I was wondering if it is possible to glass the top of the board first. In the Master Glasser video Cleanline’s always does the bottom first. I have a floral inlay that would be much easier to cover first.
Sure, just remember to trim down the lap on the bottom of the board with a sureform held at an angle, to cut the thick glass, but not gouge the foam.
Then do the same when the bottom lam fully cures, sureform the lap down some to prep for hot.
Don’t lam the bottom too dry on the rails.
wouldn’t you want your floral inlay to stop inside the cutlap from the bottom lam?
Thanks to both of you! I’m not 100% convinced I can line up the edge of the lap with the edge of the floral inlay. Its always nerveracking trying something new.
if i were you, here’s how i’d do it…
glass the bottom with a cutlap on the deck.
lay tape along the lap from the bottom lam and then laminate your inlay and one layer of glass on the deck, and cut it to the inside of the cutlap from your bottom lam.
then, glass another layer on the deck lapped around to the bottom.
it makes glassing the deck a 2-stage process, but guarantees a nice, clean cut-line for your inlay.
DanB,
The answer to your question is yes, but at the peril of your shaped in rocker. When short boards came into being in the very late 60’s, made with light lower density foam, we quickly learned to start glassing the bottom first, to more accurately retain the intended rocker. If you glassed the deck first, the shrinkage during cure would pull the rocker up flattening the board. Follow Brandon’s suggestion, glassing the bottom first and trimming your inlay to the cut lap.
Use pinlines if it is not 100% lined up
Well, I glassed the bottom first. I think it turned out great (I hope) but things spun wildly out of control so I’ll have to wait until I get home to be sure. I got up at 5 this morning to glass the board. I figured this would be plenty of time to trim the inlay and glass the bottom and still leave by 7 to get to work (I’m a teacher and the class does not go on without me). The inlay triming was so easy that I got overconfident when I was measureing the epoxy I didn’t pay enough attention. I poured 360g of resin then diligently mixed in 120g of hardner (obviously this is a 2:1 ratio). About 2/3s the way through glassing it occured to me that my mix was a 3:1 mix. I ripped the glass off the board (it definantly was in no risk of hardening) and squeeged off the board. This left me 35 minutes to cut out new glass, mix new resin, glass the board, clean up, get showered, eat breakfast and get out the door. I made it with seconds to spare. Very dramatic for a first glass job!
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DanB,
The answer to your question is yes, but at the peril of your shaped in rocker. When short boards came into being in the very late 60’s, made with light lower density foam, we quickly learned to start glassing the bottom first, to more accurately retain the intended rocker. If you glassed the deck first, the shrinkage during cure would pull the rocker up flattening the board. Follow Brandon’s suggestion, glassing the bottom first and trimming your inlay to the cut lap.
Nice! Thats the kind of knowledge that make swaylocks such a great place! -Carl
Might if no stringer in blank, but everyone uses stringers.
If the deck glass shrinks, it increases the boards rocker.
Since the board is rightside up, that alone might increase the rocker.
Glassing the bottom first, you get the big lap after glassing the deck.
In theory, glassing the bottom first would flatten the rocker, since not only is the board sitting upside down prone to gravity, but the bottom is pulled, FLATTENing the rocker.
Oh well, I did both, depending on what the color scheme happenned to be.
…if you ll do a flat bottom and a ligth board, i recomend to first do the bottom lam…
Oops- I misread Bill’s orignal post- I was thinking that glassing the deck first would add rocker to the board- not flatten it! Must have been the morning fog… Me thinks that since you usually put 2+ layers of glass on the deck of a board, the effects of the resin curing (shrinkage) would be less if the bottom was done first (that is of course if there is one layer of glass on the bottom) less glass and resin = less tweakage? -Carl
Carl,
My comment was about what we (I) actually observed, and measured. And yes, we were using two glass layers on the deck, with single glass bottoms. Typical stringer at that time was either 1/8" RW, or 1/8" Spruce, and they would flatten if the deck was glassed first.
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Carl,
My comment was about what we (I) actually observed, and measured. And yes, we were using two glass layers on the deck, with single glass bottoms. Typical stringer at that time was either 1/8" RW, or 1/8" Spruce, and they would flatten if the deck was glassed first.
Bill- Interesting, any idea what was causing it? The only idea I have is that the weight of the resin and cloth was causing the boards to sag at the tips? Of course that same idea would cause the board to increase in rocker if the bottom was done first… -Carl
Bill already said it, shinkage during the cure. With water skis you can alter the rocker by adding carbon to one side or the other. More carbon on the deck in creases rocker and more on the bottom flattens it. This is not a gravity thing as it is done in mold. If the skis is left in the mold through the full cure then it is not an issue, but if the ski comes out before full cure/cooling then the side with more carbon will pull more than the other and the rocker will adjust acordingly. This is a little differently because skis are cooked there is more shrinage as part of the cooling process. Still the rocker change comes from the inballance of layers. i.e. on the surfboard doing the bottom with only 1 layer would have less effect than 2 layers on the deck done first.
Doing the deck with cutout would probably have less effect than rapping the laps around the rail as the doing the other side would pull back some as the deck patch would pull but not be that stiff without the rails wrapped.
just one experience water ski) extrapolated to another application (surfboard)
yes,for $2,000.00 i’ll teach you everything about surfboards…