How about a REAL experiment to find out about layering?

[Mosca]

I've been tossing this around for a while, and I think this will give us some data. I'm posting it here SPECIFICALLY to have people make suggestions AND CRITICISMS on how it would work.

Imagine a 2" square piece of painted sheet metal, and a scale or balance accurate to a thousandth of a gram; would that be accurate enough?

Apply SG, then find the mass of the piece. The next day, apply SG again, and find the mass again.

I would suggest doing this with one coat, on a number of samples. That way you could get a reasonable estimate of the mass of SG needed to cover 4 square inches of paint. Then you could see how much SG is in the second coat; Is it a full layer, or does SG incrementally increase the density of the polymer net? If the mass only increased by a small amount, that would be my hypothesis; increasing of the density of the net.

After doing this with, say, 50 samples, then see if a third coat adds the same amount, or more, or less. Ditto 4th, if you want to.

IMO, this would be the easiest way to find out about layering. Perhaps The Guru Reports would like to address this possibility? It's much more scientific than a bunch of us looking at SG or Zaino and agreeing that it looks better after 5 coats, or some such. I think the hardest part would be finding an accurate enough balance or scale. But that would be a lot easier than getting someone to put an electron scanning microscope on your car.

Just a suggestion,


Tom

[spetulla]

just need an electronic balance accurate to 4 thousands of a gram i could probably get my hands on one in teh chem department and add a layer every day :dunno: dont have any zaino but do have s100 and SG

[BW]

Anyone notice in ShowroomLincoln's test, how the NXT removed less marker with more coats of Z protecting? Pretty interesting...



About the scale, I'm unsure. Waxes and sealants are such thin layers... any dust on the surface might weigh as much as the sealant itself.

[spetulla]

i highly doubt that!

[Mosca]

There's only one way to find out, and it's easy to control.

What I'm curious about is, would this be a good test, and if not, how to make it into one..

Tom

[spetulla]

it is a good test, without question. I will honestly put forth an effort to try to conduct it with SG. I'll keep you posted.

[geekysteve]

I like the idea of the test, but I think it might be difficult to get consistent, accurate weight readings. Measuring something like a 1/1000th of a gram can be tricky - air current, etc. can cause changes in your measurement readings.

Not saying it can't be done, but I think you'll have to go through great pains to get accurate readings.

Just my $0.005

[spetulla]

It all depends on how much weight is gained. We can speculate that it is 1/1000th or 1/10th of a gram tehre is no way of knowing. I'm going to talk to the chem dept. on monday and see if I can bring in a piece of paint/clearcoated metal before and after SGing. The bigger the better for higher tolerances.

[jgv]

Something could be worked with electricity, measuring the resistance (increase w/ layers) or the capacitance (decrease w/ layers.

[Mosca]

Originally posted by geekysteve
...it might be difficult to get consistent, accurate weight readings.

That's why I'm thinking, something like 20 to 50 samples, all the same size. Random variation can be averaged out.

Measuring something like a 1/1000th of a gram can be tricky - air current, etc. can cause changes in your measurement readings.

That's my concern, as well. I mean, an ounce or two of SG will do a Trailblazer; how much for four sq inches? I'm not worried so much about air current, I would think that an accurate anough balance would be inside a box and vibrationally isolated, but would 4/1000 of a gram be accurate enough? Would a scale accurate enough be easily available?

Otherwise, anyone poke holes if you think you see any.


Tom