I wanted to try a swirl because I like the way they look. Figured I would do a cheater and painted the bottom and laps yellow and used clear resin with some red and a little black. didn’t come out as expected, those dark colors just take over. But in all it looks pretty good. Will be cutting the laps and lamming the top this evening when the resin gels. (thankfully I used RR’s slow hardener)
As always it was a learning experience. Next time will be more prepared.
So, here is a little run down of the procedure I followed. What I thought was the proper procedure.
I did my swirled lam and when it had set I cut and ground the laps with a sanding disc attached to a drill. I then lammed the top and left it to set over night. At about noon today I flipped the board and then used the sanding disc to sand down the laps that were on the bottom of the board. All as I thought I should be doing. I then blew it off, rubbed it down with de-natured alcohol and applied the hotcoat.
The problem now is that the sanding marks on the lapline are showing throught the hotcoat! My resin swirl now has some … cloudy … edges…
Anyone have an idea of where I screwed up? Should I not sand the laps? Should I not use a power tool to sand them? … ??
Yeah, don’t sand tinted resin, never. That’s how you get light and dark spots. That’s why it’s so hard to do a tinted hot coat, even with heavily opaque color. If you’re doing a tinted lamination, it should be as clean as possible, except maybe just where glass meets foam at the cutlap: that’s why pinlines where invented. But don’t sand this. Just baste it (paint some clear resin with a brush along the cutlap). Resin will fill any tiny little cavity there might be, preventing bubbles to occur when laminating the deck. The bottom lap should not be sanded either and extra-care should be taken when sanding the hot-coat not to hit it (assuming it’s tinted, too) If it’s clear, it won’t show.
Now, you will have to copy that sentence 50 times, young man.
OK, let’s be serious (well, more or less): first, stop doing relief cuts. Relief cuts should be done only at the nose and tail, never along the rail. I suggest you watch closely “glassing 101” or another video. The idea is: the glass hanging along the rail should be impregnated with resin before you start to wrap it around the rail. Run the squeegee along the rail at an angle so that resin wets the hanging cloth everywhere. You will waste a lot of resin, much of it drops to the floor but if your cloth is wet, wrapping it is child play, really: start at the middle of the board and work towards the nose (or tail) then towards the tail (or nose). Do the same with the opposite rail. It’s easy. If you’re doing tinted resin, I assume you’re doing a cutlap, so the only tricky thing will be to cut the glass at the right time.
I will use that method from now on. I think I will also try using a different glass job next time as well. this was 4x4 and 4x4x4 and you can see the line from the other layer of 4oz. with the tint. Also had to spend a lot of time chasing air bubbles on the top triple layer lam.
I just did a resin swirl on the bottom of the board and went with relief cuts along the rails. It wasn’t a total disaster, but it did create some weird bumps. After doing it that way I tried just doing cuts at the nose and tail, and although I was hesitant, it makes it so much easier to wet the laps because you can get the whole section of cloth at once. And as hard as it is to believe, the cloth will bend and fit the curve. I was so surprised when I tried it. Definitely one of those mistakes you have to make to see for yourself. Aren’t you glad you got it out of the way?
Definitely Rachel. It is the good thing about mistakes… once you get ove being bummed… is that you can say … “ok, that’s over with, don’t do that again”
On a plus side, the hotcoats came out pretty good. Some pinholes, but no fisheyes or other weirdness. I was worried about contaminants in the shop, it can be dusty. Pinholes I think I can lick by making an autoclave to pre-heat the blanks before lamming.
So, some blemishes, won’t look as good as hoped, but I still can’t wait to surf it!
And, of course, next time will be that much better.
“Ma mère” (don’t forget the accent grave) is feminine. That means she will be “vraiment déçuE” (don’t forget the accent aigu, the cédille under the “C” and the “E” at the end.
Anyway, I wish I could TALK English the way you WRITE French…
Rachel, I’m glad you pulled it out fine while doing it the right way. Like many things, it looks impossible untill you try and realize how much better it works.
Some of us learnt that the hard way, having no one to show them how to do things properly. Oh Lord, how many boards have I screwed with bad glassing techniques… Now, thanks to Swaylock’s, all you need to do is read thoroughly all threads about a certain technique and you’ll learn in a few hours what it took me (us) years to painfully discover…
Next comes experience: do it over and over, you’ll get good (excellent) at it.
Johan, one thread in particular might be very useful next time you do tinted cutlaps. I can’t remember WHO wrote that one about setting lights UNDER your blank when cutting the lap: it makes the masking tape line appear, even under opaque coloured resin. So simple and yet I would never have thought of it. You’ll find that somewhere in the archives. And the one about flattening the cut with a small rolling tool (like those used for chasing bubbles out of wallpaper)… And many others. It’s all in there, just look for them.
how comes i never got that french lesson when beeing down there maybe better like that, just would have been to much work for you. I am working on the perfection of my english now at Australias Gold coast and I am again looking for a workshop to do another board.
reading that you kept all the board you ever shaped i realy should have come down to see you. post some pics of the quiver when you got the time.
Say hi to chip: i got the Auslockboard in my appartment and just wait for the swell to pick up to check it out.