Boat Building Forum

Find advice on all aspects of building your own kayak, canoe or any lightweight boats

Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium
By:TheLuckyOne
Date: 5/13/2011, 4:50 pm
In Response To: Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium (Thomas Duncan)

I understood it perfectly, so the coffee kicked in early enough *grin*.

I'm getting better at applying the PL, but I haven't gotten perfect at it yet. Applying it consistently is the biggest pain, since it's so thick. Finding something to thin it just a little might help with that. It visibly transitions from "too thin" to "just right" to "too thick" pretty quickly, so it's difficult to get just right. I've resorted to simply coating it on with the spatula's flat blade, then using the edge to push it into the fabric, smear some more with the flat of the blade, then edge the excess off again.

I'm not concerned greatly with the varying thickness of the PL affecting the look of the skin, since I'll be painting over it. However, I'm noticing that it's bubbling in spots. I can't quite figure out why, either... the most bubbles show up in the thicker areas, but I have a bubble or two in the thin areas I did today while I was home for lunch. There's other thick areas that didn't have the bubbles form, either.

There's a few posts on other forums (can't remember where) that mention that the PL Premium is basically Gorilla Glue (polyurethane based) with thickeners added. If so, it makes sense that it'd foam or bubble when excess moisture is present. That might explain why the bubbles appear in some spots on the skin but not others, despite similar thickness.

http://www.simplicityboats.com/pl_premium.htm mentions that the concrete formulation doesn't bubble. I may ttry that on my next boat or reskin.

Messages In This Thread

Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium
Thomas Duncan -- 5/12/2011, 11:00 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium
Clayton Plunkett -- 5/12/2011, 2:21 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium
Dave Gentry -- 5/12/2011, 2:25 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium
Scott Shurlow -- 5/13/2011, 12:02 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium
Dave Gentry -- 5/12/2011, 2:24 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium
TheLuckyOne -- 5/12/2011, 2:45 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium
TheLuckyOne -- 5/12/2011, 2:48 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium
Jeff Horton -- 5/13/2011, 8:02 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium
Dave Gentry -- 5/13/2011, 9:29 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium
Thomas Duncan -- 5/13/2011, 9:48 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium *PIC*
Thomas Duncan -- 5/13/2011, 9:58 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Greenlandkayaks.gl
Thomas Duncan -- 5/13/2011, 10:00 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: silicone coatings
StephenHJ -- 5/13/2011, 1:26 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: silicone coatings
Thomas Duncan -- 5/13/2011, 2:08 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium
David Bynoe -- 5/13/2011, 11:23 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium
TheLuckyOne -- 5/13/2011, 4:50 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium
Kudzu/Jeff Horton -- 5/13/2011, 10:30 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium
Bill Hamm -- 5/13/2011, 2:09 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium *NM* *PIC*
Thomas Duncan -- 5/13/2011, 2:16 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium *NM* *PIC*
StephenHJ -- 5/13/2011, 2:17 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: PL Premium
Bill Hamm -- 5/14/2011, 6:44 am