hey guys i was on youtube and i saw that some guy was glassing with a paintbrush instaed of a squegee… i was wondering if any of you have tried that and if you would reccomend that i would do that on my first board or if i should just use a squegee… basically which is more ‘newbie glasser friendly’? -Cam
The only thing to say for it is that it is possible to do. It is a primitive technique, compared to using a squeege. It was abandoned long ago, by glassers.
is it easier to do though? for a first-time glasser…
yes. i believe glassing a surfboard for your first time would be the easiest with a paint brush. but only if using epoxy resin. otherwise the resin would set up before you could wet out all the cloth and wrap the rails.
if you are using the “painting method” make shure to cut the bristles on your brush so they are about a inch long and very stiff.
this way of glassing can be very efficient for back yard shapers.
if you arent worried about your speed of production this method will work perfectly, while conserving resin at the same time.
I don’t want to sound like know it all, but if you use a brush & epoxy you be so, so, so, so, soooooo sorry you did that. The best tool for epoxy is a stiff credit card type squeegee, I mean the bondo spreader types. The reason for that is because epoxy is thick, and you want to move it very slowly. The more you work it, the more bubbles you get. The more bubbles you get the more it looks like someone put milk in your lamination. You don’t want to over work epoxy. So glassing epoxy with a brush is out of the question. A brush it way too soft. Hey maybe the cardboard chingadara the brush came it would work?
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is it easier to do though? for a first-time glasser…
No.
Use both!
Get it worked in with the squeegee and finish off with the brush.
The problem with brush only is to much resin pools up and you wind up using way to much resin.
Having the proper squeegee is huge.
just did one in epoxy with a roller …and then a stiff squeegee…worked really good…kept the bubbles out and got everything super saturated before I started pushing it around…it was easier to initially move a bunch of resin around evenly and quickly to keep down the exotherm too…that said, I would never, ever use a paint brush to lam a board - either poly or exoxy…dings maybe, I suppose if you’re desperate…
If I use a broom can I glass the board and clean the shop at the same time?
Hey Cam
I used a brush (5") to glass my first board (well actually about 10 x 5" brushes, cos I couldn’t clean em enough to re-use). It turned out utterly fine…, if you like really heavy boards with lousy glass jobs and bits of dry weave in the cloth showing through and ruining all the hard work and many hours you spent in the garage following instructions cutting wood, planing, sanding, more sanding, ooooohhhh the endless sanding, and taunting you for being too tight to buy a squeegee even though you spent way more on brushes in the end anyway.
Yup, I highly recomend it!!!
Peace!
Can a paintbrush be used for hotcoats? Better than a squeegee?
maybe big push broom? You might be on to something…One pass lamination on the pull stroke, wrap the rails on the push stroke.
Howzit freshwatersurf, Always use a brush for hot coats unless you are going for a textured deck. Aloha,Kokua
For pushing polyester between the weaves of the cloth brushes do okay in my experience. As for drawing out the excess, they are absolutely hopeless. Talking laminating here, not hotcoating. In terms of newbie friendliness, the brush would probably seem like the better option, until you come to sanding it. Then you’ll probably find you hit the laminating resin quite quickly. Not good. If you’re talking epoxy, you’ll just end up using a whole lot more and probably have a lot of sanding to do at the end of it to level everything.
i disagree with the above posts
yeah a 4 inch brush is great for glassing with epoxy
not for polyester(use a squeegee)
this is how it done
tape your laps
roll out the cloth and cut it
roll back the cloth from one end of the board to the middle and paint the board with the resin all around the rails and on the flat
roll the cloth back out
then do the same on the other end of the board
as you do it the resin will soak through the cloth
do some quick pulls (with a piece of balsa wood or plastic spreader)of the cloth from the middle
(dont do it much or the resin will foam) out to the rails to get the excess resin
then use the brush to wrap down the laps
work the laps from the middle to the ends
this is a fast and simple method ideal for a small backyarder as there can be zero waste and drips
the resin content is very low ratio
and no bubbles
its a superior method for a beginner
it only takes 5 or so minutes more
but who care right cuz your not making a million
use a slow curing epoxy resin so you dont have to stress
my one has a pot life of 30 minutes
but once you brush it out on the board it will take a lot longer to kick
i glass over balsawood with epoxy and its a very unforgiving wrt to visible weave and bubbles around joints
however the bond to wood is far superior to polyester
a white blank doesnt show anywhere near as much dryspot,weave or bubbles as wood does.
this method was told to me from sabs and also bert
its commonly used in layups with boatbuilding
I think the clip your refering to is of Hisky and Chips, if so he is using epoxy and us cna use this with a brush easy enough.
I wouldn’t use a brush with poly resin.
(edit - should have read your post paul, before typing this, better put than me)
With epoxy you can get a good resin to cloth ratio but painting the resin on then puting the cloth on the top and letting the resin soak in.
A few years ago Spitzer mentioned using vinyl strips used for vertical blinds. Luckily enough, it wasnt long a neighbor was throwing a bunch out so I grabbed about 10 years worth. I cut them into small pcs and theyre stored in a box.
My preference with epoxy depends on how much glass Im using. I use a foam roller a lot esp if its one layer. For more glass and resin a bondo squeegee works best. The beauty of the roller is I dont get any drips and no resin is wasted.
Brushes drop bristles into the mix, they are hard to see until its too late. I dont use polyester resin but if I did it would be UV cure.
hey dave there is a certain buzz in nailing a poly lam
gets the heart pumping
anyway i laminated this one with a brush and some old 6oz canoe glass and some 4/1 boatbuilders epoxy
so it can be done
heres the video i was refering to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0EZcVndqhI&feature=related
im not sure if its hicksy and ben though…