Thanks for the reply, sounds like I just have to make sure I squegee enough of the paint out of the foam.
Re the polishing, ya, I know how to do it, I have a polisher/buffer that goes to 2000 RPM and tends to work really well. WHen I have fixed my boards in the past, sometimes I get the repair more “glossy” that the stock gloss job. Perhaps the whole board might be a bit much though? I just thought it might not be too bad, as I have heard that the coat is very very thin and doesn’t require as much sanding, etc…
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Hey Rod
You got me laughing on that one. You are right about the mess and all the sanding. Ben Shipman did several foam swirls with acrylic paint onto foam. He was using Clark and Walker foam blanks. I’ve been talked through the process several times. Ben would use paint straight out of the bottle with out thinning. Pour it on and squeege it. Me …I’ve only done resin swirls…
As far as gloss goes. I’m talking about an extra coat of resin that gets sanded and buffed with a machine so that you get that killer Moonlight glassing finish. Lots of extra work. Many people on Swaylocks spray a gloss finish onto a sanded board. Ask Resinhead
Have you checked out this guy…World famous________www.evolutionsurf.com
Great points, maybe the $50 isn’t so bad? After all, a lot of these guys are paying $10-15 for a can to spray on a sanded board and only get a slightly glossy board, at that point you are only $35-40 away anyway. Ya, I should probably just have them do it then.
So here is where I stand. Save about $70-100 and do the color myself (and have some fun and personal touch while I am at it) and then have the glass shop do the polish work.
btw, what brand acrylics should I use? My wife has a zillion small bottles of it from Michaels. Here are some of the brands: Accent, americana, folk art, delta ceramcoat. My wife is sitting here laughing at me because I am talking about using her “cheap paint” on my surfboard.
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Howzit rodH, Don’t take gloss and polish jobs to easy. There’s a reason they charge at least $50 for it. When working with gloss resin you can mess up the application and then the rub out work is harder. It is very easy to burn through a gloss job and hit the weave when sanding and polishing and then you have to decide if you can live with the burn throughs or regloss the board. plus the sanding is more delicate and you will use at minimum of 3 different grits before going to the rubout stage. I know 1 glasser who hated rubbing out his boards due to bad gloss jobs, I took him aside and showed him how to do his glossing correctly and now he doesn’t hats it quite as much. On Kauai a gloss and polish usually starts at aroud $55 and can even cost more.Aloha,Kokua
I like the Americana and the Folk art. That’s what I air brush with. Lots of posts about better paints…I stay away from Red because of bleeding and crystalization. There’s lots of posts about sealing ect.
…fella do it a favor and use resin instead of paint…
Does resin add wt (or does it just make it so when the board does get glassed, the resin that the glasser is using doesn’t soak in as much simply because the has lost its porousity?)???
I like the Americana and the Folk art. That’s what I air brush with. Lots of posts about better paints…I stay away from Red because of bleeding and crystalization. There’s lots of posts about sealing ect.
Can’t find a lot on sealing, looks like some people do it and some not, but really not a lot of talk??
I am planing on doing some greens, or blues, and maybe yellow, is that OK??
Listen, grow a couple. Get yer self a squeegee, some gloves, a mask, and a galon or 2 or resin, some cloth, and join the team. Everything you need to know about making and laminating a surfboard is right here. If your close to San Diego there is a complete support group, with psykatriac help if necessary.
Sorry to say this, but Acrylic foam stains are for panzies. Smell the resin, feel the flow under you squeegee, embrace the resin drips, relish the pour and the ramdom swirls that unfold before your eyes. A
Hey it’s only money if you f-up. it’s not like someones going to come and take your dog away. You’ll learn more in that weekend of glassing than you’ve learned in the past 6 months. Things you’ll learn about:
I’ve done two tint/swirls now and they look pretty funky, which is what I want, sort of. But I did it without any kind of guidance at all–didn’t even read much about it first, just watched a guy do it once–so I know I’m doing stuff wrong.
Anyway, I’m going to start up on board #3 soon. Any chance I could get together with you when I glass it? I’d like to say soon, but it might be a while.
Rod,
It’s not that hard. I did it and I get compliments on it all the time. Not the kind of compliments a Cooperfish gets but bemused, “wow, where did you get that board? It’s really cool”-kinda comments. Good choice on the colors because yellow + blue = green, so at the very worst it will be a mottled green and a tad heavier than otherwise. But your using EPS–who cares about a tad?
Also: go light with the colors. Too dark can be ugly. Mitch’s sells tints for like $4 a color and they will last forever. And RR epoxy with Additive F will give you a decent finish if you are careful.
It’s not that hard. I did it and I get compliments on it all the time. Not the kind of compliments a Cooperfish gets but bemused, “wow, where did you get that board? It’s really cool”-kinda comments. Good choice on the colors because yellow + blue = green, so at the very worst it will be a mottled green and a tad heavier than otherwise. But your using EPS–who cares about a tad?
Also: go light with the colors. Too dark can be ugly. Mitch’s sells tints for like $4 a color and they will last forever. And RR epoxy with Additive F will give you a decent finish if you are careful.
C-Slug
Thanx, I am NOT using EPS though, just a PU board. Maybe I will try the resin after all (at that point, maybe I just end up glassing it anyways?)
I’m new to this too so let me tell you what I do. Decide on a glass schedule and the amount of glass you need, plus some extra. Coffman foam in southeast SD sells RR epoxy and additive F.
Mix the resin as it says in a sufficient quantity to wet the glass. Really mix it well. Then pour it into some party cups and mix tint in each cup (just a little will work). White really helps the colors, so I add a bit of white to everything. Leave some untinted resin too in the mixing cup.
Now pour the colored resin in little amounts all over the bottom of the board (which you’ve layed glass on, of course). Do little drips, swirls, trails–whatever–in the colors you like. Let the colors sit a bit before you squeegee them flat. The squeegee flattens the color and makes them less vibrant, so do this sparingly. See if you can just get the resin to flatten on its own. It’s a give and take: you want a flat board but you want the vibrancy of the colors too. Use the clear to wet everything down well, wrap the laps, etc. Beware of dust, condensation, etc. Ask questions here as they arise and good luck.
You can still do epoxy on a PU board. It works well. But if you’re going with PE resin, it is a little different. Easier in some ways and less easy in others. I have only seen PE done and talked with people about it, so someone else might elaborate. Consider epoxy if you haven’t bought the resin yet. There aren’t fumes really, it’s really strong, it can self-level to some extent, and it’s easy to clean. For me, it was the right choice.
I’ll keep an eye out for Keith’s get togethers too. I went to one about 2 years ago. Really cool (thanks Keith).
I am particularly interested in pin lines, fin systems, and gloss coats. If you are doing a board and want or would tolerate a helper/observer, that would be rad.
