So I broke down yesterday and convinced my wife that a nice belt sander would be a perfect Birthday present, and low and behold, she said fine! Woooohooo. Anyways, I was able to foil a fin in about 20 minutes instead of 3 hours by hand, and it came out really well. I then layed up 3 layers of 6oz. cloth on each side. So now I’m thinking I need to take the glass down around the outline, along with some wood (maybe 1/8" into the wood?) and lay up some rope or strands around the entire outline besides the bottom…? Should I just use hotcoat for that so I can then foil it to match the foil of the keel? Is it even neccessary to lay the rope around or not? Thanks.
I’m sorry to bring this up now that you’ve glassed them…
For symmetrical foils I laminate about 10 sheets of glass between wood so when it’s foiled, there will be a glass “bead” around the edge. When you glass the sides, the glass will adhere to the bead for a perfect seal and insure some integrity if you smack something. Glass wrapped around plain wood is really fragile (but admittedly lightweight).
For asymmetrical foils (flat inside surface) I also lay up a panel of glass sheets and laminate the wood to that. Again, after foiling you will have a nice glass bead around the edge.
Pigment can be also be added to glass panels for a little contrast against the wood.
the rope around the outline is for looks and impact resistance, so you should put at least some
I thought you were going to first laminate one side, leaving the outline overlapped and sticking out, then lam the other…same…then you would have a cavity to fill, using the rope and lam resin. That’s how they all did it.
Lam resin, if mixed with rope or glass, sands fine.
You should never have pure hotcoat resin in thicker clumps, as it cracks easily. Use vinylester resin, or casting resin, if you plan to use pure resin globs.
sorry, I just woke up and am not fully functional for another hour or so.
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I thought you were going to first laminate one side, leaving the outline overlapped and sticking out, then lam the other…same…then you would have a cavity to fill, using the rope and lam resin
That’s what I did. The fins are flat on the inside, foiled on the outside. The flat side was nice, but to get the glass to lay down nice on the entire foiled side, I had to brush/squeegee the glass down kind of hard and it bonded with the overlap on the other side…I’m thinking of doing this:
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Sand the overlaps off, all the way down to the wood
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Lay tape around the outline, as you’d do with on a hotcoat to get hard edges
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Lay the rope down and glass it in, using the tape as a “catcher” to creat a buildup that I can then sand to match the foil…
For any wood/glass fin…
two or three layers of 6 ounce over a wood leading edge is too fragile. Glass gets hammered, water gets in, rot (black color) starts almost immediately.
What I do: two or three layers of 30 ounce mat with colored/tinted resin, and a layer of 1/8 inch mahogany ply on one side for single foiled fins, both sides for symmetrically foiled fins. If you don’t like mat, use scrap cloth to equivalent thickness, suggest up to 1/8 inch at least.
The glass ends up being the leading and trailing edges, it’s strong. You will mostly be foiling the wood, which shapes easily and quickly compared to grinding the glass. The colored/tinted glass gives a nice halo effect, though not as nice as the halo on my first early 60’s Randy Wong-glassed tanker.
Tenover,
Too late now but…or so you’ve heard. I am glassing a set tonight after coating with resin to begin with. Bert.B suggested this and it sounds good to me. Mine are double foiled so a little different. Lay the fins on a flat surface covered with preferably formica. Cut out your 2x 6oz cloth in a square just big enough to overlap the fins by a couple of inches. Laminate the cloth to the fins but don’t push it too hard around the edges(do not wrap…) when it has fully kicked gently pry the panel you made up from the surface and flip. Now wet out your rope for the edges and push this around the fins edge and smooth with finger. Now before it kicks laminate your glass to the other side and work out the air. Cut it out after it sets then foil,hotcoat and you are ready to glass them on the board.Have fun…
Tenover,
AFter foiling the fins, I seal with lam resin then lam 2 6 oz. layers on each side. No rope or layers between wood or anything like that. I hotcoat the things after that and glass them to the board which gives them another layer of glass. I surf mostly beach break and am careful how I transport the boards so as to not damage the seal on the fins. No problems yet. If your surfing spots where the fins are getting banged around the above suggetions are probably the way to go. Mike
Beachbreaks mostly…I just don’t want to ever have to grind off the fins because of some small problem I could’ve fixed before I glassed them on in the first place! My fins “seem” heavy, does anyone have an actual weight for a standard keel, say 9x5 (with or without glass)? I’d like to comapre. Also, is it important to glass or not glass the bottom of the fin base, where it’ll actually attach to the board?
Tenover,
Then you might want to follow some of the more expert opinions. Grinding them off is kind of a pain,but do-able. I’m carefull with mine,but I don’t treat them like wine glasses or anything. I don’t glass the very base. I figure it’s going to be flush with the bottom surface inbedded in layers of roving and fiberglass. I do paint the bottom with lam and hotcoat resin, though. Have you called Pavel’s shop or Kane Garden and asked them about keelfin questions? Mike
my g/f is practicing her singing 5’ away from me right now, so I can’t concentrate…
yes, lay down two football shaped patches of different sizes before you tack the fin on
9x5 fins have coe pretty far forwards, you might install them with trailing edges only 5" from the tip of the swallows
hope it works well, I always found 4 normal shaped fins held better than two longchorded waterski fins
don’t toe them in too far…drag…at most, toe them in half the distance to the stringer at the nose, but maybe slightly less
oh, I’m watching TV also, at the same time…sorry
LeeD- You crack me up…Thanks for the tips.