when doing glass on fins…do you have to use lam. resin first for the cloth, or can you go straight to sanding resin…if you have to use lam. resin first…is there a techique for tinting so that the board has a tint and the fin is glassed clear???
You can use hotcoat/sanding resin with no problems and you won’t have to deal with the tint.
so i go and lam. the board with the tinted resin. then apply the fins and fincloth with plain sanding resin??
I’m no expert but yes, you should have no problem using sanding resin. I have used it in the past with no problems. In fact I have noticed that on the few occassions where I did use lam resin, it is really easy to sand through your top layer of hotcoat and hit the lam resin you used for setting your fins. This is because (at least for me) you will get a little build up of resin at the base of your fins from saturating the fin rope and fin panels, and if you just hotcoat over this build up, obviously this is where you are going to have thin spots in your hotcoat. If you use sanding resin to set your fins, once it kicks you can hotcoat over it (after you clean it up some) and it will all blend in together when it comes time to sand. So my advice, laminate it with your tint/pigment, then set your fins with sanding resin, clean it up some, and then use sanding resin over that like normal. Again I am no expert, most of my board have had a fin system in them, but I have used sanding resin/hotcoat to set my fins before with no problems. Good luck.
It would be a better idea (in my opinion) to glass on the fin using lam resin, THEN hot coat the bottom and fin together. It is not a good idea to glass on the fin with sanding resin - the wax surfacing agent may affect the bonding of the bottom hot coat. You may experience separation between the resin layers after it’s been in the sun awhile or subjected to board or fin flex.
ok…so i should laminate the bottom of the board like normal… then apply the fin and fin cloth with lam. resin and fin roving, then when the lam. is cured i should trim the fin up next i would hot coat the board and fins then sand??
ok…so i should laminate the bottom of the board like normal… then > apply the fin and fin cloth with lam. resin and fin roving, then when the > lam. is cured i should trim the fin up next i would hot coat the board and > fins then sand??..Teddy, yes, that is the way I do it. I have also seen fins lammed on over a well sanded hot coat.
Teddy - That’s how I’ve always done it and it seems to work. I lay up the fin with a combination of glass patches and rope. Sand carefully so it’s nice and smooth around the base and edges. When glossing, some guys turn the board on edge and gloss one side of the fin at a time. Mask off around the base and the opposite side of the fin - you’ll have a couple of seams to take down but after wet and dry sanding, it should buff out nice. Good luck!
There is only one advantage to glassing the fins on the hot coat. If you break the fin off it might not damage the glass job as bad. I would say that 90 percent of the fins I’ve repaired have damage to the board under the fin area.