edit: (I think Iām wrong- I had initially thought laminating epoxy was nearly double the cost, and itās just not.)
I just donāt think thereās going to be enough of a difference to justify the cost of structural (laminating epoxy*) epoxy- I think itās mostly a myth anyhow.
I think the industry just expects people who do layups to be making money hand over fist, as opposed to people who pour tables, which a lot of people do just as a hobby.
Itās all about how well it bonds to your material. I read some reviews on Amazon in which lots of people were getting good results doing fiberglass layups with tabletop epoxy.
Does anyone have any idea what Trampa uses in their decks? Itās like a soft epoxy.
No concern bro. Iām no epoxy strength expert.
For me, given the time involved, it makes sense to use the right, good quality products (or tools) from the outset.
Okay, the biggest difference Iāve discovered so far is: laminating epoxy is much thinner than tabletop epoxy, and as such much easier to wet out the material.
I believe another difference is the setup time. Laminating resins have variations on setting times. The table top epoxy isnāt being de-gassed, but still needs to set clear. By being thin and having a long cure time most of the bubbles have a chance to burst.
I donāt know if there is a soft epoxy but from what I heard from boat builders, they use polyester for parts that needs to be rigid and epoxy for those that need some flex.
I didnāt expect table top epoxy to be cheaper than laminating epoxy here it is the other way around. I live on an island so lots of people use resin for boats or surfboards which is what sells the most compared to table top epoxy.
What I mean by āsoftā is that perhaps they use less hardener? I know the less hardener you use, the softer the final product, butā¦ It just doesnāt look like epoxy at all. It looks and feels like something else entirely, though I suppose I could be thrown off by the addition of additives, and colorants. Whatever Trampa is making their decks out of is almost so soft that I can dig my nails into it, but not quite. I had a Kaly deck come in the mail today, worlds of difference between how hard they are.
The Kaly deck feels like a monolithic piece of glass or ceramic, and it sounds like it when you knock on it, where as my Trampa decks are soo much softer.
No point asking Frank what mixture they use but letās see if we have more luck learning what type of resin @kaly uses. edit tho it may take a while before he sees this
I kinda suspect the rigidity of the Kaly XL comes from the shape i.e the gas pedals more than the resin but I wouldnāt be surprised to be wrong.
