Hi,
This is my first selfmade board and so far I could succeed with the help of some users here. Now I am stuck again. I did the hotcoat with epoxy and now I wanted to sand the pre glassed fcs fusion plugs. I found them very difficult to glass, and now that I am sanding I think I had too many bubbles although I tried to remove them during glassing. Porobably this is the reason for how it looks like, isn’t it? Should I sand them down to the main plateau of the plugs or how should I proceed? With plateau I mean the base of the plugs. The long holes where you put the fins in are a little higher, if you know what I mean. Thus how far should I go? Sand the heights even to the rest of the plug?
I think you’re ok, you cut a nice tight fit - IMO small bubble holes near the tab slots are not too much to worry about. even the one going almost around the whole slot. re-tape, brush some hot coat or fill them in with finger dabs and clean them up.
Don’t ever sand through the glass over the joint (between the plug and foam) Watch out when you have too many bubbles at or near the joint.
next time, with your football patched stacked and folded in half, cut a small 1/2" slit in the mifddle of the fold. This helps line them up and helps release trapped air bubbles. Just before you mix your laminate batch of resin, and before you put the patches down, from a dixie cup pour a spoonfull resin over the boxes, use a 1" bush to spread it around, then lay your patches over, the roll back your lam over, then laminate w/squeegee as usual. HTH
This is a really common issue with the fusion plugs. Just sand them down to the point that everything is flush with the finished surface of the board, other than the holes that you need to fill in. If you’ve got extra stickers, re-cover the fin tab holes/screw holes, mix up a little epoxy, and use a thin piece of wood, like a split tongue depressor or pin or something like that, and use it to drip the resin into the voids. Let it cure, then sand everything flush. Be a little careful when sanding everything down at the end–if you attack it too aggressively, you can pop your little resin bubbles out.
To avoid the bubbles as much as possible, I have used a 1" brush and painted around the boxes before laying the glass down. There will still be a few bubbles that show up, but you can either work it a bit with the brush to try and massage some of the bubbles out, or even your finger tip (gloved, of course–safety first!) can help work some of the bubbles out. A little extra attention will save you this headache when it comes to sanding the board up and finishing. I haven’t used a fin hardware that doesn’t make at least a few little bubbles when working with them though–but you can at least take a few steps to minimize it right off the bat. Hope this helps!
I use a single edge razor to cut the cloth around the rise of the box which reduces the “tenting” and allows the glass to settle down onto the box flange. Do this after you lam but before the resin is cured. Wear gloves. Work the bubbles out with your fingers. Take the gloves off before you eat or use the bathroom.
Thanks for the quick replies. I will do what bud suggested. Could I also use solarez (epoxy, the one in the tube) to fill the holes or will it have a different color than my current epoxy which is totally clear?
