First board! advice welcome.

Spend a bit more time foiling your fins, look at some examples, avoid flat spots. It’s all good fun. Poly resin will release easier from plate glass than epoxy. Enjoy!

Thanks for your input keith, am i good to use poly resin over plywood? and what cloth would you use in this situation. thanks

Poly resin over ply is good. Use scrap cutoffs of whatever glass you have, typically. Look in the archives for a thread on making wood fins by Bert Berger…shows all the steps.

Here is thread from Bert:

http://www.swaylocks.com/groups/wooden-fins-pictures-instructions

but I think it is missing some pictures.

I added the wooden fin tutorial (original few posts above with pictures) to the other thread that has some of the classic Berger and Barnfield docs.

http://www.swaylocks.com/forums/berts-vacuum-bag-other-documents-here-thanks-oneula?page=1http://www.swaylocks.com/forums/berts-vacuum-bag-other-documents-here-thanks-oneula?page=1

I’d put a thin coat of lam resin on the fins before glassing to seal them

Thanks as ever swaylockians. Foiled a new set today so will glass them tomorrow.

The weather us finally warming up a little here so going to glass tonight. Just a few quick queries.

If I laminate the bottom tonight and the deck tomorrow do I have to di the hotcoat asap or can I do it next week?

I am using poly resin with catalyst hardener which in a test batch dried tack free overnight.

Also if I do the glassing in a warmed garage about 18 degrees does the board need to stay warm after wards like epoxy? Or can I open the windows and let it cool down/ ventilate?

Thanks as ever!

I am possibly the slowest builder out there so I don’t like to rush the process. By the time your laps are cleaned it’ll be cured enough. If it is tacky and you let her hang out in your workspace just make sure the contaminates are at a min. I am always glassing some ish into my board I didn’t intend to.

You’ll want to vent for sure using Poly, but don’t let the temp vary too much. I think 65*F is perfect.

Well I finally went for it last night, it all went pretty well, had plenty of working time and a friend to help. The nose and tail went better than expected and I was surprised I didn’t need more relief cuts.



The lap on the nose doesn’t seem to have hardened very well, its still pretty gummy 18hours later.

Any ideas? I might blast it with a heat gun for a while?

Is this because of the excess resin or have I not mixed it well enough?

Soda-I like the orange color.
Epoxy still gummy could be a bad mix ratio, low room temperature, or the ‘A’ side (resin) was partially crystallized before mixing.
If the ratio is off then it never gets better. If it is temperature related (cold room or crystallized resin) it will probably get better with time and temp.
If it were in my shop I’d try an infrared light bulb to get the temp of the problem area up to 35-40 C or 90-100 F for a couple hours and see what it does.

Thanks, sorry for the confusion I’ve chopped and changed various times in the thread but it poly resin.

I tried a test batch on some fins to check gel times and the first one was 2% and too fast, 1.5% was about right at 20mins but as I was my first ever I went slower to be cautious. I catalysed at 1%.

Glassed the deck of the board yesterday and it was a bit more difficult than the bottom. I struggled with the 2 layers of 6oz and wish I had done two separate layers.

I struggled to get the cloth fully wet out and there are some areas where the colour is a fraction lighter and I think its because the bottom layer of 6oz was not fully soaked. The area isn’t bubbled or raised at all so I guess its just a case of hope for the best.

Also I stupidly lifted the board by the rails to flip it for the cutlap and the cloth stuck to my hand and bubbled up. I quickly poked a hole in the bubbles and rolled them flat but don’t know what to do now? There are also one or two deck bubbles at the nose, should I just drill and fill them with resin?

I found the deck lam much more difficult with 2x 6oz, any tips or thoughts on how to sort it?

Thanks sways as always



Yes I would fill the bubbles in the nose with resin.

I can’t see the rail issues in my cellphone pics, so can’t really comment without clearer pics or better description - if the bubbles laid down flat and are gone, then just sand and hot coat as usual.

I glass with epoxy, and I do my layers of glass separately. I’m not in a production mode hurry so this works well for me.

Looks in the pic like your stringer sits a bit proud. This will cause you to hit weave when you sand that area. Be sure to take your stringer down with a finger plane or spokeshave before glassing to avoid this.

Cheers, the bottom went so well I got a bit cocky thinking it would be just the same, classic rookie error.
Basically the bubble on the rail I made a very small slit and iron it down as it was gelling, it stayed down so ill maybe go ahead and hotcoat.

The stringer is good, just the photo makes it look raised.

Ready to glass on the fins and then hot coat but just had two questions.

  1. I’m using the robin mair layout for the quad but what cant should I be using?

  2. Board has been picked up and messed with and probably dust on it etc. How best should I clean it before hotcoating?

Thanks

Board is finally finished, thanks so much to all the patient swaylockians who gave their time and advice. Hopefully get a chance to test it out tomorrow evening!

Obviously the fin pics are before sanding and hotcoating.

All in all the board is cosmetically not perfect but seems structurally solid. I finally tracked down uv resin powder in the uk and my goodness what a difference that made, so much easier.

Naming rights go to you lot, ‘tony the tiger’ and agent orange are the front runners so far. Thanks again, Stoked!



I’m a fan of What has become know as the Robin Mair Quad Fin Lay Out. It may have some drawbacks on a few shapes and it may have some quirks in particular wave shape and size; but most fin set ups have quirks. Trailer fins and other variables easily overcome any drawbacks with Robin’s setup. Personally I like it the way it is. Very functional. Good job on that board. You should be happy with the ride on that one. What kind of waves do you ride mostly? Lowel

Your 1st board looks great. Now you’re going to have a problem NOT doing another one, then another one…

This is why we need recyclable boards!