What are some techniques for achieving a clean edge on a fabric inlay while glassing? I’ve done some test patches and experienced the edge of the fabric tends to fray during cutting and while applying the resin. Thanks in advance.
Most polyester glassers laminate the inlay to the blank with lam resin, then cut the inlay edge clean. I laminate with epoxy. Applying resin on hardened epoxy requires sanding. I can’t do it the polyester way because sanding would destroy the fabric. I cut the inlay fabric with rotary scisors on one of my wife’s fabric cutting boards. The edge is clean. I tack-tape the fabric to the blank, lay all the glass out, then remove the tape… carefully. While squeegeeing, I have to be careful not to move the glass and fabric… doable. After laminating, I pinline the inlay edge with the pinline straddling the fabric edge. I use the pinline to straighten out the edge. My method makes a monolithic structure between glass and fabric, hopefully helping to mitigate the fabric’s weakness.>>> What are some techniques for achieving a clean edge on a fabric inlay > while glassing? I’ve done some test patches and experienced the edge of > the fabric tends to fray during cutting and while applying the resin. > Thanks in advance.
Rastro: Here is what works for me, but probably more work than a glass shop goes through on a day to day basis. BTW- this is done on the foam after shaping and before glassing. 1.Use a homemade “cheater” tool that is an L-shaped scribe to follow the rail line. The top of the tool has a pencil that will lay down a LIGHT line for my inlay at a uniform distance from the rail edge. If you are doing a nose patch type inlay then use some of your templates, triangle rulers or straightedge to help with the freehand part in mid-board. (tool is nothing fancy, just 2 pieces of scrap rail foam about 8" long. Joined at right angle with a dowel or ring shank nail. The overhanging piece is about 1.5" thick and you can just shove a pencil or a paint pen through it at differnt points) 2.Once the inlay area laid out on the foam in pencil I use 24" wide white craft paper you get in rolls at a hobby/craft store. Use a piece of paper large enough to cover your pencil line pattern and retrace the lines to the paper either freehand or using the scribe again. Cut out your pattern. 3. Using COTTON (high content at least and test for color bleed with resin)fabric transfer the pattern to the fabric. Works well to pin the pattern to the cloth then cut to the line you penciled in. Lately I’ve been using a half a pattern and folding the cloth to the midline and cutting through both layers. Use a good, sharp pair of scissors and try not to handle the fabric too much to avoid unravelling. The last trip to the fabric store turned up a very sharp rotary fabric cutter, used in quilting that I’m going to try instead of scissors. 4. Laminate the cloth to the board and be careful once it wetted out for shifting off your marks too much, sometimes it will stretch a bit so adjust how close or short you cut to line from the tests you do on the fabric. Problems you will run into is not saturating the cloth enough and getting bubbles (too dry) and even too much resin under the cloth that is not worked out before it gels. Give yourself plenty of time in your catalyst ratio. (I tested a really dense piece of cloth with UV Cure and it worked great on the test----your mileage may vary !) 5. Once the resin gels good, go back and work on loose threads and cleanup with a razor blade. For the rest…that’s what pinlines are for. Look in “short boards” and “longboards”, I just finished 2 full board cloth inlays. Lots of work on a full board jobs dealing with symmetry and centering the pattern in the cloth on your pattern. ***Heres a question- how do you go about applying fabric to rails as seen on some of the boards Billy Hamilton is making? patented secret? Tom Sterne>>> What are some techniques for achieving a clean edge on a fabric inlay > while glassing? I’ve done some test patches and experienced the edge of > the fabric tends to fray during cutting and while applying the resin. > Thanks in advance.
tro:>>> Here is what works for me, but probably more work than a glass shop goes > through on a day to day basis. BTW- this is done on the foam after shaping > and before glassing.>>> 1.Use a homemade “cheater” tool that is an L-shaped scribe to > follow the rail line. The top of the tool has a pencil that will lay down > a LIGHT line for my inlay at a uniform distance from the rail edge. If you > are doing a nose patch type inlay then use some of your templates, > triangle rulers or straightedge to help with the freehand part in > mid-board. (tool is nothing fancy, just 2 pieces of scrap rail foam about > 8" long. Joined at right angle with a dowel or ring shank nail. The > overhanging piece is about 1.5" thick and you can just shove a pencil > or a paint pen through it at differnt points)>>> 2.Once the inlay area laid out on the foam in pencil I use 24" wide > white craft paper you get in rolls at a hobby/craft store. Use a piece of > paper large enough to cover your pencil line pattern and retrace the lines > to the paper either freehand or using the scribe again. Cut out your > pattern.>>> 3. Using COTTON (high content at least and test for color bleed with > resin)fabric transfer the pattern to the fabric. Works well to pin the > pattern to the cloth then cut to the line you penciled in. Lately I’ve > been using a half a pattern and folding the cloth to the midline and > cutting through both layers. Use a good, sharp pair of scissors and try > not to handle the fabric too much to avoid unravelling. The last trip to > the fabric store turned up a very sharp rotary fabric cutter, used in > quilting that I’m going to try instead of scissors.>>> 4. Laminate the cloth to the board and be careful once it wetted out for > shifting off your marks too much, sometimes it will stretch a bit so > adjust how close or short you cut to line from the tests you do on the > fabric. Problems you will run into is not saturating the cloth enough and > getting bubbles (too dry) and even too much resin under the cloth that is > not worked out before it gels. Give yourself plenty of time in your > catalyst ratio. (I tested a really dense piece of cloth with UV Cure and > it worked great on the test----your mileage may vary !)>>> 5. Once the resin gels good, go back and work on loose threads and cleanup > with a razor blade. For the rest…that’s what pinlines are for. Look in > “short boards” and “longboards”, I just finished 2 > full board cloth inlays. Lots of work on a full board jobs dealing with > symmetry and centering the pattern in the cloth on your pattern.>>> ***Heres a question- how do you go about applying fabric to rails as seen > on some of the boards Billy Hamilton is making? patented secret?>>> Tom Sterne In response to the statement about the cloth bleeding. I was told you can get your cloth from a fabric store, but to be cautious on which ones due to bleeding from resin. Is there a specific brand or anything particular to look for in the fabic (so it won’t bleed)? Thanks.
I try to stick with 100% cotton and have not had problems. Never hurts to test a new type of fabric out though. TS.>>> In response to the statement about the cloth bleeding. I was told you can > get your cloth from a fabric store, but to be cautious on which ones due > to bleeding from resin. Is there a specific brand or anything particular > to look for in the fabic (so it won’t bleed)? Thanks.
- tape off blank(fabric area) 2. put lam resin on foam w/brush 3. lay oversized fabric on straight 4. pour a little resin on top use laminate using a squeegee 5. cut at tapeoff before its hardend(don’t cut too early or you’ll get threads) 6. do normal glass job over it. notes: polyester chiffon(not rayon)works good and i think it looks alot better then solid cotton. be sure to test anything before use. the link shows a vintage fabric(maybe polyester). http://www.cooperfishsurfboards.com/nosedevil2.html
I’ve only done a few boards with fabric inlay…all WHITE boards-that is. (with a pinline around -to clean up, visually). How do you guys do your COLORED boards ?! Do you “ghost” the inlay area, and keep back color where the inlays correspond? (any white opaquing underneath cloth inlay?). While we’re on the subject, what’s the best way to get the colors of the inlay the most brilliant and “true” ? (any tips or warnings about opacity/transparency?). Historically, how did the good 'ole boys do their inlays - back in the 60’s - considering that they used all the classic tint and pigmenting techniques. It blows me away how beautiful some of these boards were. Sure, some of the boards were often heavy, but those boys sure gave it their all.
I too have inlaid only on white. However, I’ve seen inlays surrounded by color. They all had pinline edges to clean them up. My first attempt at outlining, I tried to pinline the foam, then overlap the inlay into the pinline. It actually worked because the black pinline showed through the inlay edges. For that attempt, I also used fabric with a black background. I’ve seen other inlays with colored backgrounds. Now I know what inlay fabric backgrounds look good to me, nothing but WHITE. It’s like newspaper ad copy, try and put too much print on the page, or fill the page with color, and the message gets lost. What you want in inlay fabric is “white space”, white space in the fabric, and white space surrounding the fabric. The contrast between other colors and white is what makes the inlaid board beautiful. All the inlays on other boards I’ve seen with print on colored or black backgrounds look dark, almost dirty. Use a fabric with plenty of white. To attain enough white in the inlay area, the blank should be white. Any other color will show through the fabric. …just my artistic opinion. -Noodle>>> I’ve only done a few boards with fabric inlay…all WHITE boards-that is. > (with a pinline around -to clean up, visually). How do you guys do your > COLORED boards ?! Do you “ghost” the inlay area, and keep back > color where the inlays correspond? (any white opaquing underneath cloth > inlay?). While we’re on the subject, what’s the best way to get the colors > of the inlay the most brilliant and “true” ? (any tips or > warnings about opacity/transparency?). Historically, how did the good 'ole > boys do their inlays - back in the 60’s - considering that they used all > the classic tint and pigmenting techniques. It blows me away how beautiful > some of these boards were. Sure, some of the boards were often heavy, but > those boys sure gave it their all.
I agree. The few I’ve done were on white. Some with light bottom tints and all with pinlines. What has worked for me is using paint pens at the sanded hotcoat stage and then glossing over for durability. Problems arise when the fabric I chose was too dense to see through for cutting to the tape line. This adds the extra steps of making a pattern to cut fabric to size with. One caution I have is in choosing fabric patterns that will cause you to spend extra time and waste in laying it to appear centered.(see red floral attached) Another problem I ran into is a color shift with the green floral print and the lam resin, it went to a taupe color. Not having any long term experience with this, what are you guys seeing over a year or two in terms of fading, delam or other problems? Anyone attempted fabric rails as seen on some of the Billy Hamilton boards? TS 