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For all of you that gave me advice about placing a 3 inch border around that counter top base I had made, you would not believe how good you made me look in front of the customer. The original pattern was cut down 3 inches and I purchase an inlay kit for my PC router and the customer was amazed at the results. I dry fit the thing and it was fantastic.
Welllllllllllllllll, at least until the gluing. I used water base which I had never used before and I lay the laminate on and it still was fantastic, until I began to roll it. I noticed about 3 or 4 inches in from the edges it looked like the laminate was not sticking to the base and sure enough, that is exactly what was happening. No amount of rolling would make it bit so I ended up tearing the whole thing off. Not sure what I did wrong, so here is what I did do and need some advice.
1 – I rolled one coat on the base and let tac up, then rolled a second coat on the base as well and a single coat on the laminate. I usually apply two to the base because the particle board usually soaks it in so much.
2 – I waited until I noticed the Water Base Hybond 80 start to turn from white to clear and when I place the back side of my fingers on it the glue would not transfer to my skin. This was about 30 – 40 minutes after the coats were rolled on. Tempt. was about 65 degrees.
All other contact glue that I have used bites right away but on this one I was able to pull all of the laminate off intact without breaking or tearing it. It seems I let it dry too long, but if I had put the laminate on any sooner the glue would have transferred to the back of my fingers. Any thoughts on what I did wrong (this time, there have been other times you know:)
Thanks for making me look good (even if it was for only a little while)
Customer would prefer that I not use water base on my second try. Can’t understand why 🙂
Ron
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Ron: I'm not a user of that particular brand, but I do know that water-based contact doesn't hold well initially, even after heavy rolling. What you have to do is to forget about how solvent-based contacts work and just keep rolling the stuff. It's nature is to set up, or cure, after a 24 hour period. After that period of time it will be impossible to pull it up without considerable effort. If this isn't the case, then you have other problems. If you are releasing a previous tick with solvent, you need to let it dry for 24 hours before you apply new cement. Lacquer thinner and xylol are used for releasing laminate, but they also dissolve particle board, so you need to let it dry out well.
*Ditto what Richard said, I found the laminates tend to hold only after a while...have had slightly better luck with Lepages and 3M water based glues
*O.K. Phil, I am going to steal your motto: IF IT IS TO BE, TWILL BE DONE TO ME.Think of how many hundreds of thousands of gallon cans out there of water base glue and I have to pick out one. Then think about me. I have never used the stuff before, so I pick out one of the thousands out there and it is a bad one!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Probably the only bad one out there and I have to pick it up. I want to say: "I can't believe it" but for some reason I do believe it:)I went back to the job site yesterday and finished cleaning off the bad glue. Then ran a test. I took a 6" wide by 4 ft long piece of particle board and 8 pieces of scrap laminate. I brushed on the Hybond 80 WB with a brush and then started the test. After every 10 minutes I pressed on a scrap laminate until one hour had passed. Then let sit for 2 hrs. The only piece that glued together, somewhat, was the very first one. And that one was absolutely wet when I pressed it down.Sooooo, having bought two gallons, I opened the second one and low and behold, instead of a milky white like the first one, it was the color of cream. And instead of having the consistency of 2 % milk like the first can, it had the consistency of thick cream. So after mixing, I tried the same test and bingo. It did what I thought it should do. After about 15 minutes the color changed to clear and when the scrap laminate was pressed on it held.I called Hybond and they said from what I described to them, something had gone wrong with there batching where I did not get the solids nor materials that were needed for the bonding. He also said: "We all make mistakes from time to time". I was to simply go back to the store where I bought it and tell them to replace it or give me my money back. (Almost 20 hrs of time to get everything back to where it was before the initial gluing) So you see Phil, I think: "Twill be done, not only by me, but to me":) What do you think:)Ron
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For all of you that gave me advice about placing a 3 inch border around that counter top base I had made, you would not believe how good you made me look in front of the customer. The original pattern was cut down 3 inches and I purchase an inlay kit for my PC router and the customer was amazed at the results. I dry fit the thing and it was fantastic.
Welllllllllllllllll, at least until the gluing. I used water base which I had never used before and I lay the laminate on and it still was fantastic, until I began to roll it. I noticed about 3 or 4 inches in from the edges it looked like the laminate was not sticking to the base and sure enough, that is exactly what was happening. No amount of rolling would make it bit so I ended up tearing the whole thing off. Not sure what I did wrong, so here is what I did do and need some advice.
1 - I rolled one coat on the base and let tac up, then rolled a second coat on the base as well and a single coat on the laminate. I usually apply two to the base because the particle board usually soaks it in so much.
2 - I waited until I noticed the Water Base Hybond 80 start to turn from white to clear and when I place the back side of my fingers on it the glue would not transfer to my skin. This was about 30 - 40 minutes after the coats were rolled on. Tempt. was about 65 degrees.
All other contact glue that I have used bites right away but on this one I was able to pull all of the laminate off intact without breaking or tearing it. It seems I let it dry too long, but if I had put the laminate on any sooner the glue would have transferred to the back of my fingers. Any thoughts on what I did wrong (this time, there have been other times you know:)
Thanks for making me look good (even if it was for only a little while)
Customer would prefer that I not use water base on my second try. Can't understand why :)
Ron