it just took more force to get the razor blade under so it would pop off.

I was judging the adhesion of Apex epoxy as very strong, mostly by its ability to try and stick to waxed glass. it Did seem to have excellent adhesion to properly prepared steel too, but I’ve not compared other epoxies on Steel.

Now this RR epoxy coming off the waxed glass so easily could be because I am using a different wax.

Or, it could be that the Apex epoxy was somehow degrading the wax to reach the glass below and try and bond with it. It could be that the RR epoxy dries significantly harder and less flexible that the razor gets under it easier and it just pops off with far less effort.

It was easy to clean off the waxed glass of the cured RR epoxy, and I could tell when rewaxing the glass for the next batch, that the wax was still there where the epoxy had cured. Where Apex epoxy had cured the waxed application sponge would find more resistance and with the right side lighting i could see exactly where it cured on the glass, and needed to go over those areas more to get them to disappear and have the same friction.

So Again his Might be because of the specific Meguires wax I used is simply better as a release agent, or this RR resin does not degrade the wax layer to get at the mold/glass below, or it simply does not have the same Adhesion strength as Apex epoxy.

I will be wetting out roving and some cloth later today, and all my fiberglass has been sucking up humidity in a hot Florida garage for a long time now, and this usually prevents the fiberglass from turning as clear as it would if properly stored/treated. I do expect the RR resin to wet out any composites far faster, and its long pot life will give it even more time to saturate and penetrate resistive fibers, and Should cure more clear.

I will be adding RR saturated roving atop Apex saturated roving on the perimeter of the Guppy and I expect it to be obvious where the two layers meet. The Apex resin had a blue tint to make white surfboard blanks and graphics ’pop’, but the RR epoxy I got is devoid of these ‘optical brighteners’ although they do sell blue versions with them. The Blue resin on the yellowish wood gives it a greenish cast, not so desirable.

So at this point I’d say, for the same Money taxed and delivered, I am very happy with the RR epoxy over the Apex brand. It is super low viscosity and virtually odor free. Its long pot life in a hot garage( with slow hardener) are all big positives in my opinion and expected usage.

I am happy with my purchase.

..

I did a bunch of reading up on Inductance and voltage spikes from long battery wires destroying ESC’s. I am just Using Puaida/ Lingyi’s and with my low power levels have not smoked any ESC’s.

But I would definitely have built my Batteries differently, and My loopkey harness differently too, had I been aware of what I know now. My main positive comes off the battery ~140Mm away from the negative there is significant ‘loop area’ which contributes to inductance as the + and - are not able to run right next to each other, and are also different lengths.

It seems the only downsides to more capacitance is the space required, and tapping the + and - as close as possible to the PCB risk.

I have had range brain for a while, despite never really going for long rides, but the longer the ride, the more inconvenient would be an ESC failure, and with a second battery on the deck in parallel, the more Inductance is possible increasing the likelihood of ESC failure.

So I am intending on building something like this:

My ESC’s have two 63v rated 470UF capacitors at the input. I intend to increase this capacitance significantly with a ESC “wart’.

This could be completely unnecessary. My ESC has 2500 problem free miles/4000KM on it, but I have perhaps only 120 miles with a second parallel battery attached which will more than Double the expected potential inductance.

While I am not going to be roadtripping up the US east coast, I would like to start exploring wider and further and worry les about cumulative inductance or voltage ripple leaving me stranded.

I have found the first post in this thread to be a great read on this topic:

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?952523-too-long-battery-wires-will-kill-ESC-over-time-precautions-solutions-workarounds

This too:

How to extend ESC wires correctly - RCexplained

Perhaps a lot of remote signal issues or VESC quackery can also be remedied by minimizing Inductance of the battery to ESC wires, and ESC’s that are run closer to their voltage limits could benefit greatly with more capacitance added at their input.

I got 18 of these ordered and hope to fit 6 on each ESC input wart:

https://www.mouser.com/en/ProductDetail/Panasonic-Industry/EEU-FR1J101L?qs=55qYoNY87qisN5eDXoM3ZQ%3D%3D&countryCode=US&currencyCode=USD

I have also ordered some Switchcraft 760 and 762 barrel connectors. These are built much burlier than the ones I employ and use at upto 10 amps without issue. These are not rated for 10 amps either but they are far more robust. I also really like my inline wattmeter with the 2.1mm Pin on the input, which does not contact my 2.5 barrel plug. I intend to start feeding it with a SC762 and also have a Pigtail adapter So I can still use my existing 5.5x2.5s and Sc760’s as well.

https://www.mouser.com/en/ProductDetail/Switchcraft/760?qs=yPI4UV3pIw3RhLPOoItSzw%3D%3D&countryCode=US&currencyCode=USD

The Switchcraft 5.5x2.5mm receptacles might be in my future too. They have ones with threaded locking collars, and one does not need to feed them through the enclosure and thread their Nut over the XT30. Most are rated at 5 amps, but there are a few at 7.5. The ones I use now claim 10 amps and seem to have no issues at 10 amps continuous, but I rarely charge at 10 amps, and wire them with heatsinking 16 or 14awg, cause I am sick like that. The Switchcraft plugs and receptacles seem to be the best quality available in this format, So I expect these to greatly outperform the lesser stuff I am employing that has been more than adequate, just unideal.

https://www.switchcraft.com/assets/1/27/switchcraft_npb_637_high_temp_jacks_plugs.pdf?7011