Glassing and plug questions

General Discussion
1

Got my shape and am ready to glass. I’m an experineced fibreglass worker, but never done a board before, and have a few questions.

Hull first I asume. I’m on clark foam superblue. I’m thinking 2 layer 6oz and on the deck 3 layer 6 oz.

Hull first? Tape off the deck about 2" inside of the rail, and lap onto the tape, and then trim when it gells. Sand lightly, and then glass the deck, but no wrap onto the hull? Just overlap the layer under it, and wrap onto the rail and let it hang down, and then cut when it gells?

Now, do I sand a little first, then apply a light resign layer, and then sand this smooth, or do I apply a resign layer before any sanding and then sand, or do i sand the glass first completely, and then apply the resign layer and sand again and polish?

Plugs. Leash plug BEFORE glassing, FCS fins afterwards?

Epoxy or polyestyre resign?

Thanks for the info.

Corran

2

usually 2 layer deck and 1 layer bottom, not 3x2

glass the bottom first, then the deck

with cut laps, should not need to sand before hot coat

when to put in leash & FCS plugs -

this stuff is all in the archives. Try searching and see how much you learn in the way of tips & tricks… for each step there are helpful pointers, it’s well worth reading up. Or, you can learn the hard way, by making your own mistakes…

3

Hey Corran, I had some fibreglass experience before I made my first board, which is why, probably like you, I wanted to make my own board. That experience will be a great advantage. Sounds like you already know what to do, so just do it using your learning instinct. Keith’s right about the layers of cloth, but if you want a strong heavy board, do it your way. There are a few hand skills involved, like sweegee pressure and such, but I’m sure you’ll work it out. Have fun.

4

First of all, assuming you are making a longboard, by the heavy glassing schedule.

Always wrap the bottom up around the deck rails.

Always wrap at least one deck layer around to the bottom of the board.

Don’t bother to sand the lam coat…it just gums. DO surform any high spots, to ensure an even lam for your next overlap.

If you use any tints, always cutlap.

If clear resin lams, you can freelap the deck around to the bottom, but always underlap at least one full inch, and the loose strands more.

5

LeDD – << “always underlap at least one full inch”

underlap? have not heard that term yet.

Are you just referring to wrapping the lap atleast 1" past the bottom edge?

thanks

–4est

6

lapping rails… another question

I was watching the Master Glassing video and he only wrapped 1 of the 2 layers of the deck glass.

The bottom layer of the deck lap was trimmed to the rail line.

Is this standard practice to only wrap 1 lay from the deck so that rail only has 2 layers on it?

Or is this just his style? I like the idea of a tougher rail with 3 layers coming from 1 bottom layer

and 2 deck layers.

thanks

–4est

7

4est you can wrap all three layers if you want but make sure you stagger them so you don’t have a huge line on the bottom that you have to grind down. We do mostly cut laps so on the top layer we cut the first layer of cloth inside the lap lines and the second layer we wrap around the rail giving a 2 layer wrap. We have found that the 2 layer is sufficient protection.

Corran we sink both the leash plug and fcs plugs after the hotcoat/ gloss after.

LeeDD I was curious do you always knock down your lam coat bumps with a surform? Do you like this better than a valve grinder or sander setup?

8

oh, maybe I didn’t pass English 6 in high school.

I meant wrapping “underlap” as in top coat wrapping the bottom.

Never had a sander for any of my boards, so I used a surform. It cuts glass better and since it’s a hand tool, I usually don’t overcut.

I’ve never used a power sander on any of my boards, and even 600, rub and polish compound by hand on the beach!

9

Thnaks for the info so far…

So, 1 layer on the hull of 6 oz (its a 5’11" squashtail), wrapped 2" onto the deck to a taped line, and then trimmed when gelled. Then 2 layer deck, the first cut somewhere between the lapped hull layer and the edge, and the 2nd lapped onto the hull at least 1 inch. Correct?

Fin plugs and leash plug AFTER hot coat?

Hot coat before any glass sanding at all… and sand the hot cote. Wax in the hot cote to facilitate sanding.

I might do a 2 over 2 (2 hull layers) because I’m using this on rivers and sometimes we have rock problems. Yes, it adds weight, but my last board i destroyed pretty fast hitting rocks under the surface while swimming. If I do a 2 layer hull… wrap 1 or both layers onto the deck?

Corran