Progress Report A few months ago Steve Pezman approached me about building a hollow board for an auction benefiting Surfrider foundation later this summer…I said sure…I’ll donate the labor if he covers materials…A good deal… Things had been progressing smoothly on the 10’ hollow board…About 300 pieces and about 40 + hours of labor and things were looking better than ever… The framework, deck and bottom skins, rails had all gone great… I laminated the bottom first, then the deck using epoxy resin…I’m took a bit more time to get it just right…After the deck lam was set up, I hot coated it with polyester resin…I’ve done it before…It sand easier than epoxy…Next, I stuck the fin on…It’s looks REALLY good… The next day, I move the board outside for a few minutes while I clean out the shop, and when I get back to the board, two bubbles the size of bars of wax have lifted the glass off the wood deck…NOOOOO….!!!..… I get the board back in the shop, make a quick decision to perform emergency surgery…I grab the sharpest knife I have and make parallel slits near the outside of each bubble…I press the glass back down, and it seems to stick…Whew… The following afternoon, I get back to the board and one of the bubbles lifted again….GRRRR…no make that GRRRRRRR…I don’t take a lot of time deciding what to do…I grab the belt sander, throw on a 36 grit belt, really crank the stereo, and launch into a full deck glass job removal…As I’m sanding I can smell the polyester fumes that have softened the epoxy, causing HUNKS of it to separate from the wood…I’m guessing that the epoxy needed to cure more fully before sealing it with polyester… Two hours of intense dust, chunks, sweat, and a belt sander repair later, the deck looks ready for some new glass…Wow…The sanding was delicate at times…The surface wood is only 1/8” thick, so a heavy hand could have been less than groovy…I’m pleased…Disaster averted… After a few weeks of waiting for some resin to arrive I’m back into the glassing …I only have to re-lam the deck, hot coat, sand, and gloss… So the resin finally arrives…I lay out the cloth mix up a batch, and lam the deck…BUT, the resin is absorbed un-evenly on the wood…Streaks of saturated and less saturated…And I’m WORKING the resin…Nothing evens it out…I’m not going to re-strip the glass again…I think the hardener was a faster hardener than the one I used in the past, and it might have absorbed and set differently, I don’t know…The visible differences are minor,and under a coat of wax it won’t be noticed by anyone, but for an auction board, it won’t do… I end up sending my first 10’4” south for the auction…Ridden a few times…Cleaned up and polished it looks great…Someone will be stoked to have it… Back to the “problem child”, I get the board hot coated, sanded and glossed…DONE…Looks fine… Ready for some water time… WHEW… Later…Paul Here’s my new ride… http://www.hollowsurfboards.com 
Howzit Paul, could the problem be new growth wood that has more oil in it than old growth. When I work with these kinds of wood I first coat it with non-catalysted resin and put it off to the side til it hardens ( can be as long as 2 weeks). With such a slow cure it doesn’t draw any oil to the surface and you should be able to lam without any problems. On the other hand I have a balsa I’m restoring and catalyzied resin would delam where I replaced bad wood.on the nose. After a couple of delams I tried UV resin and it worked great. I’d say that the UV kicked so fast there was no time for the oils to surface. Not sure if this applies. Aloha,Kokua