Made 5 or 6 boards when I was in high school (41 years ago). Things have changed. Decided to try and make a couple in the next year. Playing catchup.
Been reading through old threads here and at a skateboard forum. Understand the basics of using rice paper for graphics.
Looks like you laminate paper similar to cloth. However, does the rice paper go under the cloth before lamination, over after lamination or over hotcoat (this seems unlikely)?
Doing some experimental stuff with blanks/foam, trying to get some experience with epoxy and EPS/XPS, probably have more questions later.
Roll back the cloth, and wet your paper out. then squeegee all of the excess resin off the paper so that it will not shift when you go to lam your board.
Correct---------------As someone said above; Either roll back or fold back the cloth just beyond the area where you want to place your rice paper laminate. Poor a little resin onto the foam blank. Not a lot. Just enough to saturate the laminate. When I use the word laminate I am referring to the proper name of your rice paper logo. Spread the resin out a little and place your laminate on the foam blank. Squeege it until it is saturated(no dry spots). Align the laminate. Stand back and make sure it is straight and positioned correctly. Finish squeeging it, Pulling excess resin off or spreading it onto the surrounding foam. Then either roll or unfold you glass over the laminate and the rest of the board. Make sure your glass is aligned with the nose/rail etc. For the inexperienced I think it is better to roll the glass back when prepping for the placement of a lam. You can aligned the cloth as you unroll it. I fold mine back,(just personal preferance) but there is a technique to unfolding the cloth that is easier to show than explain. Once you've got every thing in position, start laminating your blank as normal. Some guys put the lam between layers on decks to make the lam/logo more visible and defined. When you have a tint or opaque board laminate the board without the lam/logo and then place the lam/logo on top of the tinted or opaque cloth and cover it with with two pieces of four ounce cloth. One slightly larger than your lam/logo and the second 2 or 3 inches lager than that. The larger piece will help prevent burninng thru your lam/logo when sandinng after hotcoat.
Glad to be of help. I can almost see that light bulb coming on as you read. I actually thought I over generalized. There are a few other little tricks, but you will probably realize those as you go thru the process. Sort of a "learn by doing". What kind of resin are you using Poly(UV or Catalyzed) or Epoxy?
As a teenager, I used catalyzed polyester and polyurethane: 6 bottom, 6 top and 4 deck pad.
I really want to play with the epoxy resin and some of the other new materials out there – plan to try “epoxy.”
This project is kind of a learning/self-teaching project. I want to combine as many of the new design concepts/techniques I have thought up and use as many of the new materials as possible.
Didn’t want to waste a good blank (cost + shipping). So I found some Dow (extruded) blueboard 2" x 2’ x 8’ (high load 60) and 3" x 2’ x 8’ (high load 40) to practice with. The challenge is to build something surfable, combining multiple design concepts and new materials (polystyrene, glass, kevlar, carbon fiber, foam skins, rice paper graphics etc.) in one project.
If it doesn’t work, I will have had fun trying.
I miss making surfboards. It was design and sculpture for me.
Design , sculpture, art, form and function, craft etc. All of those and a lot of satisfaction in seeing it all come together. You are ambitious. Lay it out in your mind from start to finish and you will be OK. If you make a mistake along the way learn from it and try again. You've got the idea.
Everything McDing says plus the logo goes between the first and second layer on the deck for me, not straight against the foam like on the bottom. Saturate first layer appropriately around the logo area and then stick your logo down and carry on like normal.
CJ, got any good links on minimizing delams with the high load 60?
I’m totally landlocked in the Heartland. Had lots of ideas that I haven’t built over the last 40 years. I just needed to play around with some of these materials and scratch the creative itch.
Am thinking about making an Alaia inspired foam & glass “creation” with one of the HL 60 sheets – everything totally experimental throughout.
While we were up in the construction company’s loft sorting through sheets of HL 60, I noticed some nice clean slabs of HL 40 3" and had to buy one. Still debating what I will do with it. May have to go back and get some more (90 mile drive one way).
Ironically, one of the experimental techniques I want to incorporate is linked air chambers with a vent hole. Seems like this might help a lot to minimize delams from foam cell off-gassing.
Howzit clunk,You can use tracing paper on clear boards but it shows on colored boards. I even remember a uy using india ink on toilet paper. Aloha,Kokua
Drilling holes big holes, air chambers, and lots of things have all ready been tried. What seems two work best with Xps foam is just to keep it rough on the out side with 20-60grit sandpaper and keep it out of the sun-heat. Since it is a closed cell foam and does not breath normal air vents will not work.
Another tip that may be useful...if you are printing your own ricepaper decals using a bubblejet printer make sure you have a little resin left on your squeegee when you work over the decal (after it's been placed down on your wetted out area). This is really important as if you go over the decal with dry squeegee (or more like a sticky one) you WILL pul the ink - had this happen before and learnt a valuable lesson - I always pour and spread a bit of lam resin, place the decal, line up with stinger and then dip the edge of my squeegee in my bucket before pulling out over the decal to flatten and get rid of the air beneath.
Howzit thirdshade,I use a brush to apply them and when I lam the board that's when the squeege gets the excess resin and air out. I Try to be very precise when it comes to logo placement and application, plus I have printed thousands of them.Aloha,Kokua