This evening I started by sanding the laps from last night. Last night I spent a fair amount of time tracking down loose glass threads. After lapping with a squeegee I followed up with a foam brush. Using the foam brush I pulled the resin from the top center of the board over the edge of the board and on to part of the bottom. I clean up the laps with the foam brush all the way around that board. The laps were the best looking ones that I have made yet.
I needed to measure the thickness of the board where the fin will be located to make sure the board had enough depth. The right tool for the job is a caliper. I have a set of calipers for my wood lathe but they are too small.
So I went back to my roots. I made an expedient caliper from cardboard, a nut, a bolt, and a pair of washers.
I think I may have placed the fin a little far forward but I wanted to make sure that the fin box was in a deep enough section of the board.
I set the side fins so they point to an imaginary point in front of the tip of the board . I used a 1x3 and a 4 foot rule as guides.
Then I traced the fin boxes and got the router out. Then it was time to cut a few strips of glass and mix up a little epoxy.
Lance, I just laid up another layer of glass on the deck and lapped over to the bottom. So the fist layer for get sanded will be a clear deck layer. Does that take care of the problem?
Yeah, that should take care of the sand-through issue. It’ll add a little weight, but noseriders are supposed to be heavy. Good luck with the rest of the glass job!
Thanks Lance. I just put down the sanding coat. I mixed up 18 ounces for the job. I maybe could have gone with an ounce or two less, but for a newb it seem to work out fine. I was going to add 6 cc of Additive F but when I looked in to the can it was full of flakes and gunk so I set it aside. On my other boards I taped the edges. I read, I think on one of Sways combined help posts, that one laminator simply continues to brush the edges on the bottom. Kind of like lapping. But he only does it on the first side, the second side gets taped. I gave that a try. It kept me busy for quite a while.
The wet edges with the resin swirl are looking brighter with a nice glossy coat. I definitely went too dark with the pigments but I think it’s going to look OK.
No clue, just grabbed the pic from the web because I liked the lines, and it was by WRV, a brand that I think Mike Daniels is affiliated with/shapes for?
Bigshow:
Almost there! So awesome. Can’t wait to see the bottom all glossy.
It’s late, but I thought I’d share a bit of repair and then the bottom sand coat application.
I noticed that there was one bare spot on the deck that is smaller than the size of a dime. The resin floated away from that spot. I’ve read that this can happen if the board isn’t absolutely clean. In particular this kind of blemish can come from body oils. The was another rough spot near the Kokopelli figure but it wasn’t as bad. I didn’t do anything with that spot this evening.
I started by sanding the rails and part of the bottom. Recall that I pulled resin from the top to the rails and on to the bottom of the board. So there was plenty of resin to sand on the rails.
When sending the glass and resin for the fin install I ended up sanding though to the stringer. I put a spot of pigmented resin on the stringer, glass over that, and then clear epoxy over that.
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Then I taped over the fin boxes and I put drip tape on the rails. Everyone is telling me to use 3M 223 tape. I still have the blue and I didn’t get a chance to look for the more exotic tape. This tape will do for the hot coat. I’ll need better tape for pin lining. [/]
I washed the surface of the board with denatured alcohol to remove hand oils. I let that stand while I helped my daughter with a school project. Then I mixed up another 18 ounces of resin. I poured the resin in about seven thin ribbons up and down the board. I quickly brushed the resin side and front to back. After the board was wet I slowly brushed side to side, back to front, and so on. Each pass I tried to slow my pace and lighten the pressure on the brush.
An update and fresh problem. The deck sanding coat turned out pretty good. I did have one creator smaller than a dime show up. However, a bunch of small craters showed up on the bottom sanding coat. I did wash the board with rubbing alcohol but I’m not sure that’s denatured alcohol. Once I washed the board I wore rubber gloves. I have a garage so don’t have great control over dust. I didn’t use a surfactant.
The post says additive F must be kept warm. Otherwise solids will form. Well, I had mine in the garage and it got cold and so tons of solids formed. So I didn’t use additive F. If I heat heat my additive F up will it return to its original state or should I just buy another can.
I’m not going to be able to work on the board for another week so I have time to order a can. What do you think guys?
I’ve been out on travel and haven’t had an opportunity to work on the board in a while. It’s also going to get below zero degrees tonight. But I can sand the sanding coat and I can bring the board inside and attempt to apply a pinline. As noted above the resin swirl bled through along the cut lap is pretty wide. I’ll put a big fat 1 inch “pinline” along the cut lap.
Friday evening I picked up four different widths of 3M 233 masking tape. I spent a little time practicing with the tape. Taping looks pretty challenging. I also drew a pinline pattern for the nose.
Since the colored edge is so irregular I think that I need to make an edge tool to define where the edge of the tape should be.
Tape
The plan
I think there must be some surfboard building karma or curse that goes along the lines… “For every second you hurry you spend an hour sanding.” Or maybe, “Every mistake is recognized or rewarded with an hour of sanding.” I left my RR Additive F, a surfactant, in the cold garage for several months. When I went to use the surfactant for the sanding coat the wax had precipitated out making it unusable.
As a result the sanding coats could have come out better. The sanding coat on the top of the board was pretty good. The bottom coat however had a lot of craters. The remaining irregularities from the last lap were on the bottom side as well. I spent about three hours hand sanding the bottom and the rails. I started sanding the top but it was getting late.
“For every second you hurry you spend an hour sanding.” Or maybe, “Every mistake is recognized or rewarded with an hour of sanding.”
That’s pretty accurate. Its the board-builder’s version of “measure twice, cut once” or something.
I bet the Shakers would be good board builders… (I’m having a vision…)
I left my RR Additive F, a surfactant, in the cold garage for several months. When I went to use the surfactant for the sanding coat the wax had precipitated out making it unusable.
I don’t know about Additive F, but a bit of heat will reconstitute the wax into the styrene-based sanding agent that I use.
From all the epoxy-in-winter drama on these boards, it seems that heat- 70º+ ambient temp- is vital. Its no good putting warm resin on a cold board, and so on.
hey man . the easiest tool you can make for the pin line is take two pieces of foam each about 6 inches long 2" x2". attach them to make an “L” shape then stick a pencil thruogh the side of one of the arms . at the depth of the inside of the pinline runit along the rail with the pencil marking the deck. the outside of the rail will guide the opposing arm and mark thepin line. then you can pull te pencil out mark an inch back and run the out side of the pin line then run your tape along those lines. hope that makes sense. the 7% holsten festbock is making it difficult to explain lol!
Allan, I think Additive F is largely Xylene and wax. I’ve heated and shaked it but I haven’t checked to see if the solids have reabsorbed.
I’ve been getting to temperature in the garage with a Kerosene heater when the outside air temps are in the low thirties. Sanding in the cold is OK. After I finish sanding the deck I’m going to bring the board in to the basement for taping. I only need a few grams of expoxy to fill in the two deck craters so I’ll do that indoors. I’ll have to wait for warmer weather before I can put on the gloss coat. The pinlining shouldn’t take much expoxy either but I don’t think I’ll do that in doors.
Sonny, That sounds like an excellent approach. I’m planning on building a short board after this one. I want to take another stab at a resin swirl so I think I want to come up with a tool I can use on the cut lap and one that I can use again. There are a couple of nice tool examples on the photos forum. I’m thinking something with PVC.
With a decent edge line on the board I was able to lay down a big fat pin line. A half inch “pine line” can almost cover the irregularities from the masking tape bleed, I used a 3/4 inch “pin line.” Using a line I made with the edge tool as a guide I first laid down 3/4 inch tape over the meandering line. Then I put a 1/4 tape above and below the 3/4 inch tape. I extended the 1/4 tape with 1 inch tape. Then I pulled the 3/4 inch tape back up.
One 3/4 inch strip of tape
Three strips of tape
Pulled up the 3/4 inch tape. The 1/4 inch tape has been extended with 1 inch tape.