So I was bagging on veneer skins for my latest project. For the first time I was trying to do both skins at once. I figured it’s got to be in the bag in 45 minutes. About half way through I realized I wasn’t going to have enough resin, so I hastily mixed a few ounces more. I either didn’t measure it out right or didn’t mix it well enough because the resin didn’t go off. I thought it was the resin or the temperature or whatever. When I dejectedly pulled my gummy board out of the bag I discovered that the bottom had cured. So it was just the second batch.
Ruined my day…
I was able to get the deck skin off. I may need to patch a few divots where some foam pulled up, but my question is- do I try to bag on a new deck skin? The deck is pretty heavily saturated with uncured resin.
I actually salvaged the blank, with the bottom skin attached just fine. I tried to get the top skin off.
I got about a third off clean, then I started to hit the part where I must have had the good batch mixed with the bad and it was sticky and the veneer broke up. I finally got the whole skin off, but in a hundred pieces.
The blank looks pretty good. There is not enough uncured resin to scrap anything off. But over half the deck is just kind of damp with the uncured resin. No way to get it off.
Anybody, can I use this blank? Or am I just risking more time and materials for a losing cause??
Depends on how much time, effort, and materials you have into it so far…
If you’re married to it, you can save it. I’d probably go for a thicker veneer on the deck. Like if that peeled-off-in-1000-pieces one was 1/32, glue up a skin of 1/16. Go ahead & laminate it flat with the glass on the outside (UV poly is good for this - and you know the hotcoat will stick!). Trim to shape and bag that deck on with PU glue, no glass. The PU glue will fill the void spaces in your EPS and stick down to everything, even your soft epoxy. Then carry on…
Another choice is to scrape/sand/surform off 1/4" of soft epoxy & EPS and bag on a layer of corecell. Reshape that and then finish, skin, glass it and you’ll have the most durable board ever made.
Or peel off the bottom skin for reuse and chuck the blank. Nothing wrong with cutting your losses if the $ is minimal and your time is flexible. Believe me, I’ve done that one enough times.
I’m thinking out loud here…I don’t know if this will work…I’m a blue collar guy in the Chemical Industry. We have “Spill Kits” stocked full of these mats that soak up liquids. They are called “pigs” , “hot dogs” , and /or “Pig mats”…Maybe you could put down a “pig mat” to soak up all that toxic material…Might work…Maybe you could use a roll of paper towels like a “pig” to soak up the mess…maybe…
I’ve done about exactly the same thing. Its tragic! I had a really sweet shape all bagged up, only to find my second mix for the deck skin had’nt gone off.
I wrote off the foam and HD deck skin…
The uncured resin prevent any further resin applied to that foam now ever bonding properly, so the board is never going to hold together. No way to clean it off because it will have penetrated deep into the foam, undermining any new resin.
And…any attempt to shape the foam further will foul up your tools.
I pulled the timber skin off the bottom, the one with the right mix, sanded back the remnants of EPS, and reused it for a smaller board.
If I ever make that mistake again, I’ll post pictures of how a grown man can cry.
Thanks for all the advice guys. That, for me, is what makes this place what it is.
I don’t think I can further shape the board. It was under 3" for a longboard.
I don’t think the PU glue will work as I sealed the blank with spackle, so the pores are closed off ( I wanted a good surface for the veneer).
I can’t just scrap it without trying something. The shape (my first longboard) was looking so nice and the veneer…well, I hope eventually you can see it…
Maybe I’ll first try to soak up some with paper towels. Then I was thinking…what if I just spread around a bit of hardener and then squeegeed it off? I noticed this morning (48 hours later) that the resin is getting stickier. Might the hardener set it off just that little bit more?
Senior moments? I had my 5 year old daughter helping me. I’ll post photos soon. During the bagging process she was counting out the stop watch. I told her we had 45 minutes to get it in the bag, and she was going, “34… come on Daddy…35…hurry up, almost 40…” Yeah, that’s it. Blame it on the five year old!
Love that. Poly gloss or a lot of elbow grease? Wish we had more paulownia around here.
I’m going to experiment with putting some hardener on. If that doesn’t work, I’ll try taking it down a bit with a surform (not with the power planer!). How thin can I go with a 9-5 longboard? 2-1/2"???
Even poorly mixed resin seems to go off somewhat given enough time. However it seems to go really easilly soft again with heat. Been there… Could you rough the surface up like crazy with something disposable? Coarse sandpaper, dragonskin, or a surform…If you spackled then the epoxy shouldn’t have penetrated that deeply anyway. Then use more resin than you normally would to fill the little uneaveness and let the vacuum take care of the rest. Would be worth a shot to me, even if it fails down the line atleat you gave it a try and that count for something as well, right?
This is the board after planing off about 1/8"+ of foam. You’re right Haarvard- with the spackle the epoxy didn’t penetrate too deeply. I think I got most of it off. I measured the thickness and it is still 2-3/4", so it’s a thin longboard but not unheard of thin.
Oh and this was my helper, the one who got me panicking- “42 MINUTES DADDY! COME ON!”
This is while templating with a taped together APS3000 paper template. If you notice there is not enough room for me to walk around the board. I had to shape one side at a time!
Oh, and I took off the gooey mess first with a surform, and as Speedneedle warned the blade is history, totally gummed up. But I got most of the goo off and then used the power planer to get to clean foam. I guess I took off about 1/4"
