Hi there, I’m from Italy, new to this forum and new to the shaping world… I pre apologize for my English and for asking something that may be in topic that already exist but I can’t find anything that I need in this moment…
i started shaping my first board (5’5" minisimmons, as I tought it was a easy shape to start with) and everything went quite well until I had to glass … I’m using a pu foam and a PE resin with catalyst
i did first the bottom lamination and it was ok, I let it dry and prepared stuff for laminating the deck (2 layers of 4 oz )… Mixed resin with 1%of catalyst and then I poured half of the bucket on the deck and started to spread it with the squeege… The problem was when instead of geling in about 20 mins and a bit more (as it was for the bottom, where I used the same percentage of catalyst) it geled in 10 so I wasn’t done yet, and trying to finish the job, I think I moved the layer as air bubbles formed under the cloth and some part of the cloth is folded… And now is all hardening and it is a mess!!. So now it’s all messed up, I feel like I lost the money and the time that I spent for this board… Do you think is there something I can do to solve this mistake? I hope that someone can help me out whit this!
Not much I can do to help. Cut the bubbles out and fill them. Cut off the glass that didn’t get saturated on the laps. Grind and fill everything. Then put another layer of clear four ounce over the whole thing. A dark colored board would not have been my reccomendation for a first glass job. Air temp and pigment most likely caused it to go off sooner than expected.
I think I would sand it , then fill and sand any holes , put on a filler coat , sand and paint the whole board if you can do a good paint job no one will ever know . good luck.
Your bottom lam looks pretty bad, too. Way too many dry spots. Looks like you tried to squeeze a lot of resin out of the cloth. When it comes to laminating, the trick is to totally saturate the cloth, but with little to no excess resin.
The fact that your second side went off too fast was either from bad measurement on your part or a much warmer room on the second go round.
Don’t give up on it! It can still be finished and ridden, every board is a learning experience. I like to say glassing isn’t hard to do, but it’s hard to learn!
I say finish it, surf it until it sucks up a bunch of water, then strip it down and try again!
I have one of my first boards (with a botched glass job) hanging from the ceiling of my shaping room as a reminder to myself to take the time required to do the job right. Each step in the process builds on the last one. Each glass job gets better. In this case, you have no where to go but up! (no offence intended!)
so the pigments of the color may have been one of the problems? So if in the room the temp is 60, and the color was sprayed on foam (water based acrylic rattle can), which percentage should I use?
I know it looks pretty ugly, but I tought I could saturate the bottom side while doing the hot coat, what do you think?
I don’t really care about how it will look, as long as it is still rideable, so if you tell me that i can still work on it and it is not everything lost, I feel better
Thanks for the comment, but sorry I don’t get what you mean…
Are you saying to mix resin with pigment and catalyst and then laminate on the layers now, or it was an advice for next time?
And also, when I’ll cut all the bubbles on the deck, with what should I saturate them? By squeeging lamination resin just in the bubbles? Or putting another layer of fiberglass inside them?
Thin down laminating resin with heaps of styrene monomer and work into the air and bubbles, make the resin thin, you’re not loading the board up with more resin you just want to saturate the air bubbles, squeege off any excess resin don’t weight your board up any more.
If that doesn’t work use McDings method or just keep going and ride it!!
Stick your goovey keel fins on.
Apply your sanding/filler resin to the whole board.
Sand everything flat with 80grit by hand if you’re new to power tools, a random orbital if you’re feeling lucky or a sander/polisher if your a legend. You will probably expose more bubbles here, patch any giant holes with fiberglass cloth.
Apply second coat of thin filler/sanding resin then sand/polish ect.
Most importantly!! :
Take a ‘Selfie’, post to ‘NarcissistBook’ and ‘InstaSham’ then head to the mediterranean sea to shred the rad!
Not really. It’s just that a dark colored board will show the flaws more. If you had done the board with no color at all a lot of those funny spots would not be as obvious.
Just throw a fin on it and see if it surfs. It looks like crap, and will continue to look like crap. Cut your losses and see what it will do in the water. There is no amount of e-coaching that will help this abortion.
It’s a ugly, green, wonky shape with big fat rails. I’m assuming it weight too much also, and it will probably leak.
So just finish it up in a cold dark cave, go surf it and love it up.
lots of darker colors red, blacks dark blues, purples etc need to be sealed before lamming
thin some resin with a bit of styrene and squeegee it on super thin and even no drips runs etc. work the rails with your gloves etc. Both sides if both are painted. and then lam with cloth after that step is done and dry…
Some times there are issues with the propellants and crap in the paint you shoot onto the board. Paint may be water based but theres other stuff in the can too.
I’m using a pu foam and a PE resin with catalyst
