I must of had some dirt on my hands while handling my laminated board because i have a few noticeable hand prints and smudges on it. How can I get the lam clean before I hotcoat?
A little acetone?
Yep,acetone on a nice clean rag should get it off…peace and waves…
I learned to pick mine up with wax paper. Mike
Acetone is my best friend for this job… one day just before hotcoating one of my boards, a bird entered my bay and shited all over the board… what a mess… I cleaned it with acetone, problem solved…
Cabeto
Acetone is a beautiful thing…but make sure the clean rag you use isn’t dyed with something that’s soluble in acetone.
Let’s just say I have had a few ‘instant tint’ jobs when I used a rag with acetone and the dye dissolved. The sad thing is that it happened more than once.
Best move is to use a rag that’s white, undyed cloth, like t-shirt material. Your friendly neighborhood hardware store probably sells them by the pound, and it’s worth the few cents it costs. Getting the faint traces of dissolved dye out …it takes longer and more acetone than you’d think.
hope that’s of use
doc…
If you have a resin tint be very careful. the Acetone will definitley take away some color in the spots where you rub.
Try 60 grit white sandpaper. If there are larege flecks then you might be able to scrape them off with an exacto knive or razor blade.
Drew
I NEVER touch a lam’d board with my bare hands. Go work on your car engine and try to get the grease off with acetone, doesn’t work. I have many laminators tell me they have just cleaned their hands, but laminating resin is a dirt and grime magnet, will suck out hand grease. Always pick up with waxed paper or scraps of glass cloth,also when cleaning off grime from a lam, use the scrap glass and acetone to do the job, fold it so the loose fibers are enclosed and don’t come loose to bond to the now gooey lamination.
I had a team rider come in and ask if he could fondle his new shape, his hands were so friggin’ dirty that it looked like finger paint art with dirt. I glassed it just like that
thanks guys i was scared that the acetone would melt away the resin and just smear the grime around. From now on i will use wax paper. But how do you grind down the laps without touching the lam?
Soulslider,
I’ll let the experts answer this question. I was thinking of Cabeto’s board. What if Cabeto let the bird shit dry. Hotcoat over it. Start a new fad or trend. Like the pot leaves from the seveties. Mike
Jim’s right! Wax paper,plastic sandwich baggies, saran wrap anything but grimy hands. I really like the clear plastic gloves that they use in fast food. I get those at a restaurant supply. Don’t use surgical gloves, certain brands will leave a yellow residue. Glassin’ the Teamriders board with the hand prints still on it cracked me up. McDing
Quote:
thanks guys i was scared that the acetone would melt away the resin and just smear the grime around. From now on i will use wax paper. But how do you grind down the laps without touching the lam?
We use a small right angle grinder, get em for like 20.00 from harbor freight, pnuematic. Then buy the discs from say a MAC TOOLS or snap-on truck, here is the reason, and I dont know WHAT the difference is, the discs will gum up fast on laps, so I toss them in acetone,
The ones I bought from Harbor Freight, Sears and Home Depot, All came apart in the acetone, useless…
SO I bought some off A Mac tools truck, Toss em in the acetone and BAM I leave em acetone over the weekend, no probs, great investment, total out put about 30.00 {get about 10-15 discs} and Ive had those same discs for about 6 months, 10-15 boards a week,
its a lasting system
I just ask this question in another post. Am I the only guy who uses a Dremel to clean up his laps? McDing
good call dremel is cool option… where’s the white abrasive drums?..the finger prints of the enthused can truely be motif…five are not enough…dipping into multi coloure belgique pigments from the Belgin congo or perhaps Okinawa and maybe some african Indigo from Mali…to extend the finger prints is an evolved irritant to the technicly concerned quest for perfection and secure self …free it up acetone cleaning ,as i have seen myself do first hand is time consuming and not always a perfect solution…color covers mistaken smudges and miselaneous goofs enjoy the process …prfect can happen by mistake open the door and let’er rip…I usually make stuff worse trying to fix em…if you csn estch closely soometimes others muff it too they just talk loud so nobody sees the glitches…ambrose…
I’ve been using the right-angle die grinder with 50 grit disks and it’s great. When I used surforms and files, I had to hold the board down with one hand, which just added more prints. Use about 40 psi on the grinder to keep the speed low. The disks are expensive (2.00 ea), and I go thru one on each side of a longboard. I’m going to get the Mac ones like F1 suggested so I can reuse them. I must caution on the use of waxpaper for handing flipping a wet lam or covering the rack. I’ve had the waxpaper leave wax on the lam which cured it like sanding resin. I now use plastic wrap for flipping and cover the rack pads with wide masking tape. Also, don’t use paper towels and acetone for cleaning dirt off it. After about two wipes the paper falls apart and really sticks due to the acetone. Use scrap cloth like Jim advises. For particles that are on a fairly dry lam, I dislodge them with an exacto knife and lightly brush off with a wide, clean paintbrush.
pete, where are you buying your discs? Ive never seen them as high as 2 bucks, from my mack guy i get 10 for 5.00 even sears is 2.99 for 5 of them. Make sure you bring one with you if you see a mack guy, Mine had no idea WTF I was talking about at first I had to run back and grab one.
Pete------right angle die grinders are a good option. My dremel works well and I throw the little barrels in acetone for cleaning. It took a little practice at first to get the technique down and not leave little divits in foam. But I’ve got it down now. Nichols taught me that one. I’ve also got a right angle attachment for it that works nice too. The only thing is I have to make the discs for the right angle attachment. I buy those 5 and 7 inch discs at the Depot and cut 3 inchers out of them. The red hard backed ones. I’ll have to check with Mac Tools and see what they have. I also noticed in the Great Plains mail order catalogue a pnuematic mini polisher , 3 inch disc, 2500 RPMs, $104. McDing
I was buying the 3M disks at an auto paint store. After reading F1’s post, I went to a boat repair place where I found another type of disk which can be soaked in acetone like the Mac ones; about .75 ea. There are two types of disks: One has a plastic screw and the other type has a nut (which can be cleaned in acetone). You need the proper arbor for each type (male or female) which is about $10. I soak the nut-type disks in acetone for about 5 mins and then hit it with a small wire brush. Works great. I use the same $20 grinder from Harbor Freight like F1 does and 2" disks. I had tried using a Dremel, but changing those sanding barrels is a hassle, and it’s real easy to dig into the foam. The grinder disks screw off the arbor by hand so changing is easy. The disks are flexible so its easy to control how much you’re grinding off. This setup is the quickest and easiest way to clean up basted laps and cloth overlaps at the nose and tail. Thanks for the disk tip F1, you saved me about $10 per board.
No worries
FYi
The MAC ones have that plastic screw as well its the adhesive theey use thats different I know what your tallking about with the nut, but i use the little screw on ones,
also mine like self clean i throw em in the acetone, stir and they come out immaculate. no wire brush, Time is money…