and so was I
Haven’t raised prices in 5 years … but looking at what the Aussies are paying … But actually I don’t have to raise at this point so I won’t. Our pricing is driven by chemical prices alone, I don’t believe in jacking prices every time I can. Also we don’t react to every chem price blip that happens since it always bounces around some. The surfboard industry is so tough, the margins so thin, we try hard to be consistant. We can’t be the cheapest because quality costs more. But we can be consistant which gives this industry something they can count on. Been in this for a long time and I like to think I’m aware of what works for us.
Sounds like a winner to me.
Right on Greg
ha yes i realised that as soon i hit submit!
i shouldnt post before my morning coffee!
As for toughness, flex, uv stability and clarity, RR is the best surboard specific resin I’ve ever used… and that includes poly. Keep it on the board and off the floor, and it’s worth every cent.
spot on NJ. I lose more wipping off the mixing stick than typically hits the tray off the board.
Get Yourself some Resin Research - worth every penny.
Where are you located wileysurfboards? Theres sure to be a supplier nearby.
Greg ships it to me here in New Zealand, the cost of freight is far more than the resin costs but worth it in my opinion.
If your learning to shape and glass the cost of the resin is the least of your worries. Get quality materials, save yourself alot of headaches.
good luck
I wish you guys would post some videos of this… I’ve heard/read this from a bunch of Swayfolks but I still get some major drips on the floor.
I’m doing better than before but still not like described above…
Tips, secrets, video, anyone ???
mix 2 batches - first one brush the rails and laps and lam your logo, second one lam the deck. you don’t need to flood the laps and can use a lot less.
Hey Ian
Ive been meaning to call to see if you have any left? Im gearing up for some more projects.
Karl
Next time I lam I will video it and post. In the meantime, put on double gloves so you can shed the outer when you get too wet and messy, work the flats area first and then pull the resin to the rails but not over the edge (the laps are still dry at this point), you are building a little ridge of resin to be used on the rails all around the perimeter, then wilth your left hand behind the drapping lap,after you wet out the deck evenly and pull resin down onto the lap from the middle of the board and sandwich the lap between your left hand and the squeegee, but not too much.
Pat it and compress it a bit but not too rough. work the whole perimeter. if you start to see drips, you have too much resin on the lap so don't pull so much down. The key is to NOT pull resin over the edge and let it drip freely. You have to pull just a little over and use your gloved hands to gently apply to the hanging lap with the squeegee. You literally hold the dry lap in your hand and pull the resin down to it and let is soak in while supporting from behind with your hand.
i usually do 2 batches; one for the flats and a small batch in the same bucket for the rails. Usually takes about 4 oz to make a proper resin ridge on a 6-6.
Your gloved left hand will have resin all over it and this is good to a point. this helps apply resin as you walk the perimeter pulling the laps under. your hand is actually applying resin from behind.
Just remembered that Greg Loehr has a YouTube demonstrating something like this. I learned by watching Greg and Sammy at the factory. They are the best.
all the best
I won’t mention names; but some of you sound as though one drop of excess resin on the the floor or tray would be one too many, Under such a scenario what you will have is a “dry lam”. Meaning strands of fiberglass cloth that have had too much resin pulled off. They are not easy to see on a clear or filled blank( either spackle or slurry). But if you ever glass a painted blank, especially darker paints, you will easily see the dry cloth against the painted background, Looks like $@!t cosmetically and I’ll leave it to you to explain what it does to a glass job strucurally. Lowel
Others way to lam with epoxy i learn in industrial composits and test on my surfboards :
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Brush epoxy thick on seal foam (like a hot coat), 1.5 to 2 x weight of fiber, lay fiber glass on it, cut an squegge it, it’s finish. Very fast, no bubbles and no problem of foaming because over working resin.
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Lay fiber, cut , lam flat and rails with a roller, easy way to do a clean work with epoxy. Can be do with a “semi hard” brush too. Be carefull to not over work resin.
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Squegge tixotropic resin (= lot of tack = glue) on foam, lay fiber cut and squegge tight, finish lam and fill coat in one go directly over (suqegge first then brush), fiber don’t float on resin because it’s glue on foam by first coat. Effective way for a tight ready to sand epoxy lam.
Sorry for my frenglish
Thanks Greg, NJ Surfer, and Lemat for the tips.
And thanks McDing for the heads up.
I’m gonna go look for Greg Loehr’s video when I get the chance.
I’m not a big fan of epoxy and have gone back to UV cure poly but I will add this: With the long working time of epoxy you can work off of precise resin measurements. When doing epoxy I will make a batch that is nearly exactly what I need or a little less. Then if I feel I might come up short I use measuring syringes to add the proper proportions of resin and hardener to the pot to finish the job. Very Very little resin hits the floor. The absolute key to working with epoxy is to work cleanly and neatly through the entire process. Its like when my father taught me to tape and spackle drywall…the neater you work the less sanding you will have to do and the better the job will look in the end. I scratch my head when I see project pics people post with all sorts of drips and goobers hanging off their hardened lam and hot coat jobs. You can get away with that on poly but epoxy is such a biotch to sand you’re just shooting yourself in the foot to work sloppy.
Spot on Mako.
When you think about it the most expensive Epoxy is usually the one that is the cheapest to buy.
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Tips, secrets, video, anyone ???
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Here's what I do... It's kinda hard to explain, but try to visualize.
I cut my cloth, and fold up the laps onto the deck. I mix one batch. As soon as it's mixed, I take a cheap natural bristle chip brush and paint the rail with resin from the apex down to where the lap edge will be. Don't go above the apex, or your cloth can stick and crimp. If you keep it from the apex down, the cloth will hang free. Some guys wet the laps when they're folded up onto the flats, but that works the cut edge too much for me and makes too many strings come loose and fall out of the weave. Just wet the underside of the rail... and do it by dipping the brush in the bucket and painting quickly with the bucket under the brush the whole time so any drips go back into the tub. Dip, stroke... dip stroke... working quickly around the board, catching all the drips coming off the brush into the bucket.
Once around, then check... look under to make sure there are not drips... and everything is wet evenly the width of the brush. Walk it out like a hotcoat in one continuous stroke with the tip of the brush all the way around to finish it off. Wet your lams, then flap the cloth back down, and flap down your laps so they hang freely. So far, no drips have hit the floor, and the underside of your rail foam is wet and ready for your lap.
Now pour out your resin down the stringer, following with the spreader at a low angle, spreading out the stream of resin the width of the spreader. This is where you can conserve a lot of resin: spreading the initial pour out evenly all over the flats so when it sinks in, there are no flowing puddles. Even pour... even spreading... no flowing resin. A thin, even film that soaks into the cloth, leaving little to pull out. Work from the stringer out to the top of the rail, so no resin is flowing off the rail. Still no drips.
Once that's done, there should be about an inch of dry cloth all round the board at the top of the rail, between the wetted flats and the rail apex. The hanging lap is also dry, because it hasn't touched the wetted foam yet. At this point there will be only a tiny bit of resin left in the bucket. Turn the bucket upside down on the stringer, and as the resin soaks into the cloth, the last remaining dregs of resin in the bucket runs out onto the board. After a moment or two, pick up your bucket and work out any pin air and spread that puddle of dregs out evenly.
Now, pull the resin from the center of the board to nose, then to tail, along the stringer, so the cloth is tight down the center length of the board. Proceed as normal, pulling out the excess from stringer to rail, starting at the center of the board. And here's the last trick: Pull the resin from stringer to rail with the spreader at a high angle, so any excess resin beads up in front of the spreader. As you approach that last dry inch of cloth at the top of the rail, "roll" the spreader down the top of the rail to press that bead of resin into that dry inch of cloth with the flat side of the spreader, then continue around the rail to lap the cloth down around the rail, tight and flat, in one motion, with the final lap tuck done at a high angle again. So the spreader goes from high at the stringer, to pull out excess and get that bead ahead of the spreader, to a low and flat angle as it pushes that bead of resin into the dry cloth at the top of the rail, back to a high angle as it tucks the lap into the wetted foam along the underside of the rail.
Scrape off any excess back into the bucket and continue around the board, pulling the excess off the flats, wetting the top of the rail, and tucking the lap, all the way around the board, scraping off the excess back into the bucket with each pull. When everything is tucked, tight and flat, go back and check for dry spots. With the same chip brush you used to wet the rail foam, wet out any dry spots with the excess resin you scraped back into the bucket.
Once all the dry spots are wetted out with the brush, go back to the spreader (you might want to grab a fresh, dry one, and change your gloves while your at it) and pull out any excess, getting those last spots down tight and flat.
That's all I got.
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Not a bad technique to learn, if your looking for a good technique that's resin stingy. Definitely not a production method, unless your the guy paying for the materials. Right on Jerseydude, I mean write on!
Haha, guilty =)
Your method sounds good too Mako.
Simple and straightforward.