Glass weave shows in epoxy layup

Industry Talk
1

I’ve been noticing in the EPS /Epoxy boards that we have got back from the glass shop, the weave in the fiberglass does’nt completely disapear like it usually does on Poly boards. It kinda looks like the way S-glass sometimes lays up with Poly in which you see a lot silvery strands. This shows up more prominently on the deck where there are 2 layers of cloth and particularly if the blank is painted a color and the board is glossed. Is this how an Epoxy layup looks like or is this just a material and technique issue with the glassers?

-Thanks

2
Quote:

I’ve been noticing in the EPS /Epoxy boards that we have got back from the glass shop, the weave in the fiberglass does’nt completely disapear like it usually does on Poly boards. It kinda looks like the way S-glass sometimes lays up with Poly in which you see a lot silvery strands. This shows up more prominently on the deck where there are 2 layers of cloth and particularly if the blank is painted a color and the board is glossed. Is this how an Epoxy layup looks like or is this just a material and technique issue with the glassers?

-Thanks

This is a glassing technique issue. There are several ways to get the weave to dissapear. Epoxy hotcoats are a little tricky because the resin never gels and tends to keep flowing for a long time so resin especially near the rail and nose area tend flow off and to show the weave.

Here are some of the ways to shoot a nice hotcoat

Shoot your hotcoat while the lam is still tacky

Keep the resin in the bucket longer till it gets warm before appyling

after your lam is hard take 80grit and sand down the tip top of the weave just knocking it down slightly

also make sure your laps are sanded really flat and pasting your laps helps also

shoot a second sanded glosscoat

3

Thanks for the info. The sander at the glass shop had mentioned to me something similar to what you’re describing, that if you sand into the weave, it does’nt disapear when you gloss over it as it would with a Poly lay-up. What I’m talking about is different though. It seems to have to do with the lay-up of the glass. It looks like the resin did’nt fully saturate the fiberglass. I’m seeing it on the flats as well as the rails.

4

that could be it. just a few growing pains when working with new materials but something that should be easily worked out. structually your glassjob should be fine though.

5

What brand and type of cloth is it?

I’ve found the wash, or finish of the cloth may cause weave to show kind of

like S-glass.

The glass supplier may know the specific cloths compatible with epoxy, I have

been told by some vendors that “all of our cloth is compatible with epoxy” and

others who said to “stay away from certain brands…”

If the problem is mostly on the deck lam you may want them to try saturating

the layers separately (see my website under “Emerging Tech”). The guy doing

it is one of the best epoxy glassers from his country. They do a lot of epoxy

work.

Lastly, I’ve had the weave problem more with certain epoxies. Ask the glassers

what they are using for laminating. The stuff made for surfboards does much

better than most broad-based epoxies.

6

I’ve been told by them they’re using JPS E glass which is sized with silane and they are getting their epoxy from Fiberglass Hawaii. I know they are not using RR or additive F. I had a recent conversation with Jim Phillips and he’s real big on using additive F.

A lot of the West Coast glass shops where caught behind the curve when Clark pulled the plug. Most of them did’nt want to dick with doing Epoxy and there really was’nt much of a demand for it. Well that’s all changed and everybody’s playing catch up-myself included. Eventually everybody will get up to speed and thing will get standardized. Since I deal with the cosmetic aspect, it’s important on how the finished product looks, specially when compared side by side with a traditional PU/PE board.

7

I’ve had a bit better success with BGF fabrics ecause most of their line is finished with an epoxy silane. Also Additive F does help with this problem because it helps break down the sizing a bit.

So much of the cosmetics will be worked out over the next few months. Craftsmanship … working out the little different aspects, that’s what so much of this is about. Your already seeing high end glasswork coming from factories all over and when the real glassing pros get things dialed you won’t be able to tell the difference.

Production schedules will be figured out as well and there will be little difference in costs.

8

Greg-

I was at Cerritos demo last December and watched you do the spackle thing. I guess I should have taken a close look at the blank you where working on and a lot of these questions might have been answered for me. I’m pretty much doing it the way you showed it but, I’ve been having a heck of a time getting the surface unform enough to the point where I can paint it. The blanks come from the CNC shop, the shaper does his thing and then I get them. Alot of the beads have been pulled out during CNC and fine shaping. Particuilarly on the rails. Is this normal or are the bros at the CNC shop and my buddy the shaper missing on something? Should the CNC guys be using a different kind milling bit? They are using the same one they use for PU. Should the shaper sand these thing differently than he does PU?