first timers: learn from my mistakes... first time laminating w/ epoxy resin

i’m in the process of building 3 boards. one for me, one each for buddies don and adam. designed in aku, poly blanks cut on aps3000 machine, glassing w/ RR CE epoxy.

yesterday the laminating started. i set fins boxes in 3 boards and laminated the bottom of my board. it was unusually hot in santa cruz yesterday. woke up at 4am and got started on the other two boards.

first bit of advice: GET THE RESIN OUT OF THE POT AND ONTO THE BOARD

on my board i left enough resin in the pot to saturate the laps (like i’d done w/ poly). it got hot, started gelling and was a bitch to work with. on don’s board, i poured all the resin on the board but scooped some back in the pot to saturate the laps. it got hot, started to gel and was a total bitch to work with. on adam’s board, i followed the fucking directions, poured all the resin on the board and left it there. as i would scoop a bit over the rail and onto the lap, i would accumulate a little and then dump it in the middle of the board. repeat. day and night difference. adam’s board actually looks pretty good. i had enough time to go back and squeege out the excess resin on the bottom and rails. mine and don’s boards have puddles where the resin that had been in the pot started to gel. don’s is better off than mine. both don and i have some puddles on the rails too, which is going to kind of suck to deal w/. i will try to post up some pics later. i need to get cleaned up and spend some time w/ my wife while adam’s board kicks.

 

another epiphany i’ve had: i can see why people recommend cutting the fin box holes after the lam. the bubbles are a bitch. doing one board w/ lokboxes and 2 w/ futures.

 

oh, one more bit of advice: remember to tape off the fin boxes before you laminate, so resin doesn’t fill the slots. i taped off on mine and don’s boards, spaced on adam’s. i went back and cut the slots open to try to do some damage control and much to my happy surprise, there wasn’t any resin in the holes.

 

i will post up more beginner-to-beginner ideas as i fuck up more. will also post pics of the finished products.

 

cheers,

 

Tommy

U can use a razor and make a small slice on the fin box then chase out the bubbles.

Sorry to hear about your tribulations.  The futures boxes during the lamination can be a bit of a hassle, but once you apply a few tricks they are pretty easy.

When you are wetting out the bottom take any extra resin and push it around the boxes.  Let it flood the tail/box area.  Not like a lake but just a bit more than the rest of the board.  As you start to remove the excess on the whole bottom you take the tip of the squeege and your finger and caress the sides of the boxes.  A light touch will allow the bubbles to escape rather than a hard push which can make it worse.  Once the air is out you can pull the lam tight.

Once everything is tight and your laps are tucked you can go back and check the boxes one last time.  If there are still a few pesky bubbles you can use some of the excess resin in the bucket if it hasn't kicked to tease them out.  If your out of resin then I have a dental pick that you can buy at the hardware store for a dollar or a push pin to open the weave just enough to let the bubble escape.

from my experience when using rr epoxy I pour all of it over the cloth then work it around. If you leave it in the cup it hot and gels up quickly making it hard to work with.However if you use a wider/bigger cup this will not happen so quickly due to the increased surface area.

With the future boxes under the cloth bubbles are a problem i found out the first time also. to help avoid this i press the cloth with my finger nail around the boxes and then amke sure the cloth gets wetted out really well. if you end up with not enogh resin in this area it begins to pull up and creat the bubbles.

Don’t worry about it, we all get bit on the ass, but i found that the Marie Callendars micro wave meals come in a black plastic tub that is perfect for epoxy work.

They are about 8"x10" with low sides, about 1-1/2", I add my 2 parts and Additive F and stir with a 1" paint brush, making sure to go around all the corners and bottom good for about 2 minutes, I screwed up a hot coat by not mixing enough.

Pour a few lines down the bottom to keep the cloth from moving and then starting from nose or tail, slide the rim of the tub just under the bottom of the lap and paint the bottom inch of the lap going towards the end that you started from.

It becomes a routine fast motion and when you get to the center of the rail start painting towards the opposite end, the drippage goes back into the tub and the bottom edge is the hardest to get wet and uses the most resin.

Go then to the flats and start working them , the run off will get most of the top edge of the lap wet and the rest you can swipe over with the paint brush to wet out.

It takes a lot less resin than “curtaining or waterfalling” the laps, plus the low side tub keeps the exotherm down to a minimum.

One winter I micro waved both part A&B, should have only hit the thicker part, the resin, it became a 400 degree hockey puck in my bucket

I do the flip lap routine and it work fine for me.

Pour about half your resin down the center of the board and move it around a bit.

Then flip one sides lap up onto the board and pour resin along the flipped lap and spread it as you go to saturate the cloth.

Then repeat on the other side.

Move resin onto any dry cloth and let it soak up for a bit.

Then carefully flip one sides lap back down and remove any excess resin from the board over the lap.

Tuck your lap nice and clean the repeat on the other side.

The nose and tail areas need a bit of the waterfall technique or baste as it is a bit hard to flip those areas

DONT work the resin to much or you will get a milky resin from tiny air bubble.

Just move it around and let it soak in.

I do this method to make sure my laps are completely wet out.

If you have areas that are not completely wet you get a crystalisation look about it and it seems to show more on epoxy

Take your time with it. epoxy slowly cures till its hard so you will have 20 - 30 mins as appossed to poly that gels in about 10 min 

Cheers

 

are we having fun yet? 

:slight_smile:

kirk

 

oh yeah! :slight_smile:

One other thing… Do not get too ambitious with your glass schedule until you have some experience with epoxy. I just finished a couple of boards, one of which I wanted to be able to knee paddle. On that board I decided to use a double 6 to the rail and a 4 (lapped) on the deck. Holy crap that sucked up a lot of resin, I just about panicked but it did come out ok and it is strong. It probably would have been better to do the 6’s and then a 4 later. Live and Learn…

Several Pros have already posted...do what the pros say....

Here's the link to my method......http://www2.swaylocks.com/forums/first-epoxy-glass-job-s

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