Hey guys. Long time reader but just now posting. Would like to start off saying iv learned a ton reading through this forum. I thank you all.
Some background. I shaped my first board a few weeks ago. Turned out great. Obviously not a pro. I got into shaping for me and my friends. I love board design so this is fun for me, plus me and friends can get boards on the cheap now. Getting ready to do my second for a buddy of mine. We’re working on design and talking colors. He mentioned a green and white swirl. Somthing like this…
I know there are many discussions on this already and iv read through them. Most of what I’m seeing are slightly different however so i have a few questions still. Plan would be swirl on the bottom, clear deck, cutlap obviously. Would i be wrong in thinking i can lam the bottom with green resin, then just swirl in some white resin and lightly sqeegee? Glass would already be saturated and laps tucked with green resin. The extra white resin would just be for effect after the green has gelled. Or do i need to mix the green and white together in the same batch of resin? Id be using epoxy resin. Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.
Move used colored resin as an accent after a lam has cured … but your not gonna get a swirl. You can get lines or a smear haha.
I’ve only seen one guy pull off a poly style swirl with epoxy. It’s very difficult to do and not have the colors bleed and smear. That’s why you never see it.
You might see a bunch of colors but almost never a proper swirl.
You will use a lot of extra resin to do it as well (epoxy ain’t cheap)
Thanks for the reply. For starters, this is for fun and a learning experience for me. It doesn’t need to be perfect. Im more concerned with board performance than colors. If i can even get remotely close, I’d be happy.
I guess my question is this. Lam the board with slow cure resin, i won’t wait for it to cure but just settle in, then dribble and/or swirl in some white. Small amounts at a time. Then go at it with a squeegee. Lightly. OR mix the resin with green, once stirred swirl in some white pigment to the green batch of resin (one batch). Which is the better approach?
I know many feel this effect can’t be done with epoxy. Iv learned that through my research on this site. With that being said, iv seen plenty of videos and pictures of guys on here arguing that fact. Maybe not a “true” swirl. Maybe swirl is the wrong word. But it’s close. As long as i don’t effectively lighten the shade of green throughout, and have distinguishable green and white areas… that’s what I’m going for. Smear… I’m ok with that if you don’t want to call it a swirl.
You’ll hear about how it won’t work, etc., but way back when before we knew that we couldn’t, we did a bunch. Stick with the same resin, same proportions obviously, colors that you trust. Personally, I prefer going with a faster (with epoxy, faster is always relative) hardener as it allows for cleaner lines (again relative - you’ll not likely get clean edges like with poly). Tiger stripes, swirls… they all work out well. I’d recommend carefully prepping your tapable surface so that you don’t get too much bleed through. Spackly sanded back finely always did the trick for me.
In fact, you didn’t mention if you’re using EPS or over PU? If EPS, carefully prepping the the whole surface will really pay off, as will using opaques instead of translucent tints. Otherwise you’ll get all kinds of marks where the thicker color shows in the spaces between the beads. If using EPS, you’ll usally have to accept some spotting that wouldn’t fly on a PU/Poly board.
My friend Marc Billion did this one for the brand I was working for at the time - he did a lot of these ‘fireball’ type swirls in yellows, oranges, a few blue and green mixes…
Defintely not the insanely cool micro-swirls that you can get with a good poly mix, but if you are going for a general effect they’ll do the trick. Again, for me the biggest problem was bleed-through, but that’s the same with any tinted epoxy lamination. It has so very long to sneak under the tape!
Enjoy the process and post pics if you get a chance.
Gloss coats on both of these are poly, by the way. Only figured out how to get epoxy to shine the way I like much later…
Thanks again guys. The links to those two discussions are great, that purple and white swirl is beautiful. I actually read the first two discussions/attempts from that user earlier today. Nice to see he nailed it!
I’l definitely post pictures of the board but i won’t be getting started with the shaping for another week or two. I believe i have a solid plan of attack. Whether or not i’ll pull it off is another story.
Last question, jeffrey suggests using faster kicking hardener. His reasoning makes sense to me, sets quick = cleaner lines. I used resin research kwickick on my first board. I feel comfortable with it and it came out well. However during my searching through the various discussions on the topic, slow hardener seems to be suggested alot. RR KK too quick? Id like to hear opinions on this.
faster thicker resin give better details. Add some cabosil in each batch, mix well separately you want a slow runny texture like one layer paint, both in same bucket with light mix, then spread all over lam with minimum squeegee work, let seat and scrap excess of with minimal squeegee work too. prep more resin than needed to reduce squeegee work, lam only one layer of glass, on sealed foam. this way you can obtain excellent swirl separation. if you need more strength and/or for more deepness, lam a clear layer over when it’s still “green”
How much resin do folks waste? There is no doubt that it takes more resin to do an epoxy resin swirl (or solid color). However, how many back yard shapers are worried about an additional $6-to-$10 (USD) on resin? I have $0.60/oz for the resin I use. I figure I’m mixing an additional 10 ounces for a resin swirl than I would for a clear lam on a short board. Add in the pigment and we’re talking $10-to-$15 total extra. If I’m building for a client, they’re eating that cost anyway; hardly a dent in the overall pricing.
I don’t buy the whole “resin swirls cost too much” mantra.
I’ve done it the normal way a bunch and it can be tricky not to mud up.so I came up with an easy way for me way. I make a small batch of clear epoxy like 8 oz.then mix a 1 oz or so cup of tinted epoxy (multi colors)and drizzle into clear and then put on fiberglass where I want it so I don’t over do it and swirl around with squeegee .then I laminate the rest of the board in clear. I also like to splatter some clear on before color to get some clear lines
Yeah like i said, this is for fun. Im just a surfer who loves surfboards and design. Got tired of paying top dollar for boards without getting to have any fun making them. Im not worried about wasted resin.
And man, those are some beautiful boards! I am super fond of the last two, and the fishes!
Seriously, thanks for all the input. You guys are really motivating me and giving me inspiration.
i love doing swirls, although I’ve never done one with epoxy so I’m not sure if it will help. But if I want some white in there I’ll just use clear resin instead of putting white pigment in it. That way the white from the blank is what you see. I guess the downside is that it will yellow over time
They’re more linear than swirled, although the board in my avatar, second photo, has some swirling action going on. I’ve never used poly resin so I can’t talk about that. But if you don’t just dump the epoxy on you can drag a minimum amount of it around and not smear colors so much. I dragged it around too much on the bottom of the red longboard and it’s a lot less defined looking than the top.
