A couple of days ago someone brought me an eps/epoxy longboard to fix with some interesting dings, and I thought I would share them.
All you DarkSiders out there, don’t wait too long to hotcoat that lam. If you do wait too long, give it an alcohol wipe, sand it, spit on it, do something! This board has these spots all over it where the hotcoat is peeling off and exposing the lamination – And many more that are begining. This will be a never ending process for this poor guy, until he gets tired of having them fixed, or just surfs it as is (like he’s been doing for quite a while).
I’ve had similar problem with an epoxy glass job. Even with additive F, which is promoted as allowing multiple coats without sanding, it can happen.
Greg Loehr told me the temperature may have been too cold which promotes blush.
Some folks in the know recommend an alcohol wipe and fill coat over the lam as soon as the lam coat has kicked. The overlap and rails get sanded after a full cure followed by lam and immediate fill coat to the other side.
Obviously tinted lams, cutlaps, deck inserts, etc won’t work using this method.
A friend’s board has quite a number of rail bubbles exactly like those shown that I’ll have to fix for free. He tells me it takes minimum impact to cause them. They haven’t actually separated like those shown and they don’t leak but after 30+ years of relatively trouble free polyester glassing as a hobbyist, it’s a definite pisser.
I’d test a piece in some acetone. If it melts, its poly, if it gums, its epoxy.
If I’m laminating by hand with epoxy, I hot/fill coat before flipping. Not as soon as it gels, but more like the next morning - 5-6 hours later. At that point, I can tape the rail perimeter without worry. Warm the resin for hotcoating & it flows like water, but the recent & active lam seems to grab it firmly so it doesn’t drain off the rails. Later that night - 14 hours later or so, its all ready to flip. Pull the tape, surform the tape lines, lam the deck and even that goes onto relatively new resin from the bottom fill coat. Next morning, tape again & fill coat the deck. I lam around 9 pm & fill coat around 5 am.
Lam - fill - flip - lam - fill, not lam - flip - lam - fill - flip - lam. I haven’t had any resin cracking off.
Except, of course, on a board I did last winter in the cold when I got tired of spaceheaters. I did a UV poly hotcoat over an epoxy lam. It was ok for a while…and then, voila, just like Ozzy’s photos That’s how I knew - and that’s when I changed my technique.
Lam - fill - flip - lam - fill, not lam - flip - lam - fill - flip - lam.
Benny - Please fill me in. Why not two layers at once with staggered overlaps and skip 1/2 the flips and half the steps? Do you fill coat the last lam?
The flaking is epoxy. A few flakes in a little acetone overnight and they didn’t even gum up, much less melt. The board is at least a few years old, and I have no idea what kind of epoxy resin was used.
that sounds like a lot of resin/work. what if you are using pigment? obviously, the first lam gets the color, but what about wrapping your deck around to the bottom?
i was hoping to lam in the normal order, then fill coat it all, same order as poly. is that out of the question?
Lam - fill - flip - lam - fill, not lam - flip - lam - fill - flip - lam.
Benny - Please fill me in. Why not two layers at once with staggered overlaps and skip 1/2 the flips and half the steps? Do you fill coat the last lam?
I think I was misunderstood…
I meant I do:
Lam - fill - flip - lam - fill
with epoxy. Done in one flip. And then sand & gloss.
I get now… thanks! That’s the same way a professional epoxy glasser suggested I do it. I don’t like the idea of having to sand into the unfilled laminate.
No blush, it was epoxy over epoxy, but someone didn’t prep the lam correctly before hotcoating. The bottom wasn’t that bad, but the deck was in pitiful shape. The customer wanted the hotcoat stripped and replaced. It’s the board from hell, but it is waiting on the customer like this.
That’s how I knew - and that’s when I changed my technique.