a brush or a squeegee ?

hi there ,

I just wondered , among you epoxy users …

who uses a brush , and who uses a squeegee , to laminate your boards ?

and if you’ve used both , which do you prefer ?

I ask , because it took me AGES doing the mal with a brush …

 cheers !



    ben

Given my wealth of epoxy experience (1 board and a resto at that!!) and my comparitive experience using polyester (again 1 board) I feel qualified to add my opinion to this thread…even if no-one else does!!!

I used a squeegee to do the deck/base and smoothed the laps under with a brush. I reckon you get more glass threads caught in the brush but it comes up neater. I also used the brush in a stippling fashion to work out any air bubbles under the glass on the deck/base.

good stuff Paul !

how long did THAT take you , say, to laminate the bottom and do both rails ?

cheers !

ben

I use a hard plastic spreader, similar to that used for filler in smash repair. Epoxy needs to be pulled much drier than polyester… You’ll use/waste less epoxy.

…does it ever catch an edge in the cloth ?

ben

…hey , look …I got a mention in the centre google ad for this thread …howzatttt ?!

The trick is to sand the plastic spreader. Round of the corners a bit and bevel one side to get a knife’s edge. This makes the spreader thinner at the edge thus more supple. Finish with 320 grit.

I found a brand that is far above the rest but they don’t have a name on them. They’re six inches across. PM me if you want a source name in the States…

would that be similar to what Paul is using here ??

cheers !

ben

No, those are more rigid. Those are like the plastic from model car kits.

I mean like the plastic from rubbish bins, more bendy…

and,

You gotta be able to BENd it mate… …aren’t your rails curved???

(spatulas are great for flippin pancakes though…j/k).


we have the normal rubber squeegees here …any good ? [they work well with polyester , I know !

ben

No,

rubber squeegees do not extract enough of the product out of the cloth.

There are two ways to accept this fact…

…please continue …

…oh yes,

either by hearing about someone else’s trial-and-error (I call this the ‘easy way’) and

getting great results,

or

by making epoxy boards intermittently for about 2 decades slowly progressing without

any real reference, alone in the dark, unable to be grounded by hard facts, only to

have the previous attempt at boardmaking ever so slighly eclipsed by the next

offering; and then gaining a couple of steps and being set back five steps due to

another ‘builder’s tragedy’, total dejection, solitude… …rock-bottom. Then after

about 18 years, one picks up a spreader instead of a squeegee, suddenly the sun begins

to shine, there’s a lightness to one’s step, everything tastes and looks better, and…

…the boards are lighter and stronger.

For the first time in a looooong time you are in your “Happy Place”.

go the spreader, you won’t be disappointed.

Rubber rollers such as this one (there are smaller ones but I didn’t find any photos) should work good. Anybody tried these?

Hey Balsa,

Also the 3 inch paint rollers are really good for rail work, you can wet and wrap all at the same time, then use

a spreader to tidy up…

I found the white rollers left less problems.

We tried the hard rollers about 10 years ago, and they dented up the blanks. Not bad for pre-preg work though.

check below , balsa …

“electric wood chipper” [google ad]

…goes well with your “electric banana” , I would imagine ??

[as to ‘rollers’ , I have no idea… I know the “Bay City Rollers” SUCKED , big time , though !]

ben t

Hi chip! Nothing new but I am using the same kind of squeegee as plus one does and have got good results, like plus one says they’re very good at sgueeging out excess epoxy from the laminate. But sgueeging out to much will cause troubles with the filler coat, like pinholes.

I try to sgueege out as much as resin i can without getting the laminate too dry…which is kind of difficult, sometimes I think I did a perfect job, but then when I fill coat I can see where I sgueegeed out too much resin…

Jimmy yoshio shibata.

cheers for that yoshio !!

I had a very dry laminate on the bottom , the first time , on the mal . I thought it might have been too dry .

On the deck , because of the extra layer of cloth [2 layers 6oz] , I left it a bit “wetter” [thicker] to help me sand .

I’m still new to this epoxy caper , so it was a bit of a guessing game how wet / dry to leave it . Hicksy was right …best to mix up small batches at a time , I think , while I was / am still trying to get quantities / coverage / “seepage” sussed out .

I wrote down what I did , in case I for some reason ever feel inclined to make another longboard .

My next project , if done in epoxy ? will be CONSIDERABLY shorter than this board …

plus , I’m hoping to do my first “resin swirl” , too, so …like I say , I’m still tossing up …might go with polyester for that one !

Please keep the sharing of your experiences laminating with epoxy coming guys , thanks for it so far …this is interesting to me to hear of people’s results !

cheers !

ben

I used the yellow spreader (they cost about a buck a piece). However, I get my best results when I use a wetout table first. It gives the resin time to soak in. I do use a brush for the hotcoat, but I’ve been wondering if I would get better results using a spreader.

I use vertical blinds.

I don’t have very much experience, 2 boards done completely and 2 more that shaped up to be disapointing (all EPS epoxy), but I will chime in.

The one I just finished (6’7" Fish), I used the plastic spreader (like PlusOne) to do the main ‘flat’ areas of the bottom and then I used a brush to do the rails. I have seen the video of Hicksy doing his laminate with a brush and I figured that using it on the rails would make it easier to tuck them around and get them to stick quickly, but the spreader would do the large areas faster. It worked fairly well except when it came to the hard edge near the tail of the board. The brush didn’t pull the cloth tightly around that edge and I ended up with some air pockets. It is probably just because I am inexperienced, but I did use only a spreader on the top of the board and it came out better, if slowly and more messily. :slight_smile:

It seems that it does take some time for the ‘curtains’ of cloth to wet out enough to lap them and have them stick. Without letting too much drip onto the floor.