John's Alu Profile build

[Evengravy]

After 48 hours to cure the first layer of resin is on and cured.

I'm pretty happy with the result so far. One thing to note is that the concrete, being porous, caused many bubbles during the set up. The resin I have has a very long pot life: >8 hours @ 25C so I was in and out of the workshop every 30 minutes during that period to pop any bubbles as resin sank into the pores. It wasn't much hassle to be honest, the heat gun takes the bubbles out in a flash with a quick pass. Incidentally I should mention I have an adjustable heat gun (designed for reworking PCB's) so that was set to the lowest heat setting in order to avoid overheating the resin.

After cure I'm quite happy with the results, it's self levelled very well indeed. I have a sensitive Starett No 98 machinists level and it's no more that fractions of a mm off in the worst spots. I'm also glad I chose to do it in two stages, the porous nature of the concrete left some areas with creators as the resin sank into pores during the end of the pot life leaving small craters. At this stage it will be completely watertight so the next layer should even that out nicely.

I plan to leave it to cure for another day or so as I get on with other things following this I'll key it in lightly with some sandpaper, hoover up the dust and pour the second layer in the same way.

I've been thinking ahead to mounting the machine and have some materials on order for that which should be here soon.