Basically you need to have the fiberglass cloth/carbon fiber, or whatever that is between the veneer and foam on the bottom, overlap past the rails a few inches towards deck. You do that with the bottom vacuum pull. Carefully take the bottom veneer or planks back to outline. Then you can more precisely take the cork deck to the bottom rail assuring a sealed board, that can be easily finished. For an exposed cork deck he would glass the bottom and wrap rails by hand. Then hard smooth rails and traction where it need to be.
Look at the lost boards and inspired boards that Drew Bagget manufactures. Same Idea but bottom is full carbon with a cork deck that does not wrap rails. Not exactly sure how he does it but boards are perfectly built.
Bottom line is if you aren’t getting the cork on with the deck lamination by vacuum you are losing the whole point of the structural and performance advantages. Overlapping bottom and top fiberglass laminations between the bottom wood and exposed cork deck has to be thought out for quality and ease of build.
Don’t have any old pics of of what I am trying to describe. Pic attached is essentially Litez’s board set up. wood bottom and full deck cork wrap to rails. Hand glassed bottom . Deck glassed with colored resin and exposed cork area taped off and cut out. Final coat on deck with clear resin and I went inside the color deck lines on taped off exposed cork for a smoother transition.
Lots of ways to accomplish, you guys are smart and will figure it out.
Hi Charlie - VERY helpful as always. I remember you sharing technique with me via email from your website before I had ever heard of Swaylocks. Another guy who was very helpful with this sort of thing was Huie. Haven’t heard from him around here in ages - I wonder how he’s doing?
Yes, Huie is a master board builder. 3 levels beyond my capability for sure. Always loved his stuff. I never used polyester resins on a regular basis. His polyester resin finishes were something to be admired.
Those look nice!!! For being your first few tries vac bagging you are way up on the learning curve. Would love to hear ride feed back on the 5 finner pin tail. Interesting set up.
Consider it partly your success as well, because of the shared knowledge here and some Threads the Search gave me…
My good imagination usually shortens my learning curve I will try to provide a ride feedback, but since i am basically a beginner still trying to befriend the ocean (I am actually a skier :D:D), i am lacking comparison and skill to do so I will ask some of my experienced friends around here, to give it a shot and then get back to you. Lets see when work releases them to have some fun
Extra long laps from bottom to deck to guarantee a water tight quality product. Use core cork nl-20 1.5mm. vac bag cork and top lamination in one pull. always use peel ply on top of cork with vac pull to make perfect and minimize sanding. lastly do the right thing and get with Drew Baggett at drewbaggett@hotmail.com or inspiredsurfboards.com to discuss the user fee to the patent holder and pioneer of this process. You can pay on Paypal so it is easy. I don’t make many exposed cork decks these days, but it is always a pleasure to send the nominal user fee to Drew for the wonderful customer service and expertise with this product. Hands down my favorite shaper I have never rode a board from. I have touched his finished boards that come to hawaii and my thought is always I am not even close.
I have one customer ready to pull the trigger on one so I will post process each step with that build.
aloha,
Charlie
bb30,
I am getting confused now. Are you using peel ply for exposed cork only decks-- no resin over cork?
Is resin pulling up through the cork from underneath?
Don’t know how any others do it but I use peel ply every time I put down the cork even when my final plan might be to hand layup over cork.
Example below of one of the first ones not using peel ply. All that shinny stuff is epoxy that doesn’t belong and would have been wicked away with the peel ply
Thank you so much again for your advice… I think i now got the hang of it Well i still fucked up, but i had a cast on my left arm for 3 months and started to build this a week after it was taken off… But it turned out ok i guess At least for me…
Wonderful thread and continuing thereof. Thanks to all and Charlie for his expertise. Don’t know if I’ll ever get completely out of my Poly time warp, although I have done some Epoxy hand laminations the last few years and was happy with the results. Got a new glass shop set up here in Oregon and hope to experiment a bit with a vacuum bag setup. First I’ve got to clear the decks of unglassed Polys and a couple of Epoxy Shortboards. I’ got a couple of SUPs that would be great candidates for a bag setup. Funny, I just watched a Cuisack movie last night called “The Bagman”. Thanks again all. Inspiring!
I received some input, so its only natural to maintain balance by giving some back
The one above is my third cork deck try and board number 7. Go ahead and have fun experimenting, you already got heaps of experience and it shouldnt give you a big hassle… Im just a backyarder learning for myself and i already achieved good results.
So i really want to encourage you to have fun doing some experiments. The universe already spoke to you, so just respond
Didnt have time to sand and gloss properly before my flight took of 
