Hi Everyone. I recently did the bottom lam on my first self shape and I experienced some difficulties. For the record, my board is EPS and Epoxy. I began to prep my board for taping by running a wide strip of blue masking tape along the foam to pick up any dust or other particles (I dont have a compressor to blow it off). I started to lay the tape line for the cut lap and noticed none of the blue tape wouldn’t stick to the EPS foam. I had 3 different kinds of blue tape from Home depot. None worked. Even the expensive roll of green 3M 233+ in 1/8 in would not adhere to the EPS. I bought the cheap tan stuff and it actually adhered enough to follow the curve of the board. Is there something out of whack here or do you need different tape for EPS than poly? I scraped the tape really well with a razor blade to press it down and I didn’t have any folds or creases. When I went to trim the lap line and pull it up I had a 1/8th inch bleed through along the entire perimeter of the board and foam was being pulled up along the edge of the tape!!. WTF?! Was the tan tape a bad choice? I proceeded by scraping the green tinted resin splotches off of the foam and it pocketed and removed some foam when I did so. Now I have pits in my foam on the deck. Is this a problem for the top lam if there is no color? Will it show up when I glass the top clear? Can I re-spackle the EPS like I did when I sealed it or is that a no-no after you start glassing?
I heard that you can brush over the edge of your tape with a little resin before you laminate to seal it off from the color intrusion. Is this a good idea?
Thats what pinlines are for! IMO you would have been better off leaving the epoxy bleed line and then cover with pinline. now you need to go back and spackle the pit and holes made by scraping the epoxy away. YES THE TAN TAPE WAS A BAD IDEA. THE ADHESIVE DOES NOT HOT UP TO THE HEAT OF THE EPOXY WHEN CURING, THEREFORE EVEN THOUGH IT WAS PRESSED DOWN WHEN IT HEATED A LITTLE FROM THE EPOXY IT LIFTED UP THAT LITTLE BIT. THE 1/8" 233 probably wasnt sticking well just because it is so thin. try some 3/4-1" 233+ and follow the same procedures you did before and you should not have any problems.
also sometimes if the spackle isnt quite try and had been mixed with water. the tape does not like to stick because of the moisture. always wait 12-24 hrs after spackle depending on humidty and conditions in your shop before laminating.
PS sorry for the all caps up there. missed that…i was not yelling at you haha
Thanks deez! No worries about the caps haha. I appreciate the advice about the tape I’ll grab some more green stuff in a wider roll. I am planning on doing a pin line but now that ive pitted the eps near the edge of the lap I’ll spackle up to the lap also. Yeah I’m not sure why none of the blue tape I had would adhere. I didn’t start laminating until a few weeks after I had sealed the blank and sanded it again. Would you not recommend sealing the edge of the tape with a thin layer of resin before laminating?
the blue tape is garbage for all things surfboard makin and no it is not necessary to seal before laminating. just get all the dust off…i usually brush off and then do a few tape swipe passes. mask line with 233+ and press hard with tongue depressor. should be good to go!
…hell o fella; well, I do not see any bleed in that photo; may be a not so perfect clean line. Anyway, the real problem is when you try another color for the deck lamination, so nobody want a bleed in that cutlap onto the bottom color…so yes, the trick there is to apply resin to where the edge of the tape will be.
HA! You got me. I wanted to do something with color and watched you tube videos and read peoples advice and methods on swaylock’s for doing cut laps. Yeah, I probably wouldn’t have had the issues i experienced if i just did a clear lam with a free lap, but i would have regretted not giving the cut lap a shot. I think i did a pretty good job for my first lam and cut lap though. My taping technique seems to be the problem though. I also had some issues with lines showing up where I drug the plastic spreader. Someone mentioned that rubber squeegees are much nicer for spreading but a dude down at Mitch’s in Solana Beach told me to not use rubber with epoxy. Can you explain?
Yeah I ended up picking the bleed through areas out of the foam with a razor. It pitted the EPS in some spots where there was a lot of resin though so I think I should just re-spackle the deep areas, let it dry fully, then do the top lamination clear. I see what youre saying about sealing the tape line though for deck inlays. Thanks for the advice!
This will happen even with good tape. The slow gel time and thin nature of epoxy nearly always bleeds under the tape, especially on eps.
One method is to mix up a bit of your colour and then add some cabosil into the mix to make a thicker resin paste. Paint it onto the tape smoothly and let it gel then lam your bottom.
Mixed up some paint using a different binder and way too watery = disaster recovery. Painted a black border on a cheater coat then hotcoat. Had to be extra careful sanding
Bud that looks amazing. I just had something similar happen to me, and I would love to do what you did with the black border. Could you either point me towards a post where I could learn that or fill me in please? I tried searching it, but honestly I don’t think I know enough about how you pulled it off to search!
Ha!ha! Lol. I appreciate your honesty. Very cool save. You wouldn’t have made it that cool looking if you hadn’t had that bleed to fix. Good job. Better looking Board due to the screwup! Funny how things work out.
