I just finished up my first board, a 14 ft race SUP. I’m not happy with the hump the lap on the bottom creates. Fine if you like concaves, but I want a perfect flat bottom.
I was thinking of changing my layup to this. It would require laminating the deck before the bottom.
Any comments or suggestions on doing it this way? I only have one board build experience under my belt. Lots to learn yet.
You should be able to get a flat bottom with the regular method of glassing. I laminate the bottom then top, filler the deck around to the bottom lap then squeege off the excess resin. I think the key is sanding the bottom lap before you filler the bottom, good luck!
I lam deck first on traditional logs, everything else is bottom first, I sand or grind the laps each step of the way. I think thats the key, prepping the laps for the next lam or hotcoat, eliminates any voids and helps with any chance of sanding through.
Do you think trying to laminate as shown on my drawing, would make my job harder or eaiser?
With plans to only make 2 more boards, I doubt my skills will improve a huge amount, so my concern becomes, which way will make for the cleaner job. Learn to do it the way the pros do, or try my work around idea until I’m better at it?
I keep asking because I’m finding out what I think will work, doesn’t mean crap. Only by doing do it, do I really understand the issues I’ll encounter.
Hey Dwight.
I always laminte the deck first, vacuum bagged down to a rocker table. This keeps the bottom flat and true ( non twited), as well as locking in the rocker profile , well sort of …
This method actually increases tip and tail rocker slightly, when the resin cures, which is an aspect that I like and have adjusted my table for… .It seems that as the deck lam. cures, the resin shrinkage pulls up on the nose and tail slightly,cool eh??
Vacuum bagging reduces the lamination thickness considerably as well…
Doing the the deck first also allows me to fair the deck lam into the bottom, before laminating the bottom side…
If you’re left with any concave at all it would be minimal at say 1/64" to 1/32" at the most and would surely not effect board speed imho…
Cheers Kiterider…")
just read a post about that recently. the way I do it is to put a slight bevel on the bottom edge while shaping to allow room for the lap. I slightly bevel the edge as a final preperation step before glassing. lam bottom first . when top lam wraps to the bottom there is a space there for it. I do a cut lap then brush some resin in behind it. then I am ready to sand the bottom without removing the lap.
I have had boards that didn’t lap all the way onto the bottom but I don’t think that is a very strong way to build it.