hey so i am getting ready to try my 2nd swirl 1st one was poly I have a 8ft XPS mal ready to glass and was thinking of doing a swirl tint on it.
i looked though a bunch of old post and picked up some great tips but was keen to throw out a quick post see if you guys had any handy hints to make it run smoother, or differances to expect with epoxy instead of poly.
i was planning a yellow base with lime green 2nd and very very small black and white accents. with a different color swril in a deck inlay on top up to the cutlap lines, then a 6oz clear lam over the 4oz deck inlay and rails
the blank is the light green XPS. the last XPS i did i glassed clear but with the 60grit blank finish you could see the sand marks in the blank and the glue lines that is why i am thinking of a tint to help hide the 60grit finish on the blank
any way lets here those tips!
cheers antony
you scratch marks will show worse with tints, sorry I had to tell you that.
if you do a seal coat on the foam , then let it kick then lay the cloth and then your swirling resin
allways mix up extra
have fun
well thats a bit of a bummer i thought that the swirl would help cover the glue and 60grit sand marks. that was the whole idea of a swirl. maybe i will try a test run on a offcut of foam and see what it looks like. or just clear lam and then paint board after hotcoat
antony
Yep, i did a super light blue over my last board, and the scratches "popped" right up hehe. Luckily, the super ugly spray job i did takes all the focus away from the scratches haah
well sounds like i will not be doing the swirl. i really donot want to sand any higher than 60grit as i not that keen on delams and the blank was glued up out of 2inch strips of foam so if the glue line will show up though the swirl i make look into the second option and paint the board after hotcoat
antony
mmmmm,
more info from the poster,
how bout pouring your colors length wize to align with the glue lines,???
dont use tints use opeques or so called solid color
any last mintue tips for epoxy swirl......................Yes, I have one.....Don't do it.
Epoxy is done best clear.
hey i ended up trying a test patch i got foam of cut sanded 60grit and added some scratches for luck and them glassed it. i could not pick out the sand marks or the scratches maybe they will be easier to see after hot coat and polish. but i can see them now. i am using a pigment paste to tint the resin. so now i not sure but i may give it a go on the deck inlay 1st and see how it goes anyway heres a few pics of my trail tint
antony
hey, that looks like it will do the job!!!
are they solid colors??? or tints
[img_assist|nid=1048499|title=epoxy swirl 6'9"detail|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=336]If you do enough colors in your epoxy swirl you can hide tons of booboohs…
A strait light tint shows everything.
Your test colors look great.
I totally disagree with resinhead!!
I avoid doing clear epoxy's as the eps is one hell of an ugly core material.
I had a lot of sucsess with pigmented epoxy and swirls BUT....only opaqe!!!
clear tints will just make your defects more noticable.
tips:
1) mix at least twice the amount than usual... say.. hmmm... 4-5 oz epoxy per foot of board . the more resin you initially pour on the board the less you need to move it with the squeegee to wet out the entire board = less mudding!!
2)after pouring the resin try to lift/tilt the board to move the resin from side to side insted of squeegeeing it, only after you managed to cover most of the board by that method take the squeegee and finish the job.
3) I prefer two color swirls , as more colors usually end up like a big mess of uglyness
( unless you are a really good colour composer).
4) dark colours- black for instance- use less than a teaspoon on your overall swirll mix or you'll end up with a dark, muddy swirl.
have fum, post pics,
Lee
who??
the head full of resin dude,
Sorry Sorry,
He said it SHOULDN'T be done not CAN'T be done.
so resinhead, please , I would like to know why you're anti epoxy-swirl.
thanks guys. i have not lammed the bottom yet. i would normaly lam the bottom 1st but i did not want to commit to a swirl on bottom untill i got a feel for how it was going to work on the top. i was planning to lam bottom/rails next in maybe a soild green or yellow then do a clear lam over the deck inlay and rails.
cheers antony
Jordan.
I'm not anti epoxy...or anti swirl. Those that know me well enough know that I do both. But I don't mix the two.
Epoxy swirl will not net out a professional grade swirl. If that important.
Epoxy mixed with too much colorant will make epoxy too flexible, and not cure properly. if thats important
Epoxy is too expensive to use 4-5 oz per ft of board? I can glass an entire 8 ft board 1 side with 10oz of RR epoxy....clear.
So I stick by my comment: It shouldn't be done....not, it can't be done.
well i went ahead and had a go on the deck inlay, can 't seem to see any scratches , gule lines etc. here a few pics.
antony
Looks good… I’ve done lots of epoxy tints and swirls. You either like it or you don’t. Definately a different look, as you can see for yourself.
Did you lam the bottom and cutlap, then do the deck inlay? Or is that bare foam along the rails?
nice work, and who said it cant be done??
I just did a swirl on XPS with a nasty blank. I had great success by taking the individual colors and then dripping thin circular patterns all over. Then I did lines all over. I also pulled the glass laps up onto the board before I started, so the patterns were on the laps. Then I re-did the patterns after I pulled the glass back over the rails. Make lots of small arcs and s patterns then make lines all over the board then when you pull the resin out the blend will fill in the gaps. I think the key was to cover as much of the board with all sorts of patterns, even drops work out. The thinner lines looked so much better than pouring out resin.
I didn’t make a lot of resin either, since the laps were partially coated with the patterns, I didn’t have to leave as much resin aside as I do when I do the laps normally. After the lamination is fairly dry. like about an hour later, I take clear resin, maybe 6 to 9 oz and I use a small squeegee and force resin into the weave. I do the whole middle portion of the board up to about an inch from the rail, and then brush the rest on as smoothly as possible. I try to leave the area where the top side will lap around with as little extra resin as possible.
When I do the top lam, I’ll force the fill coat resin in again then brush it all the way over the laps.
In my opinionated, opinion a "resin swirl" looks like this when performed properly.,,,and epoxy can't do it.
So maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree here. If we're going for a linear resin pour then epoxy will work just fine. Pouring epoxy out all over the board in swooshes, and splotches, and splatters will work great, and obviously have great results if that's what your going for.But you can't pour it and drag it and force it into the foam and think your going to get color defination as in the above photo. Epoxy won't swirl. Epoxy will muddle and blend. Epoxy will make pastels, and soft designs.
