Ok. So I have glassed all of the boards I have shaped...about 13 in all. I have never attempted to cut lap (clear or tinted) any of them. Now I want my next board to have some color and am ready to attempt cut lapping. I want to clear a few items up in my head before I start.
I normally laminate the bottom first. Not sure why, but that's how I see it done. If I do this with a tinted cut lap and then free-lap the deck I see no issues, as long as I just sand down the clear free-lap. However, let's say I want a tinted deck, clear bottom. I assume I either have to cut lap the tinted deck first. If I lam the bottom first (like normal) then cut lap the deck I end up having to sand away the lap on the bottom of the board? Seems obvious, right?
My main issue is doing it so that when the laps are sanded I dont sand any color away. Im sure there's a really obvious solution and this is a totally beginner question.
I searched the archives, but all the posts on cut lapping seem to be a little to far down the line...I'm still at the basics.
You shouldn't really have to sand the lap line. If doing the deck tinted, do the deck first and the bottom second. If you did the bottom first like normal, you would have a weird light color where the tint didn't touch the foam if that makes sense. Instead of sanding, press the tinted lapline glass into the foam, or build up a layer of clear lam resin along the lap line until flush and then glass as normal(this is only if you are to do a clear over top of the tinted one). if you insist on sanding, only do the very edge of the lap. pinlines are good idea for your first cutlap too. By tinted deck, i assume that you mean deck and rails and not just a tinted inlay. I hope this helps
You are correct. You want your freelap over your tinted cutlap. Thus avoiding any damage to your cutlap during sanding. You can baste along the cutlap if needed as you are doing a clear freelap. But better to do a really clean cutlap and press the edge down right after you have cut and removed your tape and paper Use the back edge of a razor blade, a wallpaper seam roller or a thimble to press down the tinted edge of the cutlap.
Mask off your deck 'inlay' at the cut line. USE GOOD TAPE and make sure it's pressed down with a tongue depressor or whatever. Laminate the deck and after solid gel, trim it. Mask the inlay side of your cut edge and laminate bottom. Trim lap at the first cutline where it meets deck inlay. Now laminate clear over deck and freelap to bottom.
Search: deck inlay. I'm pretty sure there's more info on the subject.
Note: astevens and McDing beat me to the punch. They both covered it. I didn't realize you intended to color the rails as well.
Thanks guys! So what if you intend on tinting the entire board? At some point you would have a tinted lap that would have to be sanded flush? Wouldn't this leave uneven color along the rails? In this situation do you just do a tinted inlay and then lam clear over it all with a pinline?
I've seen it done both ways... with a trimmed inlay followed by cutlap at the line when you do the other side and clear free lapped lamination over. Also with colored overlaps from both sides. It's a bit tricky to get even color with the second method. Pressing the first cutlap flush in to the foam as mentioned is a good way to keep the color even.
Always a little color variation at the rail in a double tint. The rail appears to be darker and is; because you have two layers of tinted color cloth. The only way to avoid this is to do as John stated. and do a tinted inlay on the deck with a tinted bottom lapped and cut at the inlay. Most double tints are done the first way.. Either way most of the time a pinline is used. A pinline breaks up and detracts from the color differance If you do an opaque the solid color covers and hides it all. I'm picking up two boards sometime early next week from the best glasser in OC. One is a double tint green the other a double tint yellow. No pinlines. Lowel.
By the way----------as far as sanding goes; Do your tint and cutlap top and bottom and then put on a freelap of 4 oz. over the Deck lapped over the cutlap on the bottom. This will give you the second layer on the deck and give added protection for your cutlaps when you sand the hot coat. Better to burn thru 4 oz. clear than your tinted cutlap. This also gives you something to put your lam/logo under on the deck. Eliminating clear football patches over your lam/logo. Once you have lammed both sides with a tint you can very carelfully knock down the edge of your cutlap with a die grinder or a block and some sandpaper. Just knock the edge down, don't get carried away. Then baste both laps top and bottom with some lam resin. Then apply the 4 oz. free lap . If you do a reallly clean cutlap you won't have to knock down or baste anything. Your goal should be to put down a perfect cutlap. You shouldn't have to take measures such as grinding laps and basting to make up for a poor cut lap. Hope this helps. Lowel
If doing the whole board tinted, you still don't have to sand. Press the lap on the deck into the foam as stated(try to make it as flush as possible w/o going overboard on it, because any unevenness will cause excess resin to build up at an uneven spot and creat a darker color). For the lap that goes onto the bottom, I brush styrene onto the cut mark to take away the little silvery line that the razor makes when cutting cloth in its "gelled stage" and then pour clear lam resin along the lap line.take a popsicle/stir stick and use the edge of it to smooth out the resin creating a slope from the lap to the bottom of the board. this way you don't have to sand. hotcoat and sand as normal. I hope my explanation makes some sense. good luck