Thanks Matty. I know it’s trial and error but I’d like to start somewhere reasonable. I got a story about a surf shop not selling me a fin because I did not bring my unfinished board 1600 miles for them to see it…
I ordered in a set of fins from Robin Mair, my first ‘nice’ set ever.
I also decided the mishapen tail needed to be replaced with a tail block. This is my second tail block and first one pre-glassing. I hope I can blend it to the board without incident. Jury’s still out whether pre- or post-glass will be my go-to for tail blocks.
I am hoping to be done glassing by the end of this month. Workspace is only 65 degrees F, wishing it was more like 80…maybe I can rig something to at least be in the 70’s without having to go to extremes.
Jrandy I would love to hear a report on the Mair fins. Just ordered a quad set of the Gearbox Boxes and will most likly be adding his fins.
Artz, I’d be happy to report back but being the poor surfer that I am my thoughts may not amount to much. I just told Robin what I was doing and sent him a couple pictures of the board and he made the size suggestions. He’s been a pleasure to deal with for fins and boxes.
Misadventures…
I brought the board back out through the basement window on a warm day and racked up a couple new dents.
I ironed those out, with an iron, and got excited to laminate. I cut a layer of 4oz and an overlapping layer of 6oz.
I set the fin boxes and mixed an extra ounce to fix lams. Lam-tacking resin went off before I was done so I did the rest with the glass. I am starting to think that ‘jug bottom’ epoxy runs hotter than stock.
I started on the 4oz, made way too many relief cuts, forgot to start in the middle with tucking the laps, smeared the position of a couple lams, and then ran out of energy to do the 6oz after being in the shop for several hours.
The 4oz did not make it to the cut lap tape so it was a mess to fix and I caused a little extra damage while fixing the crappy laps.
I go to pull off the cutlap tape and the spackle+acrylic comes off, right down to the EPS.
I spent part of the afternoon sanding the unglassed top using a round 7" hard pad and a disk as a hand sanding block. The stuff came off looking like bits from a rubber eraser. Sand, dust off with compressed air, sand, air, sand, air… until I can see some bead structure and the surface feels warm and suede-like.
I go to tack the top lams and 2 of them blow away and I can’t find them before the batch gels. Print two more, make 8 grams of mixed epoxy, tack those and add microspheres, fumed silica, and a little white pigment to the remainder. I walked around the board, repairing the tearouts and basting the worst spots. I had just enough. Wow, something can still go right after all…
I am going to let the slurry patches set overnight before sanding. Hopefully the weather hold for some glassing tomorrow.
Enclosing a pic of the front and center lam. Some of the unintended free lap can be seen around the edges too. The colored ones were originally designed by my son, the heart-shaped one is mine. I am happy with it.
A few little glitches on the glassing, but you can be proud of a nice shape, great job of creating the blank stringer work and shaping. Overal nice work. So those Silk Screen squeegees are getting hard to find?? Lowel
Thanks Lowel, I appreciate the comments.
No, the squeegees are still easy to find in stores that carry ink and stuff. I just could not find (!) any of mine in the house and did not want to drive to go get one.
Since then I found an old one and made a couple more handles (we screen at work, used blades are free for the asking) and put them all in the same box with the t-shirt ink.
The glassing continues. I put a layer of 6oz on the top and another 6 oz on the bottom all free-lapped. Lots of sanding and a couple touch-ups and set some vented plugs near the big decoration. I was really shot from the day at work…but had a good supper, had some coffee, read the forums, and was motivated to go after the last two layers on top-so I cut the 4oz, cut the 6oz, guestimated the resin based on a rough area of cloth. I did the middle of the board out to about 3 inched to the edge of the cloth with the first mix and followed up with a second mix brushed on the cloth on the rails. Only one stubborn wrinkle and barely 2oz left over getting warm in the cup after tucking the rails.
Ended up with 4oz+6oz on the bottom and 6oz+4oz+6oz on the top. Not a A#1 job for sure but it’s got me stoked after the struggles with the first layer. It’s also the first time I’ve done a full side double layer in one shot. I so needed the boost.
"Get up off of that thang, and glass 'til you feel better…"respects to the Creator, and James Brown, and Jack FM for the glassing tunes, and the gang here at Sway’s.
