Hey all, thanks to everyone on Sways who has inspired/hooked me into building boards by their rich postings of knowhow…I am only on board # 7, but there is no end in sight. OK…I meandered upon this site: www.projectguitar.com/tut/swirled.htm where they illustrate this method of ‘swirling’ guitars. You fill up a container with water and add some borax which does something to the surface tension of the water, then put some oil based paint in there, like 2 or three colors, and it floats all over the surface, and you f*uck with it however you like to make some patterns, and dip the guitar in it, and the paint sort of folds down onto the wood as you dip it in. Splash the remaining paint out of your way and pull it out. Now, all I’ve ever read (and done, as a result of learning from y’all) is to use water based acrylic paint on boards. I’ve never painted on the blank, always prior to a gloss coat. I am keen to try this swirly dipping on a board, but is oil paint totally unglossable with a final coat of epoxy over it? I guess I could spray Krylon clear coat over oil paint, but my intuition tells me that would be a short-lived paint job. I would love to hear any thoughts or comments on this method…thank you!
Hey DPicton,
That sounds like an interesting approach…I think I know the effect you are seeking. What comes to mind is:- If you are talking Oil paint like traditional artists oils, then, no way will resin take to it. And secondly, thats an enormous bath of greasy water you would want for dipping a shape! It has practical limitations.
Have a look at the marbelised effect that “Atomised” achieves…some pics in a thread named “Flames, fades and saves” by Stingray. How he achieves it is relatively managable.
Josh
Funny you should mention this method as I have been contemplating it for some time. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:
Make a bath out of framing and plastic sheeting that is a touch longer and wider than the board.
Prep board and bath like you would a guitar
Mask on side of the board with Plastic and vinyl tape
Use suction cups (like the ones used for glass or body work, available at Harbor Freight)
Slowly dip the nose in first and then proceed toward th tail
You can figure out the rest
I believe that doing the bottom of the board with a rail wrap would be the easiest. You should seal the board with an automotive clear if you have access to it.
thanks for the ideas, fellers! I am at least not uninspired. How’s that for a double-negative. Tell me not less! Ahh shitty, why won’t epoxy go over oil, though…yeah I will research automotive clear sealer, it’s gotta be more durable than krylon spray
Yeah deeper than a 50 drum for sure to do the whole thing…I was thinking more to do the top foot or two of the board (less volume to deal with…a large bucket or storage container would suffice) and I would want the swirls to wrap around from deck to bottom according to their own continuous whimsy so I wouldnt tape anything off. And if you did some test runs you could put in just enough paint so you dip it until the last bit of color folds under the drink; nothing left to splash out of the way. Mahana if you pull off the total dunk, show us how she turns out! What about a slight coat of krylon and then epoxy? Naa too easy, it’ve been done before:}
It might be a while before I give this a shot but if I do you can bet I’ll post it!
I have done this on long skateboards (42") and it’s quite difficult, but if you get a good swirl, the results are fantastic. Personally, I wouldn’t want to do it on even the smallest of surfboards; the potential for carnage is rather high!
Another thing to consider is that, while you might have an idea of how the final product will look, nothing is certain until you pull it out of the tub and see what ya got. It’s not much of a problem to sand back a guitar (I’m actually a member of project guitar and I have to admit that building guitars has sort of become a passion lately!) and have another crack if you don’t like how it looks but you can’t really say the same thing about a 6’2" fish.
Would love to see some pics if you pull it off.
Cheers
Buter
Here’s 3 recent threads on swirling:
http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=40271
http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=40187
http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=40056
Cheers
Buter
Thought about this for a while myself, the technique you discribe is basically the same as marbling, do it on thin cotton cloth and add it as a cloth inlay.
You can get the supplies from most craft shops, you'll need to make a containor large enough to accomodate a sheet of cotton that is larger than the intended inlay size
Try it on a set of fins, first.
Good ideas/info…Buter- I looked at those links, cool lookin’. When you dipped your skateboard, I’m assuming you glassed it, so did it take o.k.? My whole thing with trying to cross reference the guitar swirling to board making is because of my limited boardbuilding experience. I managed to do some halfass swirls in the lam coat on one board and it came out like a 12 year old at summer camp trying to make a tye-die shirt. No complaints, looks cool, just checkin’ into other possibilities. Which brings me to your reply, woody waverider, thanks for the know how but I’d have to do some homework on that before I go laying cotton in between layers! NJ surfer- no doubt, test the waters, so to speak…ok, I got my head full, thanks all
nar peice of piss mate, just tape it off like you were doing a cut lap and lam it down, once its kicked trim the edges with a blade (like a cut lap) then cover it with a layer of glass. Use the off cuts as inlays for matching fins.
Actually I think the process uses silk not cotton but its a compatable fabric. just get a couple of metres of plan silk form the fabric store and make the bath with a cheap pine surround and plastic sheet stappled in place as it only need to be 5" deep, been thinking of trying it for a while.
http://www.prochemical.com/directions/Marbling.htm
http://www.dharmatrading.com/marbling.html
look up fabiric inlays in the reasorces, linaling marbled fabric is no different than inlaying any other kind of patterend fabric, and its a known technique with plenty of info already out there, where as dipping a whole surf board is going to be problamatic and you’ll basically be prototyping the whole thing, but if you want to experiment and push the envelope a bit go for it.