So its my first time glassing a board and im concerned about the overlap that occurs with the fiberglass cloth once you lay it on the board over the rails and coat it with resin. Im really just wondering if its gunna be visible and how not to make it crinkle all up.
Hey bud, there is alot of info about this what you want is called free-lapping, which is when you wrap the rails you just leave it as opposed to a cutlap which is a more advanced technique where the lap is cut with a blade when the resin is semi cured. My basic method is after the bottom cloth is layed and resined u want to knock off the sharp edges and smooth it out with something like 80grit paper, be careful around the foam. to stop crinkles, around rails? you need relief cuts, just cuts in the glass so the cloth fits the outline, don’t overdo these they are a serious pain to sand sometimes. just as many as you need, ive seen videos of people to them without these but not sure how. anyway thats some of my knowledge hope it helps you out, i havnt glassed all that many boards but its still close to my favourite part of shaping :D
Watch a few videos before you do your first one. John Carpers "Glassing 101" is simple and easy to understand for the basics. There are also glassing videos on You Tube. There is plenty in the the Swaylock Archives as well. You would be wise to use UV on the first one if your blank is Poly. Too much to attempt an explanation here. Better to see someone do it.
heya hewitt,
mind sharing your preferred links to free-lapping? carper’s glassing 101 video doesn’t really show how it’s done, first-time glassers (like me, ehem) are bound to make mistakes without thorough grounding on how it should be done-- every step of the way.
cheers,
are there any shapers in your area? if so, call them up and ask if you could stand in a corner and observe them.
Get the master glasser video. You will learn a lot more than just cut lapping.
If you find a glasser that will teach you how to do it, buy him lunch and a beer.
Steve
I would expect more than "A" beer. Several would be in order. You must be watching "Shaping 101". "Glassing 101" is pretty straight forward on freelaps.
thanks alot guys, Il see how it turns out. One more question though, concerning artwork. At what stage of glassing is artwork done? Is there a hotcoat overtop? Or does whatever art you have just go directly on the foam?
Thanks,
my opinion either do it on the foam just before laminating or after a sanded hotcoat in which case you will need to do a gloss coat aswell. i generally do it after hot coat because it provides a nicer canvas to work on (smoother) though if your new to glassing you may indeed sand through your gloss coat and your artwork aswell, which i have numerous times so i recommend doing it on the foam, espescially if its airbrushing or simple art. also acrylics only. nothing oil based because it will run with the resin, though i have founf drawing ink and charcoal to work fine so do some tests.
any further opinions on the execution of glassing technique in this video. pros and cons of wetting the laps with fingers? Lots of hands on technique here. just a novice glasser trying to get better. The guy I work with would cringe I think if he saw me handling the resin so much except to get the bubbles out around the boxes. I find if you do that technique the cloth moves somewhere else as well.