first time glassing with Carbon and EPS

General Discussion
1

Hi

Just getting ready to glass my first Carbon fibre Epoxy board. I’ve got 6oz Carbon cloth for top and bottom.

I’m not going to vacuum bag it because this is a once off board for me and I don’t want to invest $$ or time into getting vacuum bag technique correct.

Can any of you guys offer me some advice on the best way to approach this… specifically relating to

1 - Cut lab vs free lap… Is it even possible to do a cut lap with Carbon ???

2 - Quantity of resin required… The board is 6’2" * 22" Twin fin fish. Normally when I do a board with poly i have some excess resin left over. I don’t have enough Epoxy to waste.

3 - Wetting out - With normal glass it is obvious when it is “wet out”. becasue the Carbon is black what should I look out for to determine that all the cloth is fully wet.

Thanks

Brian

2

hi Brian,i made an epoxy/carbon fish a couple of years ago ,there was no real advantage to using carbon other than for looks really, i used west epopxy at the time, west has a slightly brownish hue which was fine over carbon,i now use clear epoxies for use over wood but west is just as good as anything if its easily available,

i had a good think before i started about how to do the laps and the way i ended up doing them and on another board after was to lam the bottom as usual ,then when every thing has set run some tape along the bottom of the board about 1/4 inch or so inside of the tucked edge then when you lam the top the cloth can be resined over the tape ,

the cloth can be trimmed back to the tape edge when things have gelled the same as a cut lap really but when everything has set you can sand the carbon back to the tucked under rail for an almost invisible join ,

its difficult to say how much epoxy to use but you only need to mix what you need at any one time ,with poly you almost always mix too much because of the time restraint but epoxy you can just mix less than what you need and then mix some more if you are a bit short so you don/t need to waste any,

carbon is different than glass to see if its wet out but as long as you put enough on then squgee it out you can see the difference ok ,try a small piece first if you are not sure ,poly will do to try if you don/t want to waste epoxy

make sure everything has a good sand 80-120 grit between coats and its done in warm temps otherwise its susceptible to bloom,

what fins are you going to use , i used carbon mr twin fins on mine ,toed in a bit but if i made another one i would use double foiled fins with no toe, mine was always too loose,

you can gloss with poly perfectly ok as long as everything is sanded well to give a good key , fishes don/t flex enough to have any problems,i glossed both my carbon boards with poly with no problems and i have also glossed some of my balsa boards the same way ,

email me and i will send some pics ,i can/t load them up here for some reason

good luck ,and make sure you post pics along the way, pete

3

Thanks Pete.

I remember your two Carbon. sweet looking.

did you seal yours with spackle before lamination ?

I’m gonna sink in some pro box fin boxes. Not sure whether to go with Quads or twins yet.

Brian

4

hi again, i used polyutherane ,clark and home blown foam for the both boards so no need to spackle for me ,are you using eps ,i would spackle if i was using low density eps just to keep the resin out of the foam ,

i found the link to the pics i posted ahwile back,pete

http://www.swaylocks.com/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=170199;page=2;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;