I got the lam coat on my first PU/ poly resin attempt last night and it actually turned out pretty good. I used FCS Fusion boxes and have some air trapped under the glass.
I placed a single 6 oz football patch over each box, covered bottom with 6 oz glass, and applied lam coat. I noticed some air trapped under the glass, but couldn't seem to get it to escape while glassing. I gave up pretty quickly though - I was more worried about getting the job done before the resin started to harden. What is the best way to avoid this next time, and what is the best fix from here??
Also, the FCS Fusion boxes stick up above the board slightly, which caused the air bubbles, and I don't really know the best method for getting it all flush either. I downloaded their pdf instructions and installed according to their specs. I assume - finish lam coat on deck, hot coat, then sand the boxes flush with the rest of the board?
Getting one layer correctly laminated (without bubbles) over FCS Fusion is not particularly easy. So it’s almost normal that you got bubbles trying to laminate two layers altogether, especially if it was your first lam with poly resin. An experienced glasser will probably have no problem with that, though. Experience, experience, experience, that’s all there is to it… Best fix? Could you post a bigger photo, as it’s difficult to say what to do from the small one. I would say hotcoat, sand flush with the board and if there are still bubbles left, puncture them and fill them up with resin.
What i normally do for my fusion plugs is laminate 2 patches of 4oz, i mix some lam resin in a bucket and completely saturate the patches in the bucket, then with my other hand i somewhat squeegee off the excess resin, but not too much because the a little extra resin makes air bubbles like the one that happened to you less likely. Next place each patch, one at a time on the plug and let the bubble work themselves out for few minutes. Then once the first look good, do the same thing for the next patch, this method has been the easiest i have found. As for your current problem, you could get a hold of a syringe and inject some laminating resin in the bubble to fill the void. Oh and this is all a lot easier if you use Suncure because you can really take your time.
The strength of the install is in the fiber over the flange, so I'd suggest trying to get some fiber (rather than just resin) into the void. It won't be ideal, but better... Small voids, a little resin is fine; but you've got a substantial % of flange uncovered.
Cutting relief slits and/or babysitting as resin gels seems to be the pros' solutions. FCS has also recently updated the cassette slightly to minimize the bubs, a little more fairing of the transition from raised area to flange.
I agree with Greg and Mike. Cutting slits like on Futures boxes lets the glass lay down flatter close to the hole and less gets sanded away later making for a much stronger install.
Steve, I would just inject some resin in to your air pockets and call it a day. If you sand the holes open first, you will have to make a tape dam to keep resin out of the holes and drip a little resin in to the voids.
Thanks to everyone for all the help! I will try to inject some resin in the void, then sand and if there is any exposed flange after sanding, I will try to put some fiber/resin to give some strength. Kind of wish I would have gone with the futures....
Just finished the lam on the deck - came out great! The resin started to gel on me a litter quicker than I thought - think my next several boards will be done with solarez - think it will help me learn without trying to rush.
I have had this problem since I started shaping and I finally figured out the perfect fix.
(I used to drill tiny holes around into the air bubble after lam coat and dab in during hot coat…I finally found a better way to this annoying issue.)
THE FIX SO THIS NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN:
1. Cut out your bottom layers of glass and lay them over the board and fusion plugs.
2. Off to the side, take a piece of leftover glass a small patch will do.
Roll this patch up into a tube. (cigar like) fold it tight if you want.
Get a pair of scissors and begin to finely cut the scrap into little chopped strand. (Or I suppose you could buy chopped strand) Pick up the fluff and chop it up some more. Get it so that it’s almost like a puff of cotton. (Don’t worry this doesn’t actually take but two or three min. to do.)
Lift the layers of fiberglass around the tail exposing the plugs. (make sure you can lay the glass back over straigt. As if you were putting a logo lam under glass.)
6. take your puffed glass and place it ontop of the plugs. (it doesn’t have to go all the way out to the outter edge of the plug but it can and should come fairly close. puff should taper a bit towards the edges so as not to bulge under glass an create it’s own gap for air to trap. )
lay your fiberglass patch over the plug and replace the fiberglass.
Resin as normal. (placing a bit of extra resin ontop of the plugs as you would anyway) The cool part is that you can “moosh” it a bit at the edges once glass is resined. (before the kick) shape it so that it pushes out any air bubbes.
The puff of chopped fiberglass soaks up the resin, creates strength, connects to glass, doesn’t allow air bubbles, sands down clean, and saves you hours of touch up work. (including prep time for resin, wait time for kick, resanding, polishing…etc.) 7 min. of time in the beginning will save you hours later.
There you go.
(BTW: It took me about 30 boards until I figured this stupid little trick out. )
I’ve had the same issues when using poly. Now, I flood the Fusions with resin in the beginning of the lam process. Let is sit and soak until I finish the laps, then lightly squeegee out the excess resin. No bubbles, no cuts.
I like this. thanks for the tip Greg. I just glassed over some Futures last night; I ended up giving her a full finger job to push the air out. Had the same trapped air with Fusions + epoxy…I cured this by wetting the footballs and spreading extra resin in there.
I also let my plug mix of cab-o & resin sit a bit proud after a plug install (on my own boards), seems to take less resin on the lam. probably not recommended by FCS, they prob want straight & clear epoxy over their plugs.
