Got the home depot foam… glued int he rocker… shaped it… spackled it with first and final, and today i took the plunge. After a lot of reading I finally figured i was ready… and a kid asked me to shape him a maui skimmer as some of you may of read in my posts if you kept up with it. He wanted a swirl/splash type in “rasta colors” so I took a shot at it… I think it came out alright but I learned a few things in the process which I didnt wanna do on a board I made for someone else. FYI this is my third board but first with epoxy and eps.
Some wierd things happened… mixing the epoxy and all that was no biggie…no problems there. Mixed int he add F and stuck it in the microwave for 15 secs… then did the whole swirl process. Some wierd shit happend though… like the stuff kicked faster then I thought it would with medium hardener, guess I just learned something from it. And also with my red pigment I had in a cup to apply to the rails, it started steaming and got real hot and hardened in like 5 minutes if that… kinda odd.
Final thoughts
Overall, if working with a clear blank or painting blank the epoxy kicks ass over the styrene resin, and I can see how you save so much… but with resin swirls, I would prefer poly and polyurathane foam. Less wasted resin for the value and it was a little more challenging to knock out becuase it seemed like the resin was thicker so it wanted to take time to sink in. The rest of the board should be a cake walk…
Special thanks to everyone who helped me with the EPS
Yeah I assume your right… just not used to the whole epoxy thing, never read about the shallow cup level stuff…
PLan to hot coak with epoxy and polish the epoxy too i suppose… Dont worry ill be sure to update the thread as it goes on. Dood wants a haylard deck (offwhite) to match the color of wax so that’ll be next… guess gonna do a resin inlay in that color?
once it is mixed you want to get it out of the bucket
by flattening out the mixed epoxy resin you reduce its thermo process, leaving it in the bucket (where it is inches thick) it will heat enough to steam/smoke and melt the container.
if you need to keep it in a container (don’t want to poor it out on to the board) use a flat container, maybe a painting tray.
looks good. sounds like the spackle process was uneventful.
I thinkt he spackling went good… considering I did it like 4 times… to double insure everything was sealed… he wants a haylard deck…which I just started on… and the cutlap didnt come out too great becuase im not used to this epoxy so its definetly getting a pinline
Hey no problem… Base color, I divided all three evenly, but id recommend not doing a swirl with epoxy, i think it was easier with the styrene resin… For kicking, the board took abput an hour, and the stuff in the cup started steaming and kicked alot faster becuase i guess your supposed to not let it stack and keep it on a more flat surface. I squeegied the pooling epoxy off so it didnt really have a chance to move around.
Bump… just glassed the top three… man what a pain that was to get it to wet out… i had so much trouble wetting out the three 6 ounce layers i had to mix two more batches… and i still think it didnt come out too great… its like the resin doesnt want to absorb into the cloth
man what a pain that was to get it to wet out... i had so much trouble wetting out the three 6 ounce layers i had to mix two more batches.. and i still think it didnt come out too great.. its like the resin doesnt want to absorb into the cloth
epoxy will work itself through the glass given time…
a good trick for wetting out heavy glass schedules and or tight weave glass with epoxy is to put the resin under the glass or between layers. With a little squeege work it will work itself up through the glass wetting out the top layers. In fact using this method, after thinking I was done I had to come back and squeege out excess resin that had continued to come to the surface.
example… I found it difficult to wet out (on the board, ie. not a wetout table) the 2.3 oz glass I experimented with on my fish. Put it on top of the 6oz bottom, double 6oz deck. I put the 6oz down, poured out the resin and then put the 2.3 oz down.
This was a trick I learned watching Greg lam a board with double 6oz impact glass (tight weave).
I started to figure that out when it was too late of course Debating whether I should sand the lam or just hot coat as is to touch the few untouched spots on the bottom… then sand it
make sure the rails on the bottom tailside have lots of re-enforcement… eps skimboards tend to compress rubbing the edges much more and really wearing through on the rails…
Well, just did the hot coats here are some pictures…
Overal somewhat disapointed with the board, but it was my first epoxy so I learned a few things, and my first time pinlining so I know what I can do to make it better next round. Just wish it wasnt on a board I made for someone else for money.
Debating whether I should sand the lam or just hot coat as is to touch the few untouched spots on the bottom… then sand it
