I understand everything except the rails! Can someone quickly explain what gets folded where and what get grinded down or whatever is supposed to happen there. Thanks! Brent
simple! First answer this… What type of board are you making. Short, long, specs??? The more info you provide in your question the bettr response you’ll get. I could in a paragraph or two get you started, but why not be specific and give you exactly what yo are looking for. ball is now in your court Drew
Its a 70’s style single fin, 7’6…2 3/4 thick…bonzer-ish nose…diamond tail. Pretty modern rails, soft up front and getting harder as you get to the tail. Hope this helps. Let me know if you need anything else. Thanks for your help Brent
Cool. First, you must realize that there are cosmetic implications when glassing the rails. Yo u will hear me use a term called “laps” often. Simply put a "lap is the final outcome of all layers of glass overlapping one another and once glassed will result in the “lap”. Ideally the best glassers will create even, uniform laps that have a very precise trim line where the layers of glass overlap. these trim lines are tell tale signs of how skilled you are as a glasser. the trim line should Ideally be nearly identical to the final shape of the board only a fewinches in from the outline. I bring up this point because the more you think about how the laps will look the better prepared you will be to glass the board. Glass bottom first: 1. On the deck, tape off an outline about 2 inches from the outside of the board along the entire outline of the deck. Make sure that the tape outline matches the curves as close as possible. I use 1 inch black artists tape. 2.Flip the board over so the bottom is facing up. Lay out one layer of cloth on the board and trim the one end so you have at least four or five inches hangover on both the nose and the tail. 3. Now here is the key to getting a great trim line on the raiils. Take a very good pair of large cutting shears (scissors) and trim the cloth tha overhangs the outline of the board to the length that will, when folded under to the deck, will overlap the tape line you’ve already laid down by about a half inch. Any more and it’s overkill and can lead to sloppy laps. Any less and the thape will be difficult to pull up without pulling the glass with it. Remember, preperation is key. get this right and the glassing will go so much easier. 4. Now that you have the glass trimmed you can go ahead and glass the bottom. Seems that you are comfortable doing this so We’ll just skip ahead. 5.Trimming the deck. You now need to get the tape off the deck and trim the glass off. i wait until semi cured and then i take a razor and cut right along the outside edge of the tape line. Be careful to cut very lightly. Use a brand new razor blade. Go slowly and take your time. Once you have the outline cut. You can start to pull up the tape. Now here is the tricky part. You will have to watch very cosely if the glass starts to pull up with it. take the a new razor blade and lay it horozontally along the deck and slide it to the outside edge of the tape. This should cut off any glass that wasn’t already cut. Gently pull the tape up and keep the razor blade moving in unison with your pulling. If you are careful you will be able to get the glass off and have a super clean trim line. 6. Flip the board over and tape off the outline on the bottom in the same fashion as you did the deack. 7. Once taped off, flip it back over and you are ready to glass the top. Normally you can go with 2 layers of 6 oz for durability. Or you could go 2 layers of 4oz, or basically any combination that yo want. but let’s say that you are glassing the top with one layer of 4oz and one layer of 6oz. take the 4oz layer and lay it on top of the deck and smooth out until it hangs over the outline. 8. Now trim the 4oz overhang to where it falls about halfway between the tape line and the final outline of the board. So this layer does not wrap around to the bottom of the deck. Now cosmetically this is where it can get tricky. If you are usig volan galss you will see the edge of this layer of glass. Volan is just that way. If you are using most any other glass then it ahould not be a problem visibility speaking. But I could go on about this for a while. So let’s continue. 9. Now take your layer of 6oz glass and lay that on top of the deck over the 4oz you already laid down. This layer you will trim in the same manner as yo did the bottom…trim to the lentght that will allow the edge of the glass to overlap the tape bty about a half inch. 10. Now you are ready to glass the top. My advice is to concentrate on fully wetting the rails until fully saturated. It will make them lay much better. 11. Once the deck is semi cured, trim the tape in the same manner as you did for the bottom. 12. After your board is glassed some folks like to “baste” the rails. This is done to fill the gap where the rails overlap each other, mostly on the bottom and to a lesser extent on the deck. take lam resin and run a small amount on the bottom along the outline of trimmed laps. this created a level surface which in turn will make your hot coat more level. that’s the basics. Sorry for running on the way I did, but just remember that th better your preperation, the better your result. Nothing looks worse that sloppy laps and trimlines. Drew
If you follow the above to a tee you won’t really have to worry about grinding all that much. You migiht want to take 36 grit sandpaper wrapped around a small wood bloack and run that along the edge of the trimmed glass layer on the rails. But very little should be necessary. Good luck
THANK YOU!! That was exactly what I was looking for. Quick question for ya… you mentioned Volan and it got me thinking…what would you recommend I use for my first glass job? Anything easier to work with? (i’ll check the archives) What are the chances I’ll be able to do this acceptably the first time? [smile] Strange but this scares me more than the actual shaping did. Thanks Again Brent
THANK YOU!! That was exactly what I was looking for. Quick question for ya… you mentioned Volan and it got me thinking…what would you recommend I use for my first glass job? Anything easier to work with? (i’ll check the archives) What are the chances I’ll be able to do this acceptably the first time? [smile] Strange but this scares me more than the actual shaping did. Thanks Again Brent I too felt the same way. I was terrified of glassing my first few boards. But after a few it becomes almost second nature. Some more thoughts. I only use UV premixed resin to laminate with. Using the UV stuff allows you near unlimited time to get the resin fully saturated with a good solid wrap arounf the whole board. plus you need not worry about catalyst ratios, cold weather, or mixing amounts. I buy my resin premixed with the UV catalyst from Fiberglass Hawaii based in Santa Cruz. great stuff. Takes the fear and anxiety out of glassing. I can answer most questions on it if you have more. Volan, is actually regular fiberglass with a chemical treatment. not sure why or how they do this, but it does tend to be a tad stronger than regular fiberglass. Though some will say tha the “S” glass gives as much strength, but i could never tell the difference. Volan is cool to work with because it gives off a slightly greenish tint (think old skool glass coke bottle color). Also the weave of Volan glass comes through more than standard glass and that looks cool if you have glassed the board with any manner of profficiency. On certian boards Volan just seems to look better. Longboards, single fins, fish etc, mostly your retro throwback boards. There are a couple of drawbacks to volan however. Chief amonf them is the fact that it does not dry clear. Meaning that wherever your line of cloth ends, you will see that in the final glass job. thus the above mentioned technique of taping off the rails. Also some say that Volan is a little stiffer and glassing very sharp rails can be a tricky, I however, have not noticed this. As for your first glass job, would I recommend using Volan…well if you took careful steps to tape off the rails, and have a great deal of patience so as not to rush the process, I say go for it. But it also depends on the type of boarrd you are making. You mentiond that it was a single fin int eh 7’6" range. a board like that would look really cool with Volan. Volan comes in varying wieghts, 4oz, 6oz, 7oz, 8 oz, and even 10oz. For you I would go 6oz and 2 layers of 6oz on top. If you are a lighter guy you could do the top with a combination of 4oz and 6oz. The heaviest board i ever glassed was 10oz on bottom and 2 layers of 10oz on top with BOTH layers fully wrapping the rails. (total overkill)!!!. Hope this helps. Like I said keep the questions coming cause i got most of the answeres Drew
I agree that running your inside layer to the rail will be a problem cosmetically when using Volan. Why not glass the first deck layer with volan and do the full overlap with a second layer of silane to the edge? It could be done in one step or two and no visible ragged edge where the patch ends. For that matter, why not overlap both deck layers? You could overlap both layers using volan or a combo of volan and silane. I’ve done 2 layer overlaps and although marginally heavier, I feel it adds strength to the rails. Also - volan and silane in equal weights and weave are the same strength. Yater has been heard badmouthing volan (although he uses it) because of the toxic chromium salts used in the finish. Volan is cool right now because it looks retro. Here is an honest rundown on fiberglass finishes… CLOTH FINISHES The yarns made from the strands of glass filaments must be protected from abrasion and breaking during the weaving operation by lubricating materials called “sizing”. Sizing is not compatible with the resins that will be used later, hence they must be removed. A common way to do this is by baking the cloth or burning off the sizing materials. Various chemical treatments or “finishes” are then applied after this heat treatment. A wide variety of finishes are used to meet the requirements in current fiberglass laminating procedures including sheathing applications, and to suit the wide variety and types of resins available. Basically, the finishing treatment has to do with “wetability”, or the time it takes for the resin to saturate the fabric. The finish also improves the adhesion between the glass and the resin, and one type of finish may yield better results in this regard with one type of resin than with another. Each fiberglass weaver seems to have his own “special process” that he claims is “superior” to others. Some cloth manufacturers have indeed developed their own “hybrid” finishes which may indeed be better. But for the cloth fabrics most commonly used in sheathing boats, the “chrome” and “silane” (or “amino-silane”) finishes are common and proven. Other terms seen on suitable finishes include “Volan”, “Garan”, and “Sea-Glass”. From the consumer’s standpoint, this makes things confusing, especially since many firms selling fiberglass cloth have no idea what a finish is, let alone what type is used.