just got my sander, gone to 320(glassing 101) and board is way to matte(rough) for me, this maybe due to fine dust but no joy once i wipe witha damp cloth. I want a good shiny finish but no gloss coating, some people spray with acrylic is that right? i sprayed a small section with cheap clear spraypaint (not sure what kind) and got a nice finish, ive searched and most people seem to just sand to 320 and thats it but my homemade doesnt look like all the other boards i have.Maybe i need to sand more??
Never been to Wellington but have some property at Rotorua. Wifes also there and my 3.5 old son. I’m in Sydney making boards. Anyway I digress.
If u can go and see a panelbeater or panelbeater supplies shop and get some automotive clear acrylic + a flattening agent. Spray that on and bob’s your uncle a shop finish. This is what they call A protec finish ( Brand name ) in aussie. Spray on and then buff with a fine buffer and some talcum powder.
Before using the acrylic, sand board to either 360 - 400 wet and dry. Let us now how u go.
whils you kiwis are listening where do you get your squeegees? ive got a few different types of rubber but nothing that i really want. a mate of mine is a signwriter and hooked me a good squeegee but real small, used for vinyl transfers, all the fibreglass shops round welly dont stock them, tried a screenprinter but not what i want, my next option would be shapers australia, unless you guys have a contact up north i couyld hook into? i think a good squeegee would help my lams greatly aye,
cheers
tom
silly keep me posted in regards to polish/flattener
…you dont like your 320 finish…well, you ll surprise after you surf the board a couple of times…then you ll see the “bit shine finish” you like…also you ll see wheelmarks, if you didnt sanded well
for the speed finish
you can stop at 220 or 180, you dont even need sand to 400!
Reverb is right about running it through the ocean a few times, the swirls tend to disappear and it leaves a semi gloss finish on the board.
We finish all our shortboards with 600 by hand and then spray with auto clear acrylic.
The clear really is just to give the board a better seal and to hide any weave marks from sanding through, as not many shortboards are finish coated and polished anymore.
The 600 alone gives the board a semi gloss finish.
You could also use Special Sauce after sanding which is a water based sealer and gives the board a semi gloss finish as well,it also gives the board an extra seal. I have even used Special Sauce as a finish coat and polished it to a high sheen.
What is this Special Sauce you speak of??? I’m not fond of sanding and polishing the boards so anything works well, and will make that stage shorter would be nice.
Special sauce is a water based sealer that you wipe on the board with a cloth. I am not sure but i think it may be based on the wood floor sealers that you mop onto floors.
I get mine from Len at Shapers Australia, but I am not sure where he gets it from, I think Matt Haymes might have had something to do with it in the beginning.
It’s about $30Aus for a 1Litre bottle but lasts ages as you only use about 50ml (2 oz ?) on a board.
To get a polishable coat you need to apply about 5 coats, but it does save on weight and paper and time.
I still prefer to finish coat and buff and polish longboards though.
just got my sander, gone to 320(glassing 101) and board is way to matte(rough) for me, this maybe due to fine dust but no joy once i wipe witha damp cloth. I want a good shiny finish but no gloss coating, some people spray with acrylic is that right? i sprayed a small section with cheap clear spraypaint (not sure what kind) and got a nice finish, ive searched and most people seem to just sand to 320 and thats it but my homemade doesnt look like all the other boards i have.Maybe i need to sand more??
cheers in advance
tom
Someone had mentioned something to the tune of this and I thought he was on crack, but now that I see a thread on this subject there must be some truth to it. What are people using ??? Is it some type of automotive clear finish ?? Does it last the same as a regular polished gloss finish ?? Is this a cheap and hokey way of getting a gloss finish, or is it a ligitmate one.
Over here we have a special cellulose based product called Speed Coat, which you can buy from surfboard material suppliers. You need a compressor and spray gun to apply it, but it’s quick, dries fast and gives that surfshop ready type matt finish. It adds bugger all weight and seals the board too. I’m not 100% sure why you need to seal your board but a lot of workers I know in the industry seem to think it very important, others not so…
If you want shine, you have to polish it out with something…3M mirror glaze, surf polish, automotive whatever. If you just wet sand it out. 220,320,400,600,800,1200,3000 you get the scratches out, but it need to be polished out for the shine.
You can sand down to 220 then polish out and have a really shiney board with scratches…love those shiney scratches.
I used to fall into that trap all the time, sanding all the way down to 3000 grit, very smooth board, no scratches anywhere. But it doesn’t shine till the polish out. Now i sand to 400 grit, sometimes 600, then polish. If i’m doing a wall hanger resto then I take it down to 3000.
oh one more thing, you can use an automotive clear coat. I use UPOL from time to time. It’s clear, fast drying, super tough, super toxic, and expensive. You can build up a pretty thick coat, pretty fast, then you wet sand it out with 600, and polish out.
All the cheap rattle can stuff, is exactly that, cheep rattle can stuff, and the boards are going to like those cheep mass produced overseas boards. Building a surfboard you get out of it exactly what you put into it. Cut corners and you get something that look like that.
I only know of one way to get a super shiney beautiful custom board, no matter what anybody says they didn’t get that way by cutting corners, missing sanding grits, and spray paint clear coats.
I think the stuff your using is’nt the same because I’ve been using it for many years with on problems at all. In fact loads of folk here use it as a standard finish if the customer does’nt what a gloss coat. It’s an industry standard if you like.
I think I may have made a mistake in saying speed coat is cellulose based. Cellulose thinners is what I use to clean my spray gun because it’s heaps cheaper than using the special speed coat thinners. People here generally thin speed coat with 10-20% thinners as it covers better. I did ask my suppliers about thinning with straight cellulose thinners and was told that there would be a bloom in the finish if I did. I don’t know for sure that speed coat is’nt cellulose based, although now I come to think of it the thinners smell different, but cellulose thinners can be used to clean stuff with speed coat on it. All I do know for sure is that it’s an industry standard product here, ( you buy it from the people who sell you blanks, cloth, resin etc), and it works brilliantly and does’nt come off.
If it looks like it works and it feels like it works then it works