Ok, I am thinking about doing it up right and picking up some volan cloth to glass my bonzer egg in the old-school stylee.
Can someone give me some idea about glassing with this stuff? I’ve only previously used 6oz e-glass, how will volan behave differently during lamination? will 6oz volan be comparable to 6oz Eglass in durability? Is there any reason I would want to use the 10oz stuff? Anything else I should know about it? I know I’ll need to make near-perfect cutlaps with this stuff, but I feel pretty good about that.
i believe its becoming a lost art (or they just don’t want to use it). i’ve searched my area… cocoa bch, central fla.,for the past four years and turned up nothing.
i live 4 blocks from their store in college park. i always take my glasswork to you-know-who over by new smyrna. i talked to mayo about regular glasswork…they were over $100 more than what i usually pay. i’ll keep making the trip,its alot cheaper and i get to visit old friends. as for the volan, i’ll ask mr. mayo but for what he quoted me for a basic glass job, I can only imagine what volan might be. thanks for the info…small world.
6 oz volan is just six ounce cloth that goes green, ok? No real strength improvement, just you have to do cut laps to keep it from looking like guano. So, today’s musical question is, why bother?
volan cloth is heavy and really soaks up the resin = heavy ass board, but some people like that…I would go with S glass it’s way strong and way light…I like my boards light and strong…
couple of things - volan is mebbe a bit more 'traditional ’ in surfboard use than other types, mostly 'cos back in the day most boards were glassed with 10 ounce cloth and that was pretty much all volan treated.
The thing is, it’s a surface treatment, think of Scotchguard on a jacket or something like that, it’s nothing special about the fibers themselves. 6 oz volan treated cloth and 6 ounce plain cloth are going to be effectively identical strength, all other things being equal. Your glassing technique, getting a good lamination, hotcoat and gloss, will make one hell of a lot more difference than anything else.
That’s exactly what I needed to hear, doc. Just a rundown on the physical properties and glassing characteristics of volan. Didn’t know if it was different weave, texture, thickness, etc… If it is just 6oz with a color coating, then I can handle it. That’s why I’ll be using it anyway, for the “look”.
No problema, man - Volan_finished cloth behaves effectively identical to standard cloth in just about all ways. Though 6 oz. Volan is uncommon around my neck of the woods. On the other hand, it’s hard to find 10 oz. cloth that isn’t Volan finished.
went up to fiberglass florida last week to pick up some 8 oz volan (7.5 oz, actually). had to settle for the 6 oz. as i was told that ricky (R. Carroll of R & D…?) had just come in earlier that morning and bought up all of the 8 oz.
so, in brevard county, i’d believe you can get volan at fiberglass florida, or you can get R & D to do the glassing for you.
laid it on the deck of the new noserider yesterday, and glassed with about 1.25 qts of poly resin (249). hadn’t glassed with volan for maybe 30 years. went on sooooo smooth. it felt, subjectively, much easier to work with than the 6 oz e glass. didn’t have to make any extra cuts to get it to bend around the nose. very nice light green tint.
cut the laps just as it started sprinkling. good timing on my part.
Volan is a finish by Dupont. They say that it promotes better adhesion of the glass to whatever it is being adhered to. So in that case perhaps it might be a tad stronger. So if you have 6oz volan cloth it will feel like most other 6oz plain weave cloths.
As for being heavier, that’s a misnomer. There is little if any weight difference when using Volan. The misperception comes from all the old boards because they were glassed with volan treated fiberglass, but the wieght that they were using back then wase two to three times heavier than a normal glass job.
S glass is almost double the cost and I would use it if it gave you double the performance, but it doesn’t. In fact I noticed no difference in weight, performance or durability.
The cool thing about Volan cloth is that you have to factor into the equation the layering of it. Wherever layers overlap, the color will be darker due to the finish. A board with a nice tint, or no tint, and well done cutlaps looks way cool and shows an advanced level of crafftsmanship. And for some reason, with color tints, the color seems to radiate more with volan cloth, making the finish deeper and richer in color.
As for being heavier, that’s a misnomer. There is little if any weight difference when using Volan. The misperception comes from all the old boards because they were glassed with volan treated fiberglass, but the wieght that they were using back then wase two to three times heavier than a normal glass job.
another reason for the misconception is that most shapers (at least in my experience) that use volan-treated cloth tend to use it in heavier weights. for example, if i were to do a board with volan, i’d do a 10x6 on the deck with a 10 on the bottom. if i were to do the same board with non-volan cloth, i’d probably only do a double 6 on top. it has more to do with the availability of the different cloths in different weights more than anything else. so while most volan boards tend to be heavier, it’s because it’s a heavier glass, not because it’s treated with volan.
Hey Schwuz, what’d you end up going with? I just went down to my local glass supply place and got 14yds. of the wide (38") 7oz. Volan for $74.00…STOKED. Picked up some pigment, some extra squeegees, beer, and more resin. Looks like I’m glassin’ tonight!
Well, I just laminated the bottom…Went REAL well, better than any I’ve done before. I did it a dark yelly/slight orange solid tint. The only difference that I noticed with the volan is that it seemed to bunch up a little eaiser when wrapping the laps underneath…But still easy to get them out with your hands or squeegee. Now onto the deck!!