Hey everyone,
First time posting, first time shaping. Read some really helpful stuff on other posts but im a bit stuck.
I bought two stringerless recycled EPS blanks a while back to have a crack at shaping my own boards. The first is a 5’6" Mini-Simmons and the second is a 5’10" Mini-Mini-Mal. I’ve got the shapes looking really good and im pretty happy with the state of the rails as well after giving them a decent sand.
Being EPS blanks, I’m obviously going to use epoxy for the glass job and I’m going to give them both a heavy glassing (3 x 6oz deck, 2 x 6oz bottom, wrapping the rails on both) to account for the lack of stringer.
The issue im having is that the blanks themselves had some imperfections on them to begin with and, given that they’re recycled, the EPS isn’t bonded particularly well in parts, which has led to some smallish divots coming out during the sanding process. I don’t have much experience (read: no experience) with woodwork or anything handy for that matter, which doesnt help my cause, but as i said I’m pretty happy with the shapes at the moment and any excess sanding is going to end up changing the profile of the boards, which I’m hoping to avoid.
I had two ideas to combat the problems:
Use more epoxy while glassing to fill the divots as it’s being absorbed by the glass.
or
Give the blank a coat of epoxy to fill in any imperfections before I start glassing.
I imagine both fixes would end up in a pretty hefty sand/buff before the next layer and/or once the glassing is finished but I can deal with that if it will avoid messing around with the blanks anymore.
Any help would be hugely appreciated.
Peace,
Toz