Tomorrow i am sanding down the resin line on the deck. When i sand down these bumbs and edges the epoxy will turn white where i sanded, does this go away again as soon as i put the deck layers and resin on top? Or do you guys have other tricks to make this go away?
As soon as you wet out the sanded sections with resin they should go clear, as long as there are no impurities on the cured, asnded resin surface.
Use gloves or very clean hands to reduce oils other contaminants.
The finish is slowly coming into sight.
I laminated the board; bottom and deck and i have these little bumps/waves on the bottom and on the deck.
How come these bumps came in there, some mistakes in my lamination process?? Did push to hard on my sqeegee?
I’ve been trying to (hand)sand it down to a smooth surface but it seems to be a pretty difficult task.
The bottom is the part i would like to have as smooth as possible as it will be gliding on the water and producing speed and flow. The deck would be an extra but not critical.
I don’t have a good sanding machine for the job and i feel if i would sand to much i would dig in the fiberglass to much.
Any insights are very welcome as i want to move on to the next and final stages!
It looks like your epoxy didn’t adhere to the board in some places. That last pic shows the ‘orange peel’ effect. You’re going to want to sand all those little shiny spots, however, yes they are difficult to get and yes, you do risk sanding into the cloth. Unfortunately if you want a smooth bottom, you’re gonna have to sand it.
Vincentv , you should try to avoid sanding thru the cloth thats a big no no , put another coat of resin on the bottom of the board , try to get the board level on the racks , tape around the rail and make sure you clean the bottom of the board very carefully to remove any dust , paint on another coat of resin and let it find its own level it should fill most of the low spots , when dry let it sit for a week befor sanding , buy a cheap orbital sander from a DIY store , keep it moving dont let it get hot and burn the resin when sanding , use about 150 grit paper on the sander then switch to about 240 then 350 , and that will be enough , you will not be able to get the epoxy resin to shine like a car paint job unless you invest in power tools , but a sanded finish will surf faster , take your time , good luck .
Monkstar, What can be the cause of this ‘orange peel’ effect?
Thank you gbzausa, after this extra layer and sanding do i still add a hot coat layer?
What about Greg loehr’s advise?
“In polyester orange peel on hot coats or glosses is from to little wax solution. A way to fix it is, after it cures, wipe the surface with acetone and then get about 10 sheets of 80 grit paper and sand it like a man. With epoxy Additive F solves the problem. If you have one that orange peels, sand it so to remove the major roughness then shoot another coat with Additive F in it. Should flow out fine.”
Soft woods can swell when they get wet, with either water or epoxy or PE resin. Most of that does not look like the traditional orange peel or fisheyes that epoxy will do when there is contamination. I’ll hypothesize that the thirsty agave in parts drank more epoxy or PE resin than in others and swelled under the fiberglass raising parts of it.
Did you use epoxy or PE resin?
I’d do my best to not sand into the weave, use new sharp 120 grit pulled unidirectionally with no block in a cross hatch pattern with fingers pushing sandpaper into shiny depressions. Move your fingers to new sharp parts of the sandpaper often for sharp ‘valleys and mountain tops’ and maximum mechanical tooth. Should probably scrub the board with water and green scrubbie sponge and soap first and rinse well ad air dry fully. Either clean your hands often or use gloves when sanding as this next hot coat/fill coat of epoxy will be as or more susceptible to fisheyeing/orange peel as the first coat that filled the weave. Beware of contamination from sandpaper and dirty hands and the powder on some latex or nitrile gloves as well as kicking up dust when applying another layer.
I’ve had epoxy bond mischeviously well to fully cured epoxy that was sanded to 1500 grit and polished many months before. I could not peel off the drips of resin with the corner of a new razor blade cleanly, the weave below showed up when I started prying. I wound up scraping the other drips it off flat and now take much more effort in preventing stray drips when doing repairs as they do not flake of easily unless the board was recently waxed, and even then it is not easy to pry them off…
This episode of the drips adhering so well, and issues with 3 day cured epoxy reacting with polishing agents getting cloudy, I will smear with a sterilized tight pore sponge, less than 10ML of epoxy resin across a side of a 1500 grit wetsanded hull or deck for a ‘gloss’ coat. No issues with it flaking off. Not a mirror perfect gloss that wetsanding and polishing can achieve on PE resin, but good enough for me.
If your lam was with PE resin then definitely sand All the shineys off completely, but epoxy has such great bond strength I would not worry as much about the hot coat flaking off if some shineys remain when you apply more resin to get the flat surface you desire. You will likely have to do more than one additional coat after hitting the weave on the highest ‘mountains’
Vincentv , in my opinion you should consider the next coat of epoxy resin you apply to be there just for sanding to get the bottom flat , if you are successful , then you can add a thin coat to seal and finish sand/polish , be careful to clean the board carefully before you put on the next coat that you don’t have any greasy fingermarks from your pom frites or you will get fish eyes / separation because the epoxy does not want to stick to the last coat . good luck
vincent v , if you can get additive F use it in the last coat , if you can get an orbital sander only use it on the flat bottom not the rails , sand the rails by hand , good luck .
Hi vincent v , I wondered what had happend to you , well done the board looks very good .
Thank you gbzausa! For all the support and help, i made the process so much more comfortable with your help!
I took my baby out for a little test surf this weekend, baby waves at the north sea but man i was stoked!!
Just shaped the hard rail in the back and thinking about if i would sand the hotcoat and lay over an extra gloss coat or just sand it from 80 to 1500 or so and leave it there. Any insights?
Great looking board! I love the rustic look of the agave.
I think, based on the previous comments that you are using epoxy. I personally, have never been able to get an epoxy board to come back to a gloss after sanding alone. If a glossy finish is what you are after then maybe try a final poly gloss coat, and then buff it out to a shine. I used 3 or 4 coats of marine spar varnish on a wooden board once, and it came out really nice.
Vincent v I am not sure that I understand your question , but I must say that the board looks so good now that I dont think that I would change anything it looks good enough to be a wall hanger , its time to make a new board but try not to make it so difficult for yourself and make a foam board . Aloha