I have been trying to find a thread from quite a while back where there is a video of a glasser doing freelaps, after saturating the cloth with a squeegee, and wetting out the laps he just wraps his hand around the rail and trom the middle of the board just runs his hand down the rail towards the nose or tail, a lamination in half the time.
It looked like it worked really well. Has anyone tried it? Im pretty happy with my laminations these days, but as a small scale production guy, I’m always looking for ways to improve and speed things up with good technique. Time would be saved kicking the resin faster too as the actual laminating process would require less time.
Yes, it’s worked for me after fully wetting out the curtain of cloth. And even then I have to touch up with a squeegee or my fingers. It always works better when I has an excess of resin. When I run a bit short and have to pull more for the flats, I’m usually pinched for time and the lap is just wet enough. Then I mostly just use a tool. YMMV.
I think I’ll give it a go next time I make a board for myself (hopefully within the next couple of weeks) that way if I get a few bubbles or something imperfect it won’t matter.
I guess its best to just make sure that the laps are completely saturated before doing the swipe,prprobably also worth giving the gloved hand a quick light dip in resin as well.
Not sure how mich time you think your gonna be saving but it doesnt take all but a minute or so to wrap a free lap. If your looking to save time, look into uv cure. If you dont have good sun, build a light box.
Not saying you cant or wont save time doing a lap with your hand. Just sayin it should take too long with a squeegee.
I like the flip up lap technique. Saves a lot of resin. I showed how to do this in the Master Glasser video. Seems like the only folks that used the technique were from Australia. I learned it by watching a Hawaiian longboard glasser in 1965. He was doing two layers of 10ounce volan.
Jack Reeves has his act together.
I definitely remember that video! That ‘hand wrap’ trick was very slick and it works. It only takes a little touching up with a squeegee to get the excess resin out but the part where the guy basically grabs the rail with his hand and slides it from the center to the ends put the cloth right where it needed to go.
I’ve tried it myself and it worked - maybe not as nicely as the guy showed in the video but I haven’t had all that much practice. Am still working at it and intend to continue.
In the video mentioned, the guy glasses a dark colored board. He spreads the heavily tinted resin over the board and takes time for a sip of beer while the foam soaks up the color… another useful tip. If i can find the video, I’ll post it.
Agreed, Jack looks like he has really perfected his technique, for me I know that I would be sure to make a big mess and make it difficult to wrap, Looks like he must be saving money in resin as much less ends up on the floor.
The YouTube link posted was the one I was thinking of, to be honest it didn’t look as simple as I remembered, but if he wasn’t making the video while glassing im sure it would have been faster.
It’s interesting the different styles that people develop, peoples creativity always impresses me.
Watch his (Reeves) videos REAL close.There are several on the Fiberglass Hawaii Utube Page. His fingers stay behind the edge of the glass so he does not break loose any strings. It’s a great technique.
I will have to give that technique a try. I usually try to keep my hands off for fear of getting dirt from my hands on things. Really looks like an efficient and material saving way of doing things…especially for those of us using UV cure.
